Digital Overdose

What does Google know about me? The doubt arose after watching ‘The Social Dilemma’, an exploration of the enormous impact that large technology companies have on our society. From technology addiction, digital surveillance and the dangers of unethical capitalism, the award-winning documentary can be summed up with the phrase that made my hair stand on end: “If the service is free, the product is you”.

So here I am, seeing my personality, dreams, goals, fears and existential questions captured in categories that define me in the digital world. Female, 18-24 years old, right. Interested in cats, politics, comedy, documentaries, gastronomy, sports, art and activism, indeed. Mexican, right. They hit the nail on the head, didn’t they? It would seem so, but a conflict arises: is that me, or is that the me that my digital hours have turned me into?

An average of eleven hours a day with my eyes on a screen, according to the Screen Time log on my cell phone. These hours include a lot of classes, responsibilities, and Zoom meetings, but it’s still a terrifying amount of time. I no longer remember what I did with my time before I had a device – what would I have spent eleven hours of my day on ten years ago?

Every minute of that time, it’s profit for the big tech companies. The world’s resources are running out, and the capitalist system has no choice but to extract and exploit those in our minds. Our vulnerabilities and our attention are now commodities exchangeable for capital.

For decades, science fiction has alluded to a future where robots take over the world: humanoid figures living in our homes, taking over our jobs, until they wipe human existence from the face of the earth. The future is today, and humanoid figures are not made of metal and wires, but of flesh and blood. Algorithms are altering human behavior to such a degree that they control us more than we control the algorithms. Robots are you and me.

Technology has been the most important discovery in human history. Never before has the quality of human life been improved in such a short time. In many ways, the world has improved, but at what cost? It is up to us to have these conversations and implement real changes in our digital behavior. We don’t need to do it overnight, but we do need to do something today. And tomorrow. And the day after. And so on and so forth.

You can start by turning off your notifications. Sure, if a call or message comes in it might be important, but do you really need to know instantly every comment on your meme, every photo tag, or every event invite? View your social networks more like a letterbox: you’ll see notifications once you log into the app, not the millisecond they come in. Follow and converse with people you disagree with, without bias or agenda. Reflect on the pages or people you follow: do they add value to your life, or do you add value to their digital life? If in every second story they upload, they are looking to sell you something, WATCH OUT. Unethical capitalism also masquerades as real life. Find things to do that don’t involve being glued to a screen: paint, run, explore, write, read, talk.

Technology is what it is: a tool to facilitate and enhance our lives. Let’s stop blurring the line between need and addiction. There is a real world behind the algorithms that begs for our attention, time and love, and without us, this world will take us down with it.