The digital world makes things extraneous: it allows everyone to lean more on others, to delegate and to empower.
Is it possible to live a full and well-rounded digital life for someone who is not a “digital native”?
We have to stop seeing the digital world as a place reserved for digital natives or geeks. On the contrary, it is an unrivalled opportunity for democratisation. I would describe myself as an “enhanced women”. I am 45 years old, so I was born prior to the Internet, but I nevertheless use the digital culture to my advantage to help develop my abilities, both in my professional and personal life. The digital world offers unrivalled opportunities for all of us, no matter their background, status or needs.
Provided we learn how to use the tools…
To see the full potential of the digital world, we must stop thinking of it as a forced and compulsive set of tools, and see it as a culture instead. It’s important to remain in control when faced with the abundance of areas and flux on offer. A tool can be controlled and configured. If we indiscriminately rush onto every social network, it could easily turn us schizophrenic. We need to wait and get to know them, learn to understand what suits us best, to refocus on our real needs and select these tools based on our way of life, our priorities, our rhythms. This is an excellent stepping stone to put to focus on ourselves again. For example, I appreciate images, so I have a tendency to favour Instagram and Pinterest. I like to stay on top of facts and trends, so I have a Twitter account. And as I prefer to take a little time to analyse things, I am more of a “follower” than a “tweeter”.
How would you define the “enhanced person”?
As the social figure of the permanent and harmonic link between the individual and the collective who embodies the digital culture.
What does that mean?
As the digital world is based on an economic audience model, it represents broader communities, but at the same time, it also offers a wonderful playing field for individual curiosity and intellectual ambitions though the permanent possibility to establish a link. The digital world puts the focus for personal and professional environments back on learning. It stands for empowerment. The enhanced person draws on the community, learns alongside others, collaborates with others, and creates with others. This person is essentially “in the world” and “with the world”. And lastly, this ecosystem has a very humanistic dimension. The digital world makes things extraneous: it allows everyone to lean more on others, to delegate and to empower.
