Inter-Digital
a brief manifesto of my [current] digital philosophy.
Digital is dead. What has replaced it is something more tangible, more personal. When a disease is localized to a population it is an epidemic, and when it becomes ingrained into the entire system, it is endemic. Using this terminology, the digital age began as a localized permutation of technology, that is, the experience was tied to a particular device and when that device died the digital experience ended. With the internet and the “cloud,” digital experiences have become agnostic to the hardware. When one platform dies the experience lives on in the next device — no longer localized — digital experiences have become endemic to the larger networked system.
Inter-digital. When digital becomes integrated into the system, it becomes apart of more than just platforms and networks — it becomes an appendage of the person who interacts with it.
This personalization of the digital experience is why Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera, are globally popular… and addictive. They have created a place for user generated content to live and breathe —these networks prey on individualization and narcissism to proliferate the constant stream of noise needed to be deemed a viable financial investment. In this reliance on the consumer generated content, we have all heartily joined in production. Theatre that gratifies instantly, as sharing our lives to the masses fulfills a real human need — the desire to be heard and known, creating an addictive experience, which continues the stream and feeds the machine.
What is my point?
There is opportunity to bring meaning into the stream and healing to the void, an opportunity to evolve the experience.
Connectedness. One thing strong enough to kill the narcissistic endemic of today’s digital natives is a fuller view of where we are going. A connected perspective on the future and true personal transparency — can lead many through the messy middles of our narcissistic now. What I’m advocating is not more apps and more notifications… but a reigning in of the features.
A simplification of the options.
A reduction in the noise.
The answer is not more but better platforms, smarter networks, and connected databases. In moving our lives to digital, we’ve centered around our own vanity. Once we find temperance in the medium, we will begin to dig our way out of ourself and into the wild world around us.
