Thinking about the digital world, some of us feel worried and entrapped. Applications of all sorts are continuously collecting data about our health, location, preferences or habits. They are analysed and our profiles are carefully construed whether we like it or not. Before we even think about it, our attentive satnav will inform us that the way to our destination, which we always go to on that day of the week, will take 45 minutes because traffic is somewhat heavy today. Or that the time we have spent in front of our device this week has increased by 31% in comparison with the last one.
Freedom of expression that many of us hoped for with the arrival of the Internet has turned out to be another myth. Many a time have we seen Facebook accounts or Youtube channels banned, blocked and eventually erased. If that could happen to prominent public figures, ordinary users are even more vulnerable. The concern to publish appropriate and politically correct content that will not ruin our professional careers or destroy us personally makes us lie to ourselves as well as to others. And the satisfaction that we may get from coming up with resourceful solutions how to outsmart IP trackers or Youtube algorithms does not compensate the impossibility to be ourselves. Thus, we hide, put on masks, adopt multiple identities and swim against the main stream not knowing who or what is waiting at the other end.
The tools that were supposed to make us feel safe in the digital world have transformed it into a maze of passwords, double or triple authorisation procedures making our virtual existence painfully hard, with repercussions in the real life. Sniffing for potential scam in the atmosphere of general distrust and suspicion, we are required to prove our identity over and over.
Hungry for news, overwhelmed with workload, with breaks for entertainment, which in the time of the pandemic also takes place online, we allow our computer screens to glow 24/7 and our apps to send a message to all the interested: we are available.
Nightmare? Doesn’t have to be. The digital word is a universe of our own design. We set boundaries and we make the rules how we want to use it. As long as we remember that simple truth, we will be able to make the best out of it. The world and what it has to offer are available at an arm’s length: forums, discussion groups, variety of perspectives, inspiration, collaboration possibilities, consumer experience, time effectiveness, availability of resources and … our choice to put an end to it. Disconnect.
