We have spent so much of the last three decades "going digital" that I often wonder what the cost has been and the effect it has had on our capabilities and behaviors. I think that over the last few years people have started paying a bit more attention to it with the go remote drive through the pandemic, but it has been happening for so many years already at a more subtle and less acknowledged pace, that we have essentially been the proverbial frog sitting in the saucepan of slowly-heating water.
There are so many indications of behavioral changes that I feel have affected me, like the incessant looking at my phone even though no one calls, the lack of movement from a desk, the reduction in attention span, less will for social interaction and the callous on my elbow from leaning on it much of the day. But there are other things too I notice through observing others, which are things like less looking in the eyes, lower ability to detect micro-expressions and a general lack of interest in other people and what is important to them. The relative isolation has further catalyzed the "me" behaviors at the expense of the "we" habits.
I also think that one of the major problems having constant digital access to attention-absorbing content is, we aren't bored enough, so we don't put our creative abilities to work nearly as much as we did and, that is going to affect skills that give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace. All in all, what I think the digital revolution has done for the average person, is narrowed the average, giving us less variation in what we think, speak and act. This makes us less cable creators, more capable consumers.
And I believe this is important to note, because the creative force within us is one of the things that generates wellbeing in our lives. And in the past, there was no need to be world-class at something in order to create, because it was a daily process as we went about providing a living for ourselves or, doing our work around the house. With very little available "pre made", we had to learn how to make things for ourselves, whether it be a fix for an axe handle or the evening meal. Daily, we were creating something that provided or improved our lives.
Even our consumer activities were somewhat creative, because we were reading text and building the scene in our minds eye to create a world that was uniquely ours Increasingly though, rather than building blocks, we are given the building, with all the sights sounds and words provided, so we don't have to build, we just move the building in - onboard the vision of others as if it was our own.
Many people argue with me about this by citing the many examples of creative people that generate the creative content they consume, but fail to realize there is a selection bias, not the average. The average person is becoming less creative, largely because they don't need to create, because we have access to the creations of others who are better than us.
I even wonder about my writing, because while I am sitting here "creating", the digital production is different to what it would be if I was actually writing with a pen. And, because of the way the brain processes across hemispheres, I suspect there is an impact however subtle on what I write and how, because I am typing with two hands, rather than writing with my dominant hand. The brain hemisphere studies looking at how different the personalities between the sides can be is fascinating, and I assume that typing is also impacted.
There is very little chance of going back to a full analogue life and I don't think that is a good solution anyway. But, we do have to consider the costs of what we are doing and if we are complacent, the scale at which this is happening is going to have increasingly forceful impacts on who we are as individuals and our collective society as a whole. The ramifications of this are already being seen with rising depression, violence and various types of extremism, which I think is because we have lost that analogue connection with each other, taking away our sense of human and acting as if we are programs, which we essentially are, which is why the algorithms work so well on us.
I think it is more than getting away from the screen that is needed, it should also be getting in touch with the world around us and starting to physically feel life again, not just the feeling of emotional reactions to the digital content we are fed.
Tonight after a reschedule, a small group of friends are meeting at a home, ordering pizzas, pouring a glass of wine and will spend the evening chatting away about all the things that come to mind. It is a bit of an eclectic group with diverse background experiences and in somewhat different stages of life, which makes it more interesting, rather than the tailored feeds designed just for us - just for me.
Will I have anything to add to the conversation that they haven't seen in a social feed already?
I'll think of something.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]