Digitization was already there. Social networks, video conferencing tools, sales platforms online and express delivery apps were already there, just a click away from us all. So why should we talk about a new digitization? Digitization has been a world inhabited by a few, mainly in the professional or technological sphere, while the new digitalization has been adopted by society as a whole, changing its habits and way of relating. This is a revolution. Revolutions are always preceded by chaos, but after the initial madness, they give way to progress.
Each avant-garde generates fear, suspicion and even a certain state of conspiracy. However, without these avant-garde, the human being would not have evolved and, no doubt, his way of life would be infinitely worse. We always say that the past has been better, but this is absolutely uncertain: we have never enjoyed a life expectancy like the present and an ability to access our dreams so real. That is why we must be extremely optimistic with this new reality that will come from the new digitalization and that will bring only extraordinary things to our personal and professional well-being.
Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and digitization will allow human beings to spend more time living and focus on the truly inherent professional tasks that derive from creativity, love and the added value of mechanical processes. Technology will undoubtedly take over all the functional stages of our business, but who cares? Personally, I would like to own a robot that works for me 24 hours a day, while dedicating myself to the most poetic part of my profession. The soul of a company will never be in the hands of an algorithm. Here we must focus all our efforts from now on. To believe that technology is the enemy and that it will replace people is unreal. On the other hand, it will allow us to be more competent and free us from the space / time slavery that makes us so sick and exhausting. Not seeing it like that, and assuming it, is similar to continuing to work in the field with a hoe, because tractors look like infernal machines.
Digitization has made us ubiquitous and multichannel. Our presence has multiplied exponentially through the countless channels we have at our disposal. Today we can meet with our team practically in the first morning on Zoom, to present a product to our followers live on Instagram in the middle of the morning, to participate in a webinar taught from another continent in the afternoon and dinner with our family without leaving home. All this due to teleworking. The impact of our presence is extremely high today and its costs, minimal, if we take into account the savings in resources, travel and time involved in the digital presence. We might think that replacing our physical presence with the virtual one makes us less close and efficient, but it is not so: one does not take the other, it is a matter of weighing our physical presence and being present whenever as many times as necessary. No longer to be, what we have done practically before, reducing the productivity of our lives, spending them in airports, meetings and waiting rooms that have proven to be ineffective in most cases.
Let’s boldly admit: technology has put the human being at the center. If we do, everything will make sense. The new digitalization is just a matter of love for ourselves and the society we form. It’s about ceasing to be cars in order to eventually be human and thus build Common love which should guide our existence.
Ecequiel Barricart is the author Being digital, published by Eunate Editions.