Category: Internet

A week without access to the online world…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Internet, Life, Online Services, social media, Wellbeing

Are you brave enough to survive for a week without accessing the online world using your personal smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop? This was the question asked by the Badger’s wife shortly before the Badger and his millennial son departed for a short adventure on the North Devon coast last week. We answered affirmatively but decided to take our smartphones, which would remain switched off all week, in case they were needed in an emergency. We all saw this as commonsense given our intent to walk the rugged North Devon coastal path which, at the time, was covered by a yellow weather warning for high wind and rain. With a little trepidation about relinquishing personal access to the virtual world by taking no laptops or tablets and only having switched off smartphones in our pockets, we departed for North Devon wondering how long it would take before we succumbed to turning on our phones. Did we survive the week without succumbing to temptation? Of course we did.

The first evening at our destination was unsurprisingly difficult given that everyone today has become conditioned to having instant access to communication, banking, shopping, social media, and the internet through personal devices. People in the UK, for example, apparently check their smartphones every ten minutes, so imagine how you’d feel if this wasn’t possible. It took an iron will, some beers, and some proper conversation about the world that evening to keep our discipline and not succumb to switching on our smartphones.

The subsequent days were easier. Walking the coastal path in blustery, variable weather concentrated the mind on real, rather than virtual, world matters. The dormant smartphones in our pockets provided reassurance as we walked, but they stayed unused because no emergencies arose. In fact, we never turned them on all week. On the final night of our stay, we visited a bar and reflected on our week of virtual-world disconnection while watching a magnificent sunset over a choppy sea. We realised that our ‘fear of missing out’ from having no access to the virtual world had disappeared within 48 hours of arriving in Devon. We were proud to have resisted the temptation to use our smartphones, and we felt that detachment from the online world, and its pushed content, had contributed to how refreshed we felt mentally and physically.

We drove home the next morning and then ceremonially turned on our smartphones. We had, as expected, missed nothing of substance by our detachment from the virtual world for a week. This prompted the Badger’s son to state that although the online world has its place in modern life, real life will always go on if it’s not there. That’s a truth. The question is, are you brave and disciplined enough to survive without access from personal devices to the online world the next time you take a short break? If not, why not?

VE Day, Gen-Z, resilience and preparedness…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Internet, Learning, Life, Online Services, Risk, Technology

Many have family members who lived through the violence and hardships of World War 2 as civilians or combatants. Their experiences shaped not only their own lives, but also the values they instilled in their children. The Badger’s father, for example, proudly served his country in the military and then worked hard to create a better life for his family once he was demobbed. He was the epitome of that ‘Keep calm and carry on’ and ‘There’s no such word as can’t, try!’ generation, and he brought his children up to embody discipline, standards, hard work, duty, calm objectivity, preparedness, and a sense of right and wrong. These instilled values have served the Badger well over the years. The 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE), a day which saw spontaneous rejoicing and street parties, is being celebrated on Thursday the 8th May 2025. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices and resilience of a WW2 generation, civilians and combatants, who resisted tyranny. It will be poignant for the Badger because his father, sadly no longer with us, was unable to celebrate on VE Day at the time.

Life is very different today, as the Badger explained to a couple of Generation Z digital natives last weekend. Homes in the 1940s  were different. The internet, social media, instant communication, music and video streaming, electronic games, smartphones, personal computers, online banking, online shopping, robots, and driverless cars were science fiction, and children played physical games that would make today’s health and safety coterie wince. The Gen-Z natives struggled to relate to how life functioned in the 1940s without digital technology. The Badger then asked them two questions – what would you do if a) the UK experienced an electricity blackout akin to that seen recently  on the Iberian peninsula, or b) cyber-attacks took out online and critical infrastructure services for a prolonged period. ‘We’ll get by until someone sorts things out’ was the glib response, although they had no real idea about how they would actually get by! This made the Badger wonder about the resilience of our completely digital-native Gen-Z generation. As individuals, perhaps we’ve all become complacent about the risks associated with our dependence on digital services.  

