Society is increasingly digitalized and connected, with computers and algorithms mediating much of people’s daily activity in one way or another. The degree of digitalization and its consequences are challenging to understand because most people lack first-hand experience of what digitalization actually feels like. Digitalization is abstract and difficult to grasp, which leads to a detached sense of the digital surroundings.
In this paper, we argue that to grasp the nature and future of a digitalized society, an embodied understanding of digitalization is needed. Such an understanding should utilize ways of knowing other than rational thinking, challenge existing narratives and move from preparing for the future to exploring novelty. We focus on the importance of a broader understanding of digitalization within the field of education and discuss how a more diverse view is essential to empower people to take part in a digitalized society.
We use the concept of ‘Digi-grasping’ to analyze awareness and involvement in the digital world. By Digi-grasping we mean active sense-making and existing in a world that consists of both a digital and a physical world. We argue that through ‘grasping’ the digital world it is possible to create an ethical and aesthetic attachment to society.
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Digi-grasping can empower people to understand and question the choices and motivations behind current digital structures and create new structures. It is thus an important approach to shaping the futures of digital society. We illustrate the concept with examples representing different modes of being and doing at the interface of the digital and physical.
here numerous new ways of sharing information today. The most popular being Bluetooth, which is available on any smartphone handset today. Bluetooth allows for file sharing include photos and video as well as audio such as an MP3 file. Using Bluetooth, one can also play their music via a Bluetooth-enabled device such as a speaker or car radio. Bluetooth appeals to many because it is available to millions of people and is easy to use. It simply requires detection of another enabled handset after which the devices are paired and then they can share files between devices.
For the Apple operating system handsets such as iPhones and iPods, the Apple team has devised a sharing software called AirDrop that allows instant sharing with people nearby. Apple also has another software called Handoff, which allows the user to start something on one device and instantly pick it up on another device using their iCloud account. The app you need then appears in the app switcher and in the dock on a MacBook, the custom apple laptop.
It is also AirDroid for Android users. This is used for sharing files and installing apps. Files can be shared from your desktop to your device and vice versa. One can apply the drag and drop method when using a computer to share files. Apps can be installed by dragging an APK file into AirDroid and then download.
The AirDroid app is available remotely at a low cost payable every month. Another file-sharing app is Superbeam. This app is available for both android and apple device users. It can be accessed without the internet via direct wife technology to send files between devices. This unique sharing app is very convenient when working in remote or rural areas off the grid.
It works by opening the app on two different devices and scanning an on-screen QR code or pairing them with NFC. Thereafter, you can trade files easily. The best thing about is that the app can push even unsupported files of a device, for example, an MP3 file for the Apple devices.
These files can then remain on your devices by sharing them to your iCloud account and then through apps such as Gmail. Another alternative way of sharing information is the Push Bullet app. Push Bullet allows for the sharing of files between multiple devices such as links, and text all at the same time. This app is available for both iOS and Android. This application is also available for Windows and Mac users for simplified sharing straight from your desktop.
Other new ways of sharing information include the Xender and Portal app. The Xender app has a business-like user face, which allows for viewing of all documents, music, files, and images by switching from one tab to the next. It is similar to AirDrop apart from a few differences such as app navigation.
Portal is an app that can save images and music directly to your device after sharing. It has a simple user interface and it is a quick option for those who do not want to bother learning several new features associated with new apps. More than that, if the device user is using Android Lollipop or newer, then shared files can be saved directly to your memory card provided that it is programmed to do so via mobile.
Several more apps can be used to communicate and share as opposed to the regular phone call and text. In the office, Facebook has come up with Workplace for easy catch-up methods and group chats by employees within certain groups and departments with easy sharing styles to communicate fresh ways of working on projects together. A similar app is Slack that also works well remotely and is a popular choice for many organizations.
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous and part of everyday life. Things that would have been regarded as science fiction just a few decades ago are taken for granted, such as modern smartphones, global information networks, or virtual reality. At the same time, societies are becoming ever more dependent on digital technologies and infrastructure.
Banking, electrical grid management, health records, and other personal information are increasingly relying on digital networks and databases. The trend is towards the even wider use of digital technologies, with a great deal of hype around artificial intelligence and the promise of an infinitely growing and efficient digital economy. The three main sources of change in digitalization have been said to be machine learning, platform thinking, and crowd-based action.
The switch to digital has created a significant change in technologies by introducing a ‘meta layer’ of code. Digital technologies rely on code that can be altered, updated, fixed, hacked, stored, and analyzed without changing the physical machine itself. The programmable and reprogrammable nature of digital technologies, as well as the possibility to gather and analyze data, instills more agency into digital technology. Furthermore, the flexibility and adaptability of code connect humans more closely to machines, creating new forms of aggregates between human and nonhuman actors.
Digital technologies are entangled in the structures of society in many different, complex, and even contradictory ways. The information society could even be seen as a society that is dependent on the computation of information, emphasizing the role digital technologies have in society. Furthermore, Berry notes that the move to a computational information society can be seen as a shift from the previous digital era to a new post-digital world ‘in which the digital has become completely bound up with and constitutive of everyday life and the so-called digital economy.
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