Interconnected: The Implications of Living in a Digital World
Human civilisation has seen countless changes throughout its history, yet the last century has provided more rapid advancement than ever before. Within a few decades, new technologies have emerged to completely change the way in which we live our lives and communicate with each other. For better or worse, many aspects of our lives now involve some form of digital technology which aims to improve our society and the capabilities of the human race, and it is the purpose of this article to examine the effects of this digital world on our lives.
The Internet of Things
A topic of increasing relevance in our daily lives, the Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as “the networked interconnection of everyday objects, which are often equipped with ubiquitous intelligence” (Xia, Yang, Wang and Vinel (2012) DOI: 10.1002/dac.2417). This technology has spread exponentially since the early 2000’s to provide a reality in which dozens of devices within a home can be connected to one another. For instance, an Amazon Echo device (pictured above) is capable of connecting to a Wi-Fi network and a phone, through which the device can play music, access online information such as the weather, and even control connected lightbulbs and cameras within the home.
Technologies such as those seen in Amazon’s Echo product line can provide unparalleled convenience to consumers with strong novelty, allowing us to impress guests by changing lights and playing music by voice command alone. Many aspects of life such as waking in the morning and securing your home can now be controlled by this ‘web’ of devices, providing a sense of comfort and luxury to us at a fairly low cost. That is, monetary cost at least. The newest model of the Echo Dot retails at £54.99 on the Amazon website, with frequent sales bringing the price as low as £29.99. Additional offers bundle the Echo Dot with a smart lightbulb or smart plug, promising “everything you need to start your smart home”.
The convenience of such offers is offset by the various concerns surrounding security and longevity. Users have long been concerned that Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa is listening to private conversations. Another concern is that of a ‘broken chain’ effect — should internet access become obstructed or were an issue to occur with smart home hardware, the convenience of the IoT would be lost, and those who depend on these systems would be left helpless — disastrous if you rely on Alexa for your morning alarm!
Digital Engagement
The term “digital engagement” covers a wide span of processes and activities within a digital society, all with varying effects on us as users. Digital engagement can refer to interactivity between users, companies and technologies, so we can begin with a look at some examples of engagement within these categories to understand how our lives are affected.
Many of us engage with other users online multiple times a day. This can range from reading user-published articles (such as this one), to directly communicating via messaging applications such as WhatsApp. Social media also allows us to engage with each other’s lives in less of a one-to-one manner, as groups of friends can engage with each other’s social media content in a communal manner. This provides a simulacrum of social space by generating a digital representation of community which functions similarly to an in-person meetup at a coffee shop or park. For those of us living distant from each other, digital technology can be invaluable in maintaining friendships, and even fostering romantic relationships via dating apps such as Hinge.
A significant downside of this form of engagement, however, is its lack of security. Data is notoriously difficult to remove from the internet, and strangers can easily access your holiday photos and Instagram stories if your profiles are not manually made private. Cyberbullying is an issue especially prevalent amongst younger users, with thousands of reports of cyberbullying taking place every year, often with tragic consequences for victims of attacks which can be immensely difficult to prevent short of withdrawing from the internet altogether — a task which is becoming increasingly tough, and increasingly unattractive.
Businesses interact with their consumers via digital technologies to spread word of their products and services, and to build relationships with customers. Users are incentivised to stay connected by signing up to newsletters and notifications, and by downloading apps to keep informed on sales and new products. Many companies feature roles such as “community director” and “social media officer” to engage in direct communication with individual users, promoting the firm’s products and services.
Many company social media pages use humour to drive engagement from users:
Social media communication between users and brands serves as a newer, cheaper form of marketing for companies wishing to spread their brand image whilst keeping up with newer formats of technology, thus futureproofing their businesses.
A major risk of engaging with consumers in this manner is the range of ways in which users worldwide use speech to interact with each other. With millions of users having access to social media across the world, there is an opportunity for messaging to be interpreted differently and be deemed offensive by some viewers. One such example is the now infamous International Women’s Day Burger King tweet, pictured below:
The ill-fated, now-deleted post was part of an attempt to promote Burger King’s female scholarship scheme. The leading post, pictured above, provided no context and appeared incredibly sexist and a poor attempt at humour overall. Such poor uses of digital technology can cause discomfort in users and damage brand reputation.
Other concerns have arisen from the increasing presence of corporate entities in our social lives. Many users take issue with major brands pushing themselves into our social circles by adopting Gen Z speech patterns and using trends to appear more relatable to consumers. This chameleon-like approach can be seen as unsettling and artificial.
Changing technological standards have also changed the way in which we engage with current events. The decline in print media and the rise of paywalled articles and subscriptions from major news outlets has given way to social media as a major point of news information. This has led to a rise in fake news as there is little regulation on sites such as X and Reddit, which allow users with the largest follower counts to make their voices sound the loudest, regardless of the validity of their words.
Businessman Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X saw a rise in fake news on the platform, particularly due to a change in the requirement for verification badges. Subsequent features such as community notes have attempted to combat this.
Through the examples listed above, we have explored some of the many ways in which living in the digital age affects us. Digital technologies provide incredible opportunities for contact and convenience but come with substantial drawbacks which we must critically consider to ensure that we maintain peace, freedom, justice and security in our future.
Personal Conclusion
Throughout this unit I have had the unique opportunity to gain deeper insight into the many facets and effects of our digital society. From AI to Smart Cities, I have learned much about both the past and the present, and have expanded my ability to critically assess the future of the world in which I live. Learning how past developments such as the Turing Test have led to our contemporary dilemmas of ethics and humanity has been invaluable in widening my perception of digital responsibility.
By contributing to the Digital Society publication, I leave this course with first-hand experience and critical feedback from creating digital content the likes of which I am long used to consuming. Taking on the mindset of a blog writer has allowed me to test my writing skills in a variable format from traditional academic essays, and has rerouted my focus from bibliographies and referencing to new challenges such as licensing and image retrieval as I attempted to make my writing more digestible and engaging than an essay.
The dangers of misinformation have also been presented through this unit, causing me to maintain diligence in ensuring that I retrieved information from reputable sources and even modern news media which would not typically be referenced in my past work. I am grateful for the opportunity to write digital content with integrity, and to treat online articles with a more critical eye than I usually might.
My understanding of copyright law has also been expanded by my experience with retrieving images for this course, principally through ensuring that no images used were legally privileged. My engagement with other online sources across various news outlets saw that I should extend my awareness of plagiarism from other work, maintaining that I present my own ideas and acknowledge the influence of others in my writing, not just for my institution but for my audience too, that they may gain a wider understanding of the theme and be directed to additional reading on the topic.
As a long-time writer, I feel that I will take from this unit a deepened understanding of and appreciation for both the contexts of the digital age and the process of writing for an online publication and audience. As I strive to develop into the future, I will be able to use my experience and knowledge to build a wider portfolio of written work, all the while being more aware of the circumstances of our current digital society; whatever the future holds for our communities, I will have gained perspective into the paths which lead us, and our technology, to that destination.
