“Whoa, Gmail account hacking attempt!”- my colleague told me the other day.
It appears he got some kind of notification from Google, and this set his alarm bells ringing. He was not really sure why someone would bother to hack his account, he is just like everyone out there; a normal user. Still he showed a concerned look because at-least to him his Gmail account is important.
I suggested him that perhaps that’s because he uses Android, he must have been using Google!Play to download apps. During that process of signing into Google!Play, browsing apps, choosing to download and install he must have invariably shared his email. Maybe, who knows? Who has time to review 25 check-boxes per app on what is shared, and what isn’t? Who thinks about the price (not just the 0.99$ for an app) you pay for having access to, consuming this ‘marketplace’? He seemed to agree, yet slowly shook his head in disbelief not really sure what to think. Slyly I also suggested this might be some sort of propaganda by Google itself! Somehow you have to be in the news, and the best way is to stir up something to keep people in a state of fear and the next thing you see is everyone taking their shot at it in their own crude manner, while Google happily analyses everything being said, heard, and decided about.
We shared a jolly laugh, but that didn’t stop him from changing his password as first step. His account was not hacked, it was just a hack attempt! But even a possible theft attempt is enough to make him change his lock combinations; perhaps also including all his other online accounts elsewhere.
This isn’t the only time I see this has happened. I look around myself every day. People staring at their smartphone screens, heads down, busy. Majority of these are ‘online’, feeding on information, reading, shopping, watching whatever it is that interests them online.
I do that sometimes myself, but I am bit of an ‘offline’ type. And there is some background to this. A few weeks ago, I was Hacker News Tokyo’s Meetup Event, where a new acquaintance asked me what do I use my iPhone for. Unsurpassed, I calmly replied “Just for SMS-ing my wife, and occasionally as a phone. Once I am back home, and get online on WiFi, then perhaps to get app updates. I am still not convinced I should be feeding an economy that isn’t helping my growth in any way except by paying more”. He did not seem to buy that, but I went on to explain him – while I agree with having an iPhone, I don’t really agree spending money like I don’t care what is costs each month on having ‘online’ connectivity. The way I see it, smartphones have become a passing sensation but a powerful one. Entire industries have been caught in the tide of smartphones, and suddenly everyone is now a ‘smart’ phone owner. Recently, when I launched Docs9, and also Meteor – smartphones, tablets are important target for me. At the moment, I cannot ignore them. Not that I want to ignore, but given a chance I’d like to show everyone the bigger, deeper issue behind what I perceive this meaningless digital trend is about.
Of course that is not what I explained to my friend at #hntokyo, instead I asked him does he really understand what, how much does he spend each month for staying ‘online’? Truth is no one really likes to go into such details. We don’t look into our water bills, electricity bills, restaurant bills with much scrutiny. Certainly, I don’t do either. The amount paid is affordable, we ignore. The amount paid is significant, we get concerned. That’s about it. Nothing solved, nothing owned. Millions around the world get what they can instantly when they want to have it online. That includes us who may have had something else in mind when we started, but now don’t even get time to really understand what is it we are doing online almost the entire day.
There are legitimate uses of when I would really, badly, must be online. But once I stopped being online, I realized that all of that necessity was just something of my own imaginary need that wasn’t there before. I too did spend time, and money to ‘buffer’ youtube videos because I had nothing better to do while waiting for the train. Spending money became too easy. I too did aimlessly drive around using iPhone as a GPS, only to find that if I read the road signposts on which we are paying taxes for, I could have easily found out where I am headed very easily in the first place.
Now I read an ebook, or play an offline game, or just take a nap when I commute. I no longer feel the urgency to ‘know’ what’s happening. I certainly make use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn channels occasionally, but I certainly do not keep aside a dedicated task each day just to participate ‘social’ly. Why did I choose to excersice daily for dedicated 30 minutes instead?
I see few problems in what’s happening with ‘digital literacy’ at the moment. I see that everyone today is just become addicted, even compelled to the pressures of keeping up with what’s everyone else is doing. This has no doubt been a universal human nature all along. Your neighbor has a better car, you want a better one too. Your friends do FB, you should be doing FB too! In the end the car dealer get’s more customers, FB gets more users. You have no legacy, no significance except in your own world. The car maker, and FB have a long-lasting, perhaps a grandiose legacy that even your great grandchildren will happily know about, but not you. Because you never bothered to have one. You are busy enjoying everything unimportant on FB, or not really loving anything about your car except that you have a same looking car as your neighbor did once.
And the truth is all of this is fed by big companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo themselves in small ‘sweet’ doses to all of us. Do you like a new feature in Facebook? Impressed by how Google predicts your search? Don’t really know why, but you need a new Office upgrade?
Take a moment, and try answering these question with sincerity. Not because I say so, but just because you think something doesn’t feel right in all of this.
