How has the Internet changed the way we live?
Nowadays we are in a digital era where digital devices are integrated into almost everyone’s daily life. From interpersonal communication to the way we travel and even pay for things, everyone is able to enjoy the convenience of living in a digital society in one way or another. It can therefore be said that digitalisation is subtly changing the way people live their lives.
It is undeniable that digitalisation is indeed having many positive effects on people’s lives. One notable impact is in business, where more and more companies are increasing the efficiency of their operations through digital transformation and automating production on a large scale. Digitalisation has reshaped the entire business landscape and has helped countless companies gain a competitive edge.
At the same time, during the Covid-19 period, digitalisation became an important buffer in the face of the economic impact of the pandemic. As blockades and social alienation restrictions force people to move from offline to online activities, more and more individuals are using social media to communicate, and more and more companies are becoming willing to undergo digital transformation. This means that digitalisation as a mega-trend of a social nature is already in full swing and that the digital society is becoming more and more widespread. People can also benefit from this digital revolution with more and more convenience, such as easier online shopping and mobile payment methods. However, living in a digital society is a double-edged sword that brings not only the benefits mentioned above but also challenges at the same time.
Internet Ethics
In a digital society, the massive spread of the Internet has also, in turn, brought new ethical challenges. Think about it. Are you more radical or more conservative in your statements on the Internet than you are in reality? According to Duggan, 41% of Americans have been subjected to personal harassment online, and an even larger percentage (66%) have even witnessed such behaviour against others. The reasons for this behaviour may be attributed to a key factor — anonymity.
Anonymity allows people to express their opinions without risking criticism, which means that even if they do not appeal to the mainstream, they will still be heard. However, while anonymity can give more people the courage to express their opinions, it can also have a negative impact on the online environment. The power of words can be very terrifying, and one person’s comments can have an unexpectedly negative impact on others, even if they can’t understand it themselves. At the same time, if people regularly comment online, they are likely to step into another role that they would not normally adopt, while this detachment from reality may make their statements more insightful, it may also make them more likely to make damaging comments.
While the prevailing view would be that online trolls are limited to a small group of antisocial and outspoken people, studies have shown that normal people can also engage in such behaviour, which in turn can be damaging to the internet environment. This means that everyone is potentially capable of committing cyber violence against others. However, despite the drawbacks of anonymity, the internet should not prohibit it in order to protect freedom of expression. I, therefore, believe that perhaps through continued internet education, more people can be made more comprehensively aware of the power of speech, thus making the online environment more civilised and safer.
Digital Divide
Not everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of digitalisation in a digital society, the digital divide has been a serious problem in the development of the Internet. Although the Internet seems to be fully integrated into the lives of most people, there are still some people who do not have access to it, such as older people who lack basic digital literacy, people living in poor urban design, poor people at the poverty level, etc. According to the United Nations, more than a third of the world’s population has still never used the Internet. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 has exacerbated this digital divide, with studies showing that those who can move more of their daily activities online have a smaller probability of infection than those who cannot.
Although increasing levels of digital inclusion in addressing the digital divide is not usually a priority, the article by Holmes, H & Burgess, G. shows that digital inclusion is indeed important in addressing many of these issues, for example, the internet helps them to progress in finding a job and can also have mental health benefits as it offers some with few friends and family participants an online support platform. However, the digital divide is often linked to wider issues of social poverty and inequality, but when these social dimensions are also considered, often the issue of addressing the digital divide is not prioritised, as most people will usually see it as something that only needs to be considered in the future.
This means that there is still potential for the internet to grow. In my opinion, the issue of digital exclusion needs to be taken seriously and weakened through the efforts of society, for example by the government allocating funds to public libraries to increase their digital equipment to make the internet more accessible.
Conclusion
Overall, we should take a more objective view of the pros and cons of living in a digital society. It is undeniable that digital life has brought us great convenience. Fifty years ago, people could not have imagined that they could go out with just a mobile phone and have all their needs met, including taking a taxi, making payments, etc. This convenience has greatly improved the quality of life and saved people a lot of time. However, as mentioned above, the Internet brings with it opportunities as well as challenges. The issue of internet ethics concerns everyone who lives in a digital society, and it is possible that one comment you make may cause unexpected damage to someone else. Meanwhile, not everyone is able to live in a digital society and there are still some people who do not have access to the Internet and are unable to enjoy these conveniences. It is therefore important that both individuals and society as a whole respond to these challenges in order to make the Internet work better in the future.
Self-reflection
Overall, as a finance student, the Digital Society course has inspired me in many ways and given me a deeper understanding of many topics. I took this course because although I think the digital society is already relevant to our lives, I feel that it is still not perfect. After taking this course I have fully learnt about the imperfections and challenges in the digital society. Another aspect that attracted me to the course was the online teaching format. There was a chat box in each session which allowed me to comment on what I was learning in real-time and to see what other people were saying about it, and by seeing what other people were saying I was able to get a different perspective, so I found this online format very appealing.
This course has helped me a lot in terms of critical thinking, especially after I finished the chapter of the Internet. Before this chapter, I probably thought of the Internet as just a tool or an online chatting platform and thought that the various opinions on the Internet were already reflective of public opinion. However, after studying this chapter, and especially after learning about the concept of the digital divide, I realised that there are still large parts of the population, such as people living in poverty, who do not have access to the internet and therefore the discourse on the internet is still one-sided. I think this enlightenment expanded my perspective of the internet and profoundly allowed me to appreciate the benefits of critical thinking, allowing me to apply this skill effectively in my future studies in other courses to gain insights from different sides.
There were also some aspects of the course that challenged me. As a finance student, I inevitably tend to write in an academic style, but the writing style for this course was an informal blog-style format. However, after trying digisoc1 and digisoc2 writing I have gradually become accustomed to this style of writing and really enjoy it. This is because it is difficult to express one’s opinion in the first person in the academic style of writing, whereas it is possible in the blog writing style. Also based on the feedback from digisoc1 and digisoc2 I have enhanced my knowledge of writing in the blogging style, such as the use of bold italics or the insertion of images and videos to make it easier for people to read my blog, which is not available through the learning of academic writing. I think this has strengthened my skills in writing and will be very helpful in my future writing.
