What Does Our Digital Future Hold?
At Midnight on a weekday, some year between Y2K and Obama’s first election, I thought it would be a great idea to drive down to New Orleans with my classmates for the only kind of fun that can be experienced on Bourbon Street in the wee hours of the morning.
We were supposed to be studying for midterms, but instead, we were staying up all night in The Big Easy. We got some drinks, ate beignets, and wandered through the French Quarter. Around 3 AM, I thought it would be fun to spend my last $10 on a fortune teller who was set up in front of the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis. I slapped down a crisp Hamilton and said, “I want to know what my future holds.”
The mystic, wearing a decorative veil and beads, leaned across the cardboard table and replied, “In your case, I don’t have to seek the spirits. If you keep wasting your college years down here in NOLA, you’ll be lucky if you end up with a gig like mine.”
She swatted the $10 bill away and told me, “Go home and get your butt in gear, honey child.”
Uncertainty on the Digital Horizon
As the new year comes over the horizon, it’s advisable to think about what the future holds. The rise of rapid and rather invasive technological advances has many searching for predictions of how the digital development will impact our lives. Will artificial intelligence (AI) automate our jobs? How will AI impact our ability to think critically and independently? Will an overreliance on AI diminish human capabilities for creativity? Are the next generations being negatively impacted by our rapid applications and integration of new technologies into our society?
Understandably, there’s a lot of panic regarding the digital future. Will it be filled with opportunities, or characterized by dystopian demise? Many have forecasted varying visions for our digital future. Only time will tell…or perhaps, there’s a better way to approach the intense uncertainty that encompasses our hyperconnected existence.
Technology and Its Unintended Consequences
Our world is rapidly changing. Things you and I could only imagine back in the 1990s and early 2000s are now everyday issues - smartphones, Alexa, social media video calls, ChatGPT, self-driving cars, etc.
It’s natural to feel somewhat overwhelmed by the technological advances that our generation has witnessed. The world we once knew - one characterized by slow Sunday porch visits - has long since dissipated. Pretty much anything we want or could need is available at our fingertips, and yet, we have failed to solve so many of life’s most threatening problems. Heartbreak, grief, loneliness, and sorrow continue to persist, and many of us have a sense that technology is only making these things worse for humankind. We embraced early adoption of technology in the name of progress, hopeful it would enhance quality of life; however, when we survey the realized outcomes, we may find ourselves pining for aspects of a world a lot more technologically disconnected.
We’re not sure if our technological advances were a good thing, or if we’ve screwed the ones coming up behind us forever. Ample research has revealed the truly tragic consequences of technology on our children, from increased anxiety and depression to shortened attention spans and declining resilience, violations of personal privacy, accessibility of terrorism and acts of cyberwarfare, erosion of community, and poor health and wellness outcomes. Thanks to technology, bad things can occur at unprecedented speed and scale. We live in a world that looks so differently than the one we remember, and we realize the good memories of our past become harder and harder to replicate in our digitally-empowered existence.
Responsibility as the Deciding Variable
So, what does our digital future hold?
It holds whatever we cultivate, initiate, and protect. After decades of watching technological advances unfold, I am convinced that the actual manifestations of technology are subject to human demands. Some of these demands are reasonable and beneficial, while others are corrosive and damaging. People who understand the ramifications of technological advances are needed to safeguard our hyperconnected world from devastating outcomes. We humans - not technology - decide what we want that future to be, and therefore, must take action to ensure that future becomes our reality. This type of approach requires something many people in our modern society avoid like the plague - responsibility.
Think technology is ruining society? Do something about it. Move the needle on how technology shows up in your daily life and the lives of those around you. Take the initiative - don’t wait for a digitized prompt. Invite friends out to dinner, pick up a phone, and call your old service buddy. Get involved in your local community through volunteering and civic service.
Afraid your job will be automated by AI? Take action today. Cross-train your skills and professional competencies in ways that enhance your capabilities. Strengthen your soft skills - all the things AI can’t replicate. Bone up on cognitive resilience, innovative problem-solving, and ethical judgment. Learn how to harness AI so it doesn’t sideswipe you in one of the greatest technological disruptions in human history.
Concerned that the digital trajectory is pulling society in the wrong direction? Now - 2026 - is the time to alter that course. You can choose intention over passivity, influence how technology is used in your home and workplace, and help shape a digital future that supports humanity rather than undermining it.
We don’t need a crystal ball to forecast what our digital future will look like if we all sit this one out.