Technology in the Time of Covid19 *

There’s nothing like a crisis to make the impossible possible.

In a matter of weeks, life as we know it came to a screeching halt. The unthinkable happened and in March 2020, schools, shops, restaurants, cafes, museums around the world closed and public gatherings were forbidden.

And then I noticed something new. I noticed that people started using technology in a very different manner than before the crisis. People were actually talking on their phones. Videoconferencing boomed, as did online concerts, happy hours and pub quizzes. Collaborative web sites brought together helpers and those in need.

Was technology actually pulling down walls between people rather than pushing us apart? Is screen time good after all? And what happens after the crisis?

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Cybersecurity of our Minds

“Fake News” is a red herring. The digital revolution has produced something more pernicious that is tearing at the very fabric of our society.

Remember the “Dial-up Connection”? We have gone from “Always Connected” to “Always Trackable” to “Predictable” and finally to “Manipulable” in the space of 11 years. Think you have free will? Think again.

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The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

We have never been more connected in the history of mankind. And yet, ironically, we have never been more polarised as a society, living in silos.

Social media ignited a volatile cocktail of our innate human biases.

In giving up our privacy we made a Faustian deal with GAFAM and we risk swapping our souls for the gain of “convenience”. But what have we lost in return?

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