EVERYTHING is connected.
Have you ever come across the phrase “everything is connected”? What does it mean to you?
For some, it might be a spiritual assurance that everything in their life happens for a reason. For others, it can be just a sign they saw, while sitting on a train headed to Manchester Piccadilly. Many people may associate it with the Internet of Things, just like Savannah did in her post,(because EVERYTHING is connected, right?).
The meanings differ as you change your perspective. Personally, the first thing that always springs to my mind is the Internet and thus the digital world existing within it.
However, a question came up during my thought process:
Is the connectedness an implication, or a characteristic of living in a digital world?
I aim to answer this question by exploring the implications of our digital society.
The scale of Connectedness
The scale of the Internet and its ‘connectedness’ is mind-boggling. That is why I question whether all digital citizens realise them and the implications of living in the digital world.
Let’s look at Facebook as an example. Known as the largest platform on the Internet, with around 2.9 billion monthly active users. It is more than one-third of the world’s population! Facebook also have 1.929 billion active daily users. Meaning that the number of people equivalent to the populations of Europe, both Americas and Oceania combined, visit Facebook EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Now think about all other platforms, streaming services, websites, and online stores. The link shared in the Internet topic, helped me realise the enormous volumes of data generated in just a few seconds.
So, what does it mean for us, digital society citizens? We all leave digital footprints while using the Internet. And those huge amounts of data represent all of our digital footprints gathered over time.
Digital Footprints
Now that we know that the Internet is a collection of all of our digital footprints, how is it impacting us? As Michael Stevenson asked in the Week 6 topic The individual, identity and ethics:
“What right do we have to be forgotten?”
And as the Article 17 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) states, we do have a right to have our personal data removed completely. However, many cases suggest that although we can erase our data from the web, the Internet never forgets. Moreover, Dave mentioned in the comments that “on the Internet it is hard to be forgotten or deleted”. And some of us learnt it the hard way.
The Internet users should be aware that whatever they share publicly, can be accessed by people, who might not be the intended audience. As an example, let’s look at the now-deleted (vulgar) Tweet that circulated the Internet a couple years ago.
The author of the Tweet had since lost the said internship because of that. It’s a good example illustrating how our digital footprints may never be forgotten or simply accessed by the “wrong” person. It’s all about how we present ourselves in the digital space and to whom we make the content available. Nowadays, it’s a common practice for job recruiters or schools to check the applicant’s digital reputation before accepting them, hence we work for our online reputation since our first interaction with the Internet.
Therefore, one of the implications of living in a digital world is that we need to be aware of that fact.
“Alexa, stop listening to me”
Although our digital footprints are not just our Tweets or posts we publish, they include the data we produce as a by-product of our Internet activity. Additionally, all of our personal digital assistants collect data. The main purpose of collecting information about us, is to better serve our needs through improving machine learning algorithms. However, some people may have privacy concerns about what happens to our data and how it is used.
Sometimes we can observe it, when the ads we get seem to know what we like (or talk about!). It’s all a result of targeted advertising.
In her medium post, Emily mentioned how online behavioural advertising utilises our browsing and shopping history to tailor the ads directed at us. What’s more, she added that targeted ads don’t end with personalised offers, instead they are capable of changing our self-perception.
More ethical concerns arise when we think about how ads can influence us, especially if we became an unsuspecting target. After all, it’s us, the digital citizens, who give consent to having the data collected, by accepting cookies, allowing access to our device’s microphone or simply sharing their personal data online.
Our data and the Connectedness
Given that everything is connected, that is how all of our different digital footprints contribute to our online profiling. It can be concluded that both our online activity connect the dots of our online presence, but also because everything we access is connected in some way or another, it is easier to identify our activity. Consequently, as an implication of living in a digital society, we need to be aware of how we portray ourselves in the digital world, what we share and with whom. Our safety in the Internet sometimes it’s more dependent on our own actions than we even realise.
Going back to the question whether connectedness is a characteristic or the implication of living in the digital world. Now I feel that the connectedness of everything in the Internet is the implication of our digital society, but also because it is constant and inevitable, the connectedness can be certainly qualified as a characteristic of our digital reality. Without it, could we even say that we live in a digital world?
Reflections
As I reflect back on the course, I noticed how my perception of the digital society has changed. In the letter that I wrote to my future self, my views on the digital world mainly focused on the advantages of being connected, having easy access to information from all over the world, and the technological advancements being developed quicker due to the diffusion of knowledge in the digital sphere. However, as i progressed with the course content, I realised how many threats the Internet is hiding and the negative impact it can have.
My previous experience of posting blog posts was limited to pretty much school-related reports. You probably know which ones, the ‘very interesting’ descriptions of what happened during events organised by my middle school type of vibe. This time, I got a chance to freely pour my thoughts on paper and dig a little deeper into our digital reality. I realised that Pecha-Kucha style really suits me, and that the writing process can actually be enjoyable! I believe it was the first time I wrote the chit-chat type of post and it’s so fun to be creative and play around with words.
I also found it interesting to read my peers’ posts, and this time as an author, observe how well-structured articles can enhance the reading experience. It’s the beauty of using headings, in-text styles and images. I could see it for myself, how differently it felt reading something that’s full of italics, bolds and photos.
The positive feedback on my previous works encouraged me to continue writing, and I am strongly considering coming back to Medium even when the course is finished. After all, it’s not just writing that’s fun, reading plenty of insightful articles can be fun too. And Medium turned out to be a place full of such publications.
It was great to participate in fascinating and thought-provoking discussions in this course unit. Although at first I was a bit reluctant, it turned out to be interesting part of each week to read other people’s perspective or the experience they shared. Now I feel that there was nothing to be afraid of in contributing to the discussion in the first few weeks, and maybe my findings could also seem fascinating to someone else (like in my case, when I read other contributions).