In fact, do you know how you would ‘keep calm and carry on’ if digital services suddenly disappeared for a prolonged period? Do you have any personal emergency measures or pack of essentials to fall back on if something catastrophic happened to the electricity grid? Individuals rarely consider such questions even though our digital world is highly complex and believing ‘it’ll never happen’ just reflects naivety. Without their tech will digital-native Gen-Z ever be as resilient, resourceful, and prepared to make sacrifices like those of the 1940s in really tough times? If the Badger’s conversation was anything to go by, the jury’s most definitely out…

History suggests that a future generation will face a ‘Digital Crisis’…

Posted on by The Information Badger in AI & Robotics, Automation, Digital Transformation, Ethics & Regulation, Information Technology, Internet, Life, Online Services, Risk, social media, Transformation

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with saying ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, and Karl Marx remarked that ‘History repeats itself first as a tragedy, and then as a farce’. These came to mind while quietly musing on a future which is in the hands of younger generations who’ve grown up with global communication, the internet, social media, and online services as a norm. It’s sobering to be reminded that in just a few decades, digital technology and IT has transformed life faster than at any time in human history. AI adds to the unabated momentum of tech-driven change. But here’s the thing. History shows that many things that have a transformational impact on society have serious consequences that only become fully apparent decades later, creating a crisis for society that a future generation is forced to address. History thus implies that a future generation will have to deal with a crisis caused by the digital revolution.

Bold thinking? Maybe, but consider this. History shows that motor vehicles revolutionised transportation. It’s only in recent decades, however, that society has realised, and started addressing, the true impact of motor vehicles on public health and the planet. History also shows that the use of fossil fuels (particularly coal) during the Industrial Revolution transformed the world. Our dependence on them since, however, has impacted the climate and sustainability of life forcing society into corrective action, but only in recent decades. Similarly, plastic – a material that’s made the modern world possible – has gone from being a wonder substance a century ago to being reviled as an environmental scourge today. It therefore seems perfectly feasible that history will repeat itself with regard to the digital revolution we are living through.

Falling happiness in younger generations (see here, for example) and a tense interview with Elon Musk , who remarked that ‘moderation is a propaganda word for censorship’, illustrate that history may well repeat itself regarding social media. Social media platforms have revolutionised information sharing over two decades, but amplifying misinformation, disinformation, bullying, mental health issues, and eroding personal privacy in the process. They are commercial enterprises bound by the law, but they set their own rules and guidelines for content and its moderation. When a US Surgeon General says allowing young people to use social media is like giving them medicine not proven to be safe, and that it’s insane that governments have failed to adequately regulate them, then society has a problem regardless of Mr Musk’s dislike of challenging scrutiny. History means that society today is having to face up to a ‘Climate Crisis’. Taking note of history is always wise, which is why it’s not outlandish to think that a future generation will face and need to address some kind of existential ‘Digital Crisis’ …  

Describe the internet without refering to technology using a maximum of 10 words…

Posted on by The Information Badger in Information Technology, Internet, Life, Online Services, Web

What do you do after a long ramble through park land with large herds of free-roaming deer when the weather is rainy, chilly, and blustery? Dry off and warm up in a café with a hot drink and something to eat. That’s exactly what the Badger and his wife did at the end of a bracing wander around Petworth Park. The café, in Petworth House  which sits magnificently at one end of the park, was busy but we found a table next to a small group of millennial couples who had hiked cross-country from Midhurst seven miles away. They were refuelling with tea, sandwiches, and hot soup in readiness for the trek back. Their lively conversation wasn’t about their hike or their return journey, but about the internet and AI! Some of the group, the Badger sensed, clearly had a background in IT. As they finished and rose to leave, one commented cheerily to another that ‘There should be a simple way of describing the internet that doesn’t use jargon or refer to technology’. After the group left, the Badger’s wife challenged him to do just that using a maximum of ten words!

Thoughts bubbled in the Badger’s brain for the rest of the day, and later that evening he told his wife that he’d converged on a description for the internet that met the challenge. She merely shrugged her shoulders disinterestedly and continued surfing the internet on her smartphone. Undeterred, the Badger announced that the internet is ‘All human interactions, from good to evil, sped up’. She simply nodded and told the Badger to use it for his blog, and that’s exactly what he’s done!

There are probably many valid and better alternatives, but the Badger thinks these words powerfully describe the internet, that nebulous entity which not only invisibly connects people, places, information, stories, beliefs, knowledge, and ideas globally, but also entertains us, sparks our curiosity, and mirrors our aspirations, flaws, and contradictions. The words also encapsulate the fact that all the good and bad attributes of humanity waltz together on the internet at a speed humankind has never encountered before. The fight between good and evil for domination is thus unrelenting, perpetual, and affected only by human ingenuity. Sometimes good dominates and other times evil does, which is why we should be wary, cautious, and conscious of safety, security, and privacy when engaging in the virtual world where the yin-yang of modern life is played out.

The Badger’s wife has now suggested a new challenge – to describe AI in ‘a simple way that doesn’t use jargon or refer to technology’ using a maximum of ten words. The Badger’s first thought was to describe AI using the same words for the internet. His second thought? To avoid challenges spawned when your spouse overhears something in the conversation of strangers!