Assignment 5: Response to You Are What You Carry
At the start of the chapter, I did not expect the author to also classify digital objects as your own personal belonging. It feels like a belonging is something that we attach meaning to, and develop a “relationship” with (i.e. a wallet received on your 18th birthday, or a phone bought with your first pay). And the author moves on to describe belongings bought over the internet or in the stores as data companies keep track of. They then use this knowledge to predict future purchases or to suggest new products. Things that are supposedly our private possession becomes less of a secret.
Technology has changed the way we own things, store things and perceive these things. I remember that I took a long time to adapt to the use of loyalty cards stored on the phone using an application. But after a while, the term “out of sight, out of mind” proved its point. I never remembered the digital cards, but the ones which I saw in my wallet every day.
Ultimately, we would never be able to escape technology’s pervasive impact on current society. However, I think the physical realm still carries a certain richness and depth that the digital cannot replace.
Questions:
Digitalisation clears up physical space but lets us possess more. Does it cause us to have so many things to handle till the disadvantages of this technology outweigh its benefits?
Does over-convenience empower us or make us more handicapped? (less need to move around to get items, more reliance on technology to help us make decisions)
Good insights, especially on the second question about how over-convenience empowers us but make us more hadicapped as well. I think that it is important for us to rely on our own “natural” abilities as afterall, technology often comes with periles like breakdowns etc.