2020: The year tech saved us from emotional breakdown.
There will be a before and after CoronaVirus crisis: we have changed forever our relation to technology, digital and machines.
They have literally saved us from global breakdown. Without them, social distancing might have been impossible, giving companies and people no other option but to continue business as usual, while the counts of deaths would have rapidly raised to millions.
Tech was already part of our lives, but what we have lived isn’t just an acceleration of its presence. Our absolute dependence towards it during this period has also provoked a shift of values. Before, technology was an enabler, a helper that made our lives easier. Although life without the internet was already inconceivable, we still liked to believe that a healthy balanced relationship between technology and humans was possible, and that we could do things without it, or minimising its use. I could turn off my cellphone to go for a run, meet with friends, travel without wifi, go see a play. I had windows of escape without screens.
What about now? We are in debt to technology. We owe it big time. Tech not only saved the economy, but more significantly saved humans from facing loneliness and boredom, our darkest and deepest fears. During lockdown, we have literally spent our days in front of a screen — to work, to relax, to learn, to do sports, to check our health, to meditate, to dance, to cook, to drink. And even when we did enjoy some manual craftwork, it was all the more satisfying if filmed and posted right away on social media to show to the world how cool and creative we’re being. During lockdown, tech has become our only window of escape. Parents that had been wary of putting their kids in front of a TV were thanking God for its existence. During lockdown, internet connection is the one thing that has kept people from going totally mad, and an internet interruption for as much as a few hours has been enough to cause mental breakdown. Tech had won our minds, it has now won our hearts.
Our dependence towards technology, internet and artificial intelligence was already irreversible, but it needed a push to knock down the last resistants to its supremacy. Sure, after 3 months of lockdown, we're all feeling fatigue from the overload of video calls, lives, online events and screens. We can’t wait to be with people. More than ever, we are in desperate need of digital detox. In countries going back to normal, people are thrilled to meet with friends in cafés and bars, enjoying physical closeness like there was no tomorrow. Who would have imagined kids happy to go back to school, or employees excited to return to the office? Offline moments are the new gold. But our relationship to tech will never be the same anymore. We know too well our addiction to technology can't be fixed.
Welcome to 2020: the official point of no-return.
