Digital life

Digital life

Last year, a study found that cars are steadily getting less colourful. In the US, around 80% of cars are now black, white, gray, or silver, up from 60% in 2004. This trend has been attributed to cost savings and consumer preferences. Whatever the reasons, the result is hard to deny: a big part of daily life isn't as colourful as it used to be.

Now we have apps to help us stop using apps. The deterrents are creative. Some apps slow down how quickly we can open others; some block everything except calls and texts until we enter a specific password; some prompt us to reflect on a mantra or take deep, meditative breaths before scrolling on. One shows a little animated tree growing-a tree that dies if we open Instagram.

Scams are becoming pervasive, and there can be few people in the country who haven't received a text message or email from a fraudster pretending to be their bank or HMRC, the UK government's tax agency, or claiming to be a delivery firm holding a package for them. Older people are often targeted, and can lose substantial sums of money.

If I were a betting man, I would feel safe putting money on you being woken up by a smartphone alarm this morning. Maybe you looked at your texts, perused your news apps or (if you're like me) played Quartiles while you made your coffee and checked work emails. I'm also willing to bet that at some point in the last week you got in your car or took a hike and used GPS,

On March 11, 2021, Christie's made history as the first major auction house to sell art in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). Digital artist Beeple managed to offload his massive mosaic, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, for a whopping $69 million, generating hundreds of astonished headlines and getting those three letters, NFT, in front of untold scads of early-adopter eyeballs. It was the sale heard 'round the world, a starter pistol kicking off the NFT gold rush.

A survey from Adaptavist has revealed that 64% of knowledge workers have had their lives negatively impacted by technology in the last year. Three-in-ten said they regularly experience digital overwhelm, and 41% suffer stress and anxiety from notification overload and platform juggling. Almost a quarter (21%) looked for a new job, and 5% quit as a direct result. Many UK knowledge workers are also experiencing stress and anxiety as a result of pressure to be connected outside of working hours - 19%.

I don't think it is a matter of 'if,' it is simply a matter of 'when.' The electrical grid, as we know it, is only about 120 years old. And it is scattered in such a way that local or regional brownouts or total failures are happening too often.

I have no idea what exactly is going on with Facebook these days. I'm seeing precisely nothing of my actual friends; one friend had to do something drastic and get on the actual phone to tell me some good news she had posted about a few weeks previously. So I'm seeing no friends, but plenty of random Facebook groups and ads.