The codes of a digital ‘utopian’ world
With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), humanity appears to have entered a new era of existence. The vast majority of things traditionally conceived are subliminally connected to the Internet and combined with powerful data analysis capabilities to facilitate our life. It may seem that most technologies have reached a state of near-saturation in their use, but this may not be the case. The rapid development of technology has long been aimed at achieving not a qualitative change from 0 to 1, but a quantitative change from 1 to +∞. Still, at the same time, it may hinder the realisation of potential benefits for individuals and groups.
👩🏻⚕️ “CT” type examination
Have you ever wondered why we are increasingly inseparable from technology?
In fact, the development of technology has benefited more and more people because it has given a “CT” examination of humanity and society. The “CT image” looks at issues such as life, work and study from different perspectives to get an accurate picture of the needs and shortcomings of society today. So it is not because technology has developed that people choose to apply it; but rather because it is human-centred and ‘tailored’ to us.
“It’s not a faith in technology. It’s faith in people.”— Steve Jobs
🖥 Technology for life
Digital technology has influenced almost every aspect of the 21st century and has changed the way we do things, making modern society more efficient and productive, which is the fundamental purpose of digital developments. For most people, the most widespread place where digital technology is used is in our everyday lives, which fall into the following main points:
◽️ Communication
◽️ Forms of learning and working
◽️ healthy living
◽️ Mobile apps
Especially during Covid-19, emerging terms such as WFH (work from home) proved the need for new work mode. Zoom, which claims to have 300 million “daily participants”, is a prime example. The digital platform makes people who are not in the same place to participate in the same meeting, with additional features such as polling, chat boxes and screen sharing. This way of meeting has dramatically increased productivity and broken down the traditional concept of space. The resulting online working model is constantly being innovated, and the development of digital platforms is reaching a new wave. Even if Covid ends, this model will continue to evolve. Still, it is difficult to achieve the practical effects of face-to-face communication using online platforms due to technical limitations, as I experienced during my presentation.
As work and life become more stressful, we become more and more conscious of our health issues. Have you ever bought a health-related high-tech product? Whether it’s a massager only or a sports watch. They are increasing our health protection by going digital. Figures show that global sales of such smart wearables exceed $53.2 billion by 2019. This also means that human-computer interaction will play an essential part in the future of digital development and, of course, will be used in a wide range of industries.
🤔 Become lazy or industrious ?
When a slide on the screen can solve the problem, but you choose to call out to Siri to do it for you. When it’s possible to pull up the curtains, you choose lie on the sofa with the remote control and tap the buttons. Interestingly, most people don’t see no great value in the existence of this type of technology, but instead rely on it. This then becomes the underlying motivation for industries to produce intelligent technology products, and which seems to have long since entered a cycle.
Put another way, technology development may also make people more industrious. Take, for example, ‘Forest’, which makes you more motivated and focused when working or studying. Therefore, it is undeniable that technology does not intentionally make us lazy; it is how we choose and use these tools.
💼 Find the entrance
With the rapid development of digital, the irreplaceability of industries is diminishing. For example, cashiers in large supermarkets are being replaced by self-checkout machines, but with this comes the addition of operations and technology departments to secure the new operating model. So, everyone needs to find the new “entrance” of our time and proactively connect with it, even if this is not easy. Especially during the Covid, the importance of digital technology was rapidly magnified. While most traditional industries were hit hard, some of the new technology sectors were hit hard in the opposite direction, which proves that in the long run, the integration of traditional industries with technology is inevitable.
⬜️ Transparent OR ⬛️ Concealed ?
The digital world feels like a utopia, that is because people often overlook its hidden risks. When you hand over your photos, credit card details, and e-mails to companies which will store them on vast banks of computers somewhere on the other side of the world, what are you risking? Are you safe when you go to a coffee shop and use a public network? You think you are chatting privately with your friends on Wechat, but a back-office has verified every word you send to confirm its legitimacy. Even if we can sense its safety risks, we cannot completely dispense with technology in the context of the general trend. While more and more companies are introducing multiple layers of security to protect user privacy, we still need to be aware of the dangers of living in a digital society.
🗒 Conclusion
The advantages and disadvantages of technological development cannot be judged unilaterally, nor are they absolute. People need to understand how to become masters of it, rather than being controlled by it.
Only when humans and technology are in harmony can society genuinely progress：）
🤎 Reflection
I was fascinated when I came across this course, the systematic study of information technology developments, combined with the novel format of the course and assignments, gave me a strong desire to explore the current and future technological era. As an economics student, who is normally used to focusing on developments in my field of expertise, studying the course began to make me think about how I could use digitalisation in my subsequent studies and career, and integrate it with technology in my life to make the most of the stage benefits.
◽️ Reflections on the course content
Teaching in the form of a blog is something I have never seen before, not that this is bad, on the contrary, I think it is a model worth promoting. In an age where digital platforms are widely used, it is undeniable that I will unconsciously read interesting and entertaining posts, as it has a complete control over our psyche. But when the way the lessons are taught also makes use of digital to make some changes, it makes me more interested in learning and understanding, and it gives me a fundamental understanding of the reasons for the rapid development of digital platforms and their underlying models.
The three assessment in this course gave me the opportunity to seek out industries, phenomena of interest and to examine how they have changed and evolved in the digital age. For example, during the writing of digisoc1, I chose the auction industry to explore how Christie’s has combined its traditional industry with a digital platform to solidify its position as a leading player in the industry. As a result, I also went on the ground to learn about its innovative operating model in the context of the new era. Through these three blog posts, I have gained a more comprehensive understanding of the digital society and it has allowed me to learn and experience being an online contributor. This was not easy, as I had to learn to write in a non-essay form, with clear and concise arguments, and to think critically. So, studying Digital Society has been interesting and challenging for me.
◽️Reflections on personal development
Digital development has undoubtedly opened up many new opportunities, but only if we need to master it. Compared to the past, the same position now requires more skills to be mastered — for accounting, for example, Excel is a necessity. At the same time, there has been a marked increase in the number of professions and positions related to digitalisation. More and more students are choosing Computing science-related courses, and companies are starting to require employees to be able to use programming languages such as python and c++, so it has become even more essential to use digital skills to improve one’s competitiveness. In addition, I also hope that I can combine digital technology with my major to solve more problems: using digital platforms to help increase the income of disadvantaged people; as well as using innovative technology to make companies more efficient and relatively reduce employee overtime etc. It is also my part of the responsibility as a citizen of the digital society.
Future will be better!
