Is a Digital Society the best society for the future?
Digitalisation is growing further into societal norms. A world without it is currently unattainable with additional digitalisation set to occur. With this, complexity of technology will rise and those who do not already participate will shift onto these digital platforms, transforming human and industry decisions to focus on the context of these platforms.
Yet opinions on digitalisation is split. There are many benefits to immersing into a greater digital society, including: communication; new job scopes; online commercialisation; and data accessibility. In contrast to this, there are also many negatives: Over-reliance; digital crime increases; bullying and in-person communication sufferance; fake news stories spreading quickly; and crucially mental health.
Worldwide, there are more than 4.33 billion active internet users. With approximately 7.9 billion people in the world, estimating to circa. 55% of internet users globally. As shown by these statistics, the globe has experienced massive connectivity improvements and thus, has formed a digital society. This increased ability to communicate freely, allows for heightened contact around the world in ways previously impossible. In addition to the internet, social media has contributed to this ability to stay connected. The current main social media providers are Facebook; Instagram; Snapchat; Tiktok; and Twitter. The sheer increase in numbers can be demonstrated by social media users increasing from ‘970 million in 2010 to the number passing 4.48 billion users in July 2021’.
Benefits of the accessibility provided by social media and the internet stems from changing demographics and lifestyles. With more people becoming mobile and living further away from home, for university or jobs, technology helps to bridge the gap created by the modern economy as it helps to maintain and support relationships digitally. Displayed recently, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns cut off social contact completely to reduce the spread of the virus. The need for online communication vastly increased, companies such as ‘Zoom’ capitalised on this, providing a video service where people could communicate in groups — beneficial to education, employment, and also social interaction.
Similarly, digital societies have introduced new ways of working. This increased connectivity has resulted in the use of different employment structures and also has formed new branches of jobs. Increased digitalisation has created the new scope of the ‘gig economy’ — where contractors use online platforms to provide a service. Companies that operate in this sector include, Uber, Deliveroo, Airbnb, Just Eat and PeoplePerHour. This has improved consumption of goods, due to an increased ability to access them, whilst also helping provide jobs to low skilled workers. Using online platforms in general has offered a different option of work, with the use of new jobs including social media managers and other digital employment opportunities. There has been a rise in flexible working conditions due to digitalisation, increased connectivity has led to heightened use of freelancing, zero-hour contracts, part-time work and importantly working from home — something that was crucial during the pandemic.
Further industrial change can be monitored through the increase in digital commercialisation. The use of these platforms have provided sellers, resellers and the public opportunities to trade goods online. The heightened consumer demand for retro or vintage clothing has provided openings for companies such as Etsy, Depop and other vintage resellers to penetrate the market to match this demand. Alternatively, there has been a huge increase in ‘fast fashion’, the internet has provided scope for successful business models for companies such as: ASOS, Boohoo, Zara and Shein. These companies target new clothing that can be quickly changed to match the demand of the consumer and with relatively cheap prices.
In relation to all the positives stemming from the digital world, there is the fair share of negatives. In a world rocked by covid the numbers of users has massively increased as stated earlier, however, are we staring to shift into an over-reliance on technology? With huge investment into technology occurring, there is a shift towards technological takeover, and the opportunity for isolation. A study carried out concluded that ‘young adults aged 19–32 years found that people with higher social media use were more than three times as likely to feel socially isolated than those who did not use social media as often.’ Highlighting the negative effect where technology may take over someone’s life, which can cause a loss of real worldliness and of communicative abilities. Similarly, if the interactions that users have are construed as negative, then it may cause social issues also.
Examples of these social issues normally stem down to mental health and the impacts that it has on anxiety and depression. The more excessive the dependence on technology is, the more the user neglects other parts of their life — almost like an addiction. This is particularly present in the digital world of gaming. From a study conducted by GameQuitters, results founded that ‘89% of problem gamers are diagnosed with depression in addition to video game addiction’. It is also proven to cause issues surrounding anxiety, social anxiety and motivation, this is all related to the lack of real-world contact and reliance on gaming to function. Similarly, social media causes the same types of results — on average ‘teens between the ages of 13 and 18 spent about 9 hours a day on social media and other outlets like TV, online videos, and mobile games.’ This again fuels the question of addiction, and weather moderation is achievable in this digital age, especially with the scope of increased investment into areas such as the metaverse.
Other implications of living in a digital world can be understood through the job market. The introduction of the gig economy and online service provision due to increased connectivity has led to issues surrounding contracting, rights, and fairness. Contractual agreements differ between markets and thus, in areas where legal rights are not well defined, there can be discrimination. This is especially true where workers are unable to access pensions and any work-related benefits due to the nature of their zero-hour contracts, for example. Zero Hour contracts are understood by LSE to be ‘modern slavery’ as shown by the photo below. Also, these workers may find it difficult to leave this industry due to the low nature skill involved with the jobs they undertake, coupled with the low/zero training offered by employers, it can often cause structural unemployment if they do wish to leave these jobs. This is one of the many unforeseen impacts that the digital society has contributed to, due to the nature of these services being provided online.
Reflection
I have thoroughly enjoyed studying Digital Society as a UCIL course. As a business student with a keen eye towards digitalisation, this module has provided an understanding of how the online world works. My marketing focus in business has shaped my interest in wanting to learn and develop skills in this online setting. The hand in hand nature of marketing and social media is something that I am keen to explore further. Potentially creating my own business in this segment of the market. I aim to work on a travel app that encapsulates the gap year market by providing a service that benefits them. Thus, learning how to blog write is the key aspect that I will take away from this process, as that is how I am looking to document my findings, in a setting that is easy to use and read, like Medium.
As an avid digital user myself, I have found it interesting to study topics including: the internet; the internet of things; smart cities; employability for a digital future. Focusing on consumption of social media and the internet has provided the opportunity for me to learn different aspects of a digital society, something that I can carry forward in future life. Especially in relation to how I have learnt that technology will shape the world in the near future, something that I wrote about in Digisoc 2, with emphasis on gaming, NFTs and the Metaverse. I believe that the only way is for digitalisation to increase massively, and thus being able to learn about these aspects has provided opportunity to grasp this more quickly in comparison to other students who have not studied this.
This module has increased my capability surrounding critical evaluation and to focus on what to include in such a small number of words, helping develop my ability to cut the unimportant stuff so that I do not write about unvaluable information.
At the beginning of the course, the asynchronous learning was hard to grasp, as the information was not taught in person so I struggled to adapt to the course. This meant that the newness of content delivery created issues with the learning of the information, something which I wish i had tried harder to understand originally.
In conclusion, this course has exceeded my expectations, and I would look to do another UCIL course if I was afforded the opportunity. I believe it has helped break the cycle of a typical university module, as it has prompted a different way of learning — the online and asynchronous nature has made the course feel less formal, yet more interesting to learn from due to the deadlines and structure of weekly reflection. In the post Covid era, it feels like a world where everything seems to be moving online, and thus the skills have developed have been and will continue to be invaluable in future day to day life. Especially if Mark Zuckerberg gets his wish with the development of the Metaverse.
