Get off your phone
Being a data point is like being a criminal in prison. You are the one making all the actions, but don’t have any control over the circumstances. Perhaps you weren’t familiar with the laws and therefore broke them, and now someone else, someone much bigger and with more power and authority over you, is in control of what happens to you.
As data points, the information that we are responsible for producing and sharing is constantly being watched and tracked by technology, and then later used to attack us. Unfortunately, due to data being extremely valuable, there are crooks out there who will take advantage of it. They will attack us until they see the actions they want to see. This is the world we’re living in today.
Working in advertising/marketing, you realize how the population is segmented. Personality profiles are created to categorize a certain group of people with the same behavioral/geographical/demographical data. We know things about people today that we never had access to before. We know if people are more likely to buy something online or not. We know if people are the type to attend events, and what specific kind of events. Data has the power to understand our behaviors sometimes better than we even know ourselves.
And that’s when we get into a danger zone. If a crook takes that data and uses it for their own good….like win an election… then we’re all of a sudden being manipulated without even realizing it. Having online access and social communication has become a necessity in today’s world. I get that, I too am a victim in that. It would be challenging to shut off social media for good. So what is the responsible way to live, act, and share in an online world that we’re living in now?
Get off your phone.
When you’re bored, wasting time, get off. If you need to speak to someone, speak to them, and then get off. If you want to share something, first be smart about what you’re sharing, then get off. Stop using your phone to fill in the time gaps that you have available in your day. Those are the times when you’re most vulnerable to information that you never asked to be shown. Those are the times when your data is being taken the most. Those are the times when your behaviors are being tracked so that the next time you jump online when you’re bored, the system will adapt to your behaviors and understand you better so that it can feature information that’s tailored to you. Those are the times when you’re literally asking to be manipulated. It’s like you all of a sudden turn blind every time you open a social app and you are fed communication and visuals that play with your mind without even realizing it. And then again without knowing it, your subconscious acts on something that stemmed from that communication that was constantly in your face. Does this ring a bell? Does it scare you?
If you asked yourself if you’re the type that can be easily manipulated, would you even know the truth? The thing is that so many people today are. But most of those people don’t even know they fall into that category. However, technology knows and knows very well, and that’s what is dangerous. It’s literally out of our hands, even though this is all because of the technology we put in our own very hands.
If you can’t get rid of your access to the online and social world completely, then at least stop using it at times when you don’t need it. Get better at analyzing when you really need it and when you don’t. Whenever I’m waiting for something, for example waiting for an appointment, that’s an opportunity to check my phone to pass the time as I wait. I’ve started to instead just sit and wait without feeling tempted to access something that isn’t needed at that moment, and instead look around the room and be in my thoughts (and usually see others with their heads down into their phones).
So stop being taken advantage of and start becoming less dependent on something that has the power to manipulate you. Please help the world by contributing as little as possible to the collection of data. WE as a society gave data this power. So if you control your data, be smart with your data, and protect your data, we can become human again, and not just be data points. Get off your phone, when you can.
Please watch The Great Hack on Netflix, and Carole Cadwalladr TED talks to learn more.