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This Week's Featured Scheme

(For previously featured schemes, see the Schemes Archive.)

Harnessing the Digital Beast

Two years ago I started writing a book for my kids called “Taming the Digital Dragon,” but as I created an outline and thought about the relentless onslaught of digital data in everyone’s professional and personal lives, this title seemed inadequate.

The digital torrent coming at us 24/7 from all directions doesn’t have recognizable and predictable features, like those of a dragon. It is a sprawling, crawling, insidious phenomenon that is virtually, and literally, infiltrating (and in some cases taking over) every aspect of our lives.

Digital technology is an ever-expanding, often nameless, shape-shifting, stress-inducing MONSTER... unless of course it is controlled.

However, the title “Taming the Digital Monster” doesn’t quite capture it, either. Synonyms for the verb “tame” include:

"lacking in excitement, spiritless, declawed, deprived of zest, lacking attractiveness, toned down"

These descriptors all feel wrong. The goal isn’t to make this monster weak and/or boring. This is a monster that, by its very nature, like mankind’s thirst for knowledge, actually cannot be tamed, any more than the wind or the tides can be domesticated.

In searching for a better verb to use, one synonym for “tame” did leap out at me, and that was harness. Descriptors for harness include:

"control, manage, utilize, exploit, render useful as a source of power"

Yes! Harness is exactly the right word. If you can’t beat’em, harness’em! We modern-age humans just need to render this beast more useful, and less potentially harmful. Make it more joy-inducing and less stress-inducing. We need to know how to exploit the beauty and power of this beast, while minimizing unwanted exploitation of our own digital world presence.

But how? Is harnessing the digital monster even possible?

What Can Be Done

The word harness comes from Old French and Middle English, meaning “army provisions”. Appropriately, we are at war. Each of us fights daily battles to retain our sanity, as digital data continues to enrich, yet simultaneously encroach, on our mental and physical space.

My goal is to form a team that will design and implement a win-win-win for users, employers, and the planet, by doing the following:

• Provide a repository of short (2-5 min.) presentations.
• Allow registered users to access content 24/7 for free.
• Incentivize knowledgeable users to share best practices.
• Incentivize learners to earn Digital Badges.
• Help employers create badges based on specific needs.

In order to minimize bias (or the appearance of bias), and encourage a wide variety of experts to offer strategies and tips, this site will be a .org (nonprofit). Many clips will likely be created by average consumers who’ve simply discovered optimal solutions through trial and error. The site could either create or help users create and refine presentations.

I have received numerous “lessons in humility” from technology over the past 30 years, both as an itinerant technical writer in Silicon Valley, and as an “IT Administrator” for various devices used by family members, so I have knowledge and wisdom worth sharing about various digital thingies. Like many people, I've learned a little bit about a lot of different technologies. (Just enough to be dangerous...)

Importantly, the advice on this site will not be so advanced that it will be difficult for novice computer users to grasp, nor will the majority of tips be so basic that highly technical folks won’t find anything of value.

Initially the content will be aimed at 12-year-old kids, but also at adults who have “areas for improvement.”

Why 7th Graders (and Their Parents) Need This

The content is intended to be ideal for parents of middle schoolers, as well as for middle schoolers themselves, because 7th grade is the age by which most kids have been taught about the birds and the bees. It also seems to be when many kids are given cell phones, and increasingly, smart phones.

By age 12, many kids, whether or not they have a smart phone, know how to bypass internet browsing restrictions. Just think about how YOU were at age 12. Were you ready to handle the digital world wisely and safely at that age?

My own children are at least two years ahead of where I was academically at their age, but they have not been taught skills that will enable them to control the digital monster effectively. Therefore, this information is first and foremost for 12 year olds, but as a member of my city’s CERT organization (Community Emergency Response Team), which I encourage you to investigate by visiting: www.citizencorps.gov/cert, some of the content will be presented with an eye toward disaster preparations.

Specific Info and Advice

Time is indeed the most precious thing anyone has, and kids seem to have even less time to just “hang out” and “do nothing” than older generations did. They have less and less “time to waste” nowadays, in between sports, dance class, band practice, student council, endless birthday parties and sleepovers, and whatever else is going on...

Yes, they might be more well-rounded and better prepared to compete for jobs globally, but is anyone teaching basic digital-age strategies (things older folks have learned the hard way)? Such as how to:

• Send/receive concise, clear messages in timely and effective ways.
• Optimize comm channels without enabling 24/7 distractions / interruptions.
• Establish clear boundaries & expectations with cyber connections.
• Store msgs/videos/music/pictures quickly, efficiently, cheaply, and safely.
• Enable fast, easy searches among all the digital stuff you save.
• Employ simple hackproof techniques to keep track of logins / passwords.
• Learn accepted norms for specific online activities / interactions.
• Ensure an adequate level of privacy and safety.
• Optimize your preferred learning mode(s).
• Know when you’ve done adequate research to make a decision.
• Detect possible danger or criminal behavior when online.

... to name a few.

The War on Sanity

Like The Borg on Star Trek, the digital monster threatens to take over our lives. Resistance is definitely futile. You cannot stop something so huge and powerful. You will be absorbed, if you haven’t been already... unless you learn how to fight back effectively!

At some point, the war with the digital monster may reach a critical threshold, where only those who master certain skill sets will have much of a chance to find peace and contentment as adults.

Time management skills will not be enough.

Working harder will not be enough.

Thinking the same way a computer “thinks” will just be expected.

This might sound icky, but consider the fact that it’s already happening. For example, look at how you interact with almost any digital device. Even your microwave oven. You tell it what to do, but only if you first understand how to talk its language, by pressing the proper sequence of buttons.

Common Sense Approach to Peace of Mind

A happy, fulfilling life often requires facing fear. A rational adult can’t usually find happiness without bravely accepting and embracing laws of physics that dictate what is likely or possible. For example, you wouldn’t scuba dive around hungry sharks without proper gear and training. You’d also bring along the oxygen you MUST have to survive. First things first!

In the same way, when greater forces are at play, it's wise to first examine and gain clarity as to your goals and primary intentions, then do research to identify feasible options, and prepare for unexpected changes to your plan.

Doing this homework usually pays off. At a minimum, it enables more time for doing things you prefer to do. It can also help keep your stuff, or you, out of harms way.

“Going with the flow” of larger forces also helps you avoid wasting time and energy. You can use macro trends to your advantage, similar to the way sailors use ocean tides and the wind. There are many ways to harness the digital monster to more efficiently get where you want to be in life, instead of avoiding or railing against the inevitable.

The choice to ignore the monster might be at the expense of your time and energy, and in a disaster situation, possibly at the expense of your safety. Worse, the choice to tune it out can impact other people’s time, energy, and safety. Simply put, this unavoidable trend has very real emotional, social, financial, and physical implications, whether you like it or not.

The proposed website will aim to become the go-to repository for those who want to learn specific strategies for organizing, controlling, and using the data and devices in their world.

You will go into battle with much greater confidence. Cases where trade-offs exist will be put into perspective, so that you are more likely to make choices that are aligned with your primary intentions.

Let’s harness the beast! Are you ready to learn how?