Think about what do you get, outside of just getting the ‘service’. What is the price you pay for? What is the price you are influencing on your family, the future generation to pay for? Your appetite is being fed by people who have access to you, and your needs – your Androids, Chromes, and your Google searches. What’s in it for you as a consumer? Just being treated ‘differently’ makes you a special customer? How about your kids? Do you have a future standard ’employee’ career-path for your kids already planned while their only aspirations are how to succeed ‘digitally’? Is your next biggest birthday gift an iPad?
Quite frankly, would you feel alone if you aren’t online? Do you feel happy enjoying benefits of so called auto-updates, the feeling of being knowledgeable, yet always wanting to keep your smartphone vibrating beside your bedside in case you miss some latest witty post from someone?
I was joking with some friends a while back that if a baby is born, the first thing that comes to your mind is to take a photo, and post it. You may not have even admired, or touched your baby yet, but ‘immediate’ post to your network is more vital than holding your baby, and forgetting what’s more important now. Getting a ‘Like’ is far more crucial for expecting mothers today!
I strongly feel this behavior whenever I am browsing online. I get fed up real quick. There is just no ‘meaning’ anymore. Constant noise, constant barrage of nonsensical jokes, hilarious stuff without feeling ashamed, no ‘level’ of quality, no importance to ‘value’. See an accident, tweet about it. Go to a restaurant, post it on your wall. Find something different just share it without thinking twice. Because if it’s not you who shared it first, it will be somebody else.
A related cause to effect, sometimes I come across HTML5 Rocks user debates. Some like me, do feel the whole ‘Google’ monopoly behind pushing HTML5 standard. But there are others who unlike us see our comments as a problem hindering scientific progress of our society. Don’t we all want voice enabled search, don’t we all want Google!Glass, don’t we all want, ummm … what’s the next big thing I want – supersized Coke? Yeah, right. We also need oxygen capsules to become youthful again, don’t we?
Teenagers, young, and brilliant generations are willfully contributing their knowledge, their ideas, their inventions to such big monopolies. Go, and happily sign off your idea to Google in your desperation to stand out in the crowd. Remember, it’s not you who is standing out, but that big huge logo behind you which rest of the world knows. Your only takeaway is the momentary praise, and some decent monetary benefit. Go ahead a few years, and you’re back to just someone who nobody remembers, or knows. All they care is how can they swap their month old Android to the latest cool looking one shipped by Google this month.
My question – Is this the extent of our achievement as a human being? Is simply jumping the ‘buzz’ bandwagon the only sign of our digital literacy? Is our illusion that everybody is smart actually a modern tragedy, dumb people with smartphones!
I respect Apple, but to me it’s not Apple. I really respect Steve Jobs. For whatever reasons, he has been the most influential person to me. You know when you feel ‘safe’ with your parent around as a kid. I felt the same when Steve Jobs was with us. His vision was certainly to give people the ‘best’ product. Not an experiment like Android, where you are just a test subject on which half-baked, immature features are tested, but at the end of the day you are the only one stuck paying the price. I honor, and respect people like Steve Jobs whose purpose was to make our lives better for our own benefit. I am sure that if allowed, Steve Jobs would have been more than thrilled to offer products for free just because the world needs to be a better place.
I am doing a start-up, and the more I think of becoming a ‘producer’, the more I come across this influence, and the grip with how our generation has caught into. I want to give people tools to make their lives better, I want to give people intelligence to make their lives better, and I certainly want my kids to experience a life full of potentials. I want them to see a world of culture, values, respect, honor and above all – worthy accomplishments.
Honestly I wish people just stop pretending smart trying to participate in digital world without being digitally literate. While to some digital presence is for fun, to some it has really become an identity, in fact a dual personality. More than that, it has given people an effective recluse to shut away the world around you, and admire at an artificially photoshopped beauty through your tiny screen. It’s like how medical practice has become all around the world – expensive than you could afford financially, and mentally. You are still the same, nobody updated you, nobody even knows about you. Is there an app you could download to answer this for you? Or is that a problem you should be solving for yourself already? If you are advised about health, yet if you keep eating junk food, anything a doctor can prescribe is cure. But if doctors see this as an opportunity to feed on your habits, get a lifelong steady source of health care income, why would any doctor care for ‘your’ health out of million others stranded to get inside for an imaginary diagnosis? Which is easier – being taken care of? Or taking care of yourself?
Where is all of this talk heading to? Should we start some movement? Should we do something to change all of this?
From what I have understood, we are all cultured to look upon someone – our idol, our image, our gods, our leaders. We ourselves are already convinced we will just @follow where the world will take us to. There is always a leader who needs to open their eyes, and make them see.
Could it be any different this time?
Could you, as a reader, think about this?
Has your education, your effort to grow into the society taught you that your reach is just this far?
Can you, as a responsible person, do something about it now?