Culture & Digital Way: January 2014

In October 2013, there was a lecture by Zygmunt Bauman at Vilnius University about a relation between online and offline worlds. Zygmunt Bauman, one of the most eminent postmodernist philosophers, expressed his thoughts on how digital world influences us and I want just to bring a small review of his lecture on this important, but often ignored topic.

Zygmunt Bauman talks about digital world

Fear. A fear of being alone and forgotten. Digital technologies allow us to talk to someone whenever we like and constantly remind about our existence to the world.

Freedom. Digital world gives us a sense of freedom. For example, we have more freedom of expression and now everyone can make his/her own music video and to show it to the world.

Security. Now people can escape to the virtual reality and avoid unpleasant encounters in the offline world. However, it may result in a loss of communication abilities in an eye to eye environment.

Memory. Digital technologies may result in people’s memory capabilities loss. Zygmunt Bauman argues that nowadays we don’t need to remember so much because everything is on Google or in a USB key.

Hall of mirrors. According to Mr. Bauman, the online world can easily become a hall of mirrors, where we can see just ourselves and our own opinion. In the digital world we don’t need to confront unpleasant ideas, we can just go to a website where we can see what we want to see.

Impatience. People may become impatient and even intolerant to a delay. When digital technologies allow us to get everything relatively quickly we might become impatient when it comes to, for example, building long-term relationships with a partner.

Summary

Every change in a society brings new opportunities and new dangers. The same applies to the digital revolution of the XXI century.

Perhaps the greatest risks are an increasing alienation between people and a hall of mirrors which was mentioned by Zygmunt Bauman. I believe that these dangers can be reduced only by changing the educational system which still resembles an industrial age in many countries. We should emphasize more the importance of cooperation and compassion in schools, universities and media. Also, schools and universities have to become sparkling forums where ideas clash and new ideas are born.

But these reforms can be done only by the government which is highly socially responsible and progressive.