Digital addiction. Is it the same as addiction to drug? Well, we are all in the virtual community so basically our life is surround with digital and electronic devices. So, now let us watch some video from Al Jazeera called My Digital Addiction. Later, I will give some feed back about the video and relate it with some theory and idea from 'old people' hahahah.
Well, do I think the Digital Detox Program is effective? Hmm, In this present period of technology and globalization era, one can be blown away and easily lost in the world of technology. Digital and social media have become a huge part of today’s society. The electronic devices are capable of connecting people to the whole world via social networks, website and email but also capable in disconnecting the person to those people around them. So, here comes a so call life digital savor the ‘The Digital Detox program’ which I personally think that is not quite effective. The program actually just refrains participants from using any digital electronic devices like computers and smartphones which eventually can reduce stress and focus on social interaction in the physical world and also increased mindfulness which people will be more appreciated the environment. Later that the program knew, it is hard to throw the habits and addictive attitude towards using electronic devices when we live in and constantly being connected to the digital world. It is impossible to be apart from smarts phones and computers. Yes, it has the negative impact on the user experience with these digital connective devices. However, in the program, it is good which it gives the participants' awareness of how people use these technologies and how that can affect their life for better and both.
It is effective in the sense of gathering, doing activities in the program, but once a person going back to their normal life, they we will ‘connecting’ digitally again. This Digital Detox program was actually good just for a relaxation and temporary going off from digital world for a moment. It is a camp so; basically it is not ‘the everyday life’ people going to be living by doing activities like in the program which it requires every day to be connected to people. People have their own professional job to make a living. As the motto of the Digital Detox program is Disconnect to Reconnect, they want people to stay away from waking life staring at a screen, inspire, educate and empower the generation to create more mindful, meaningful and balanced lives both online and off. Actually, it is depend on the person on how they can balance their life towards digital and reality. To say that it is effective is a false and saying that is totally not effective is also at fault. This is all depending on the person themselves on how this program impact a person’s digital life as the program creates individuality, self-expression, friendship, memories and the great outdoor adventure.
According to Michel Foucault’s theory in 1988 on technologies of the self, it is the specific practices by which subjects constitute themselves within and through systems of power, and which often seem to be either natural or imposed. In a simple way, the identity of a person is the way in which people become unique individuals and selves. It is also a series of technique that allow individuals to work on themselves by regulating their bodies, their thoughts and their conduct. Back to the digital world, we are sort of wholly made due to our environment which is we consume technology. It is the methods employed by people, resulting in how they will be perceived as ‘selves’ by ‘others’ and them ‘selves’. To relate the with the addiction of digital, people try to portray their personality in the best possible light, when in fact their personality is always in flux and may not even exist at all, in any realistic sense. People are going for social media as like due to the term being famous on Facebook is basically the same thing as being rich in monopoly where the people get all satisfactory in social media and this is how addict they are toward using the devices. Yet, this happened because the attitude and identity has been constructed by the person and without realizing that he or she actually has no choice to construct the identity because of the society around ironically is the result of constructed community.
Society and its power constraint, rules and regulations as well as many other contrasting and complementary factors all gel into forming technologies of the self. Out portrayal of these facets from within projected towards society and from outside projected within ourselves determined who we are to ourselves and to other people.
Also the technologies of the self refer to the act of inserting a consciousness, not necessarily, of a concrete bodily existence into a collective, and not necessarily, of an abstract distance through employment of free floating empowerment instruments in an unceasing encounter with disunited forms of power. When being in an environment for an extended period of time under which a structured set of policies is lives, the nuances of living in this environment fall into the nuances of this technological structure which was made in with the image of a certain type of environment, be it positive and or negative in relation to the discourse between people living in this structure. Constantly having access to anything we think we need or want at that moment, especially social interaction, becomes too much to handle and is technically not even real because it is cyber interaction. Social media appears to help us communicate and in turn make our lives easier, but it is in reality, allowing us to access too much information and is handicapping us as a functioning society.
Other than that, based on Tonnies Ferdinand ideas in 1887, people are grouped in two categories which are the Gemeinschaft and the Gesselschaft. The Gemeinschaft (community) is bound together by personal contact among and by sharing implicit values. It may be formal institutions, so their members have to be restrained by moral suasion and peer pressure. This category is not practical to be implied in our present society as our society is much more in the virtual community where people lost their sense of interaction. In Gemeinschaft also, it being regulated traditional social rules for a person personal relationship with people where people most interact face-to-face spontaneously and naturally that can arise emotion and expression. While, in Gesselschaft (society) it does not expect all its members to share the same values; it expects them to be guided mostly by individual aims, restrained and organized by formal institution. This category, the Gesselschaft, it is more toward the modern society that the social interest has weakened the relationship between people. The relationship of the people is more impersonal and indirect as being in the virtual community. These virtual community that is arising are actually because of loss of the traditional public places which the community that is shared implicit values. To relate with the documentary, I saw that the journalist was actually lack of physical proximity when there is a gathering in his friend house where he does not put down his phone and their friends was shock when he actually put down his phone when doing the documentary. Therefore, the ties between person are weaker although the relationships formed can be quite intimate.
Do I think I am digitally addicted? To be honest, I am not really an addiction to digital but in a certain time, I am an addict. I can still live without digital for months and years but because of my life as a student requires me to be attached to digital like computers to do assignment and research, this makes me a bit into using the devices. These factors of using digital often are not actually an excuse, but being part of my life. However, if I don’t really have internet connection, there are actually less activities in the devices as internet is the reason we connected with the virtual world like social media, YouTube, online news, online gaming or even video calling. Sometimes, when there was no internet connection, I do not have to spend my time flipping from a device, from app to app as I spend more time online than I am asleep and work is intruding every waking hour. This has all happened when the connection to the internet existed.
What I have learned the most through the documentary the journalist has the life experience of telling his ‘Digital Addiction’ is that we need to be balanced in life. The technological detachment has become today’s reality. Little by little, internet and mobile technology seems to be quietly destroying the meaningfulness of interaction we have with others, disconnecting us from the world around us. And learning with an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society, instead of spending time in person with friends. Have 100 of messaging text is not as equal as chit chatting for hours with friends or family. It may seem simpler, but ultimately end up seeing less face to face. Like laughing face emoticon cannot be replaced as the voice and laughing eyes of our friends. Face time is really important, even though people can say that we can still get real life connection through video call, but it still not physically enough to get to the level of reality. We are losing real life interaction and replacing it by depending by the devices to do it for us. Digital are affecting our social skills and physical adaptations for our evolution. So, what I learned the most is that switch off our electronic devices and escape the digital realm once in a while to venture our nature.