I have this story about a non-utopia better world where each person has a sense of accountability to themselves and to a common good.
Common good seems to be debatable these days, so I will propose that at the very least, it encompasses human physical and mental health, freedom from bondage and violence, and some measure of autonomy (the sense that we have choices, not the absence of consequences for any choices).
What if each of us considered the effects of our actions on one another, including on the ecosystem, including the people we know, including the people who are involved in our survival and the making and delivering of things with which we surround ourselves? If we were aware that we are doing this together and we can feel it in ourselves? Imagine if agreement about things wasn’t a litmus for caring.
I mean, all this is possible, but not (by definition) mandatable.
We can look at what interferes with this possibility. I can literally not survive without a zillion people who have different opinions, cultural contexts, and lived experiences. Food, electricity, clothing, medicine, even the internet all come from the work of so many humans. What if these people were visible? If we understood who actually was needed for us to have anything? Could digital interaction facilitate a sense of interdependence? (Finally a good use for a blockchain!)
Before we can feel a sense of responsibility for a global greater good, which might feel a little overwhelming and possibly colonial, we might just notice at the most micro level how our choices have impact over other things that in turn have impact on us. (Not just recycling, or recycling theatre).
Consider the realm of human interaction, with people we already know. When we do things for other people, we like them more. When we offer understanding and acceptance to others, we can more easily be compassionate to ourselves.
Many of the digital tools we engage with actively work against our sense of common good. Features that reward and reflect attention lead us to feel competitive rather than collaborative. Interactions that centre on content sharing rather than conversation suggest individualism rather than interdependence. Algorithms take away our agency while promising to deliver personalised relevance, not to mention items we don’t need but might be persuaded to buy, since we want to look good, seem important, and be acceptable within the context of comparing ourselves to others.
That’s obvious with good old social media, but what about other kinds of social tech? How, for example, is the software you’re using to read this letter impacting your sense of accountability to yourself and the common good? Besides the text, most of the visible features are about attention-seeking, as far as I can tell. The tech encourages sharing, liking, subscribing, public comments – all things that ‘make sense’ for a publishing platform, but are somewhat weird in the context of reciprocal communication. Instead of writing a letter to you, it’s more efficient somehow and more rewarding to put words on a platform where strangers may find them and I don’t know, think I am interesting or give me (and the platform) money?
I am, obviously, using this software, and so I get to have an investigation into my motives, my willingness to self-justify, and my own cognitive dissonance. I am not, here, seducing anyone into ads of other things besides myself (right!?). I am inviting myself to a situation where after I write to you, I get notifications about the “stats” of my post, with the underlying message that more is better. More attention is always desired, more money is always good, more stuff is constantly necessary.
I dunno if I am going to actually wean myself off this drug or it will happen, Station Eleven-style, without my intention. In the meantime, I am interested in new approaches in the technology I make. If it doesn’t break physics, then it’s probably possible to fashion digital technology that facilitates accountability to myself and to our common welfare.
In the meantime this kitty has thoughts about hedgehogs.
Yesterday’s media:
- The Responsible Business by Carol Sanford
- Living for Change – Grace Lee Boggs
- Impact Networks by David Erlichman
- High HDL may be associated with dementia
- Living With Regrets – Feeling Good Podcast