Do you really want an ‘extremely offline’ life?
I think it is a pointless form of snobbery
By Elisa Pierandrei
Despite a decline in the time we spend online, and after record-high usage during COVID-19 lockdowns, in 2023 we will still rely heavily on our digital presence online, whether we have careers in journalism and the publishing industry, or in academia.
As smartphone use has catalysed the constant urge to be connected, the impact on our lives of digital resources like social media platforms will continue to be substantial.
I am among those who believe we should stop romanticizing the radically offline life. Quitting social network platforms in exchange for more interaction with friends in real life hasn’t proved very effective. I think it is a pointless form of snobbery.
Internet addiction can be a real problem, and more balance is often needed if we don’t want to be cut off from real life. It is reasonable to fantasize about living off grid without the Internet.
Particularly, journalists can’t really afford to go offline. Being a freelance journalist ties me to new technologies and how I use them. Being able to respond to an email on my smartphone regularly guarantees my valuable commissions.
Social media play an essential role in the journalistic profession, too.
Twitter has become a source for sharing critical information in the aftermath of natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Organizing credible information in a centralized place by creating Twitter Lists — i.e. curated group accounts —, for example in the aftermath of an earthquake, can help to collect news and updates that can be used for reporting purposes.
Social networks have become a channel for collecting information in emergency situations for rescuers as well. Tech volunteers have set up open-source projects that use artificial intelligence to collect requests for assistance posted on social media.
More generally, the trends and predictions for 2023 support the idea that our future is digital — And connected online.
According to The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 2023 annual survey report on journalist, media, and technology trends: “Publishers say that they will be putting more resources into podcasts and digital audio (72%) as well as email newsletters (69%), two channels that have proved effective in increasing loyalty to news brands.”
The Reuters Institute report also reflects on the anxiety people feel when using online news and social media. “Explaining the content better and giving people solutions are better strategies rather than just identifying problems.”
If the purpose of journalism is to empower the citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decision for their lives, then debating this information online allows you to think about aspects and perspectives you may have not considered.
Engaging online via social media is how you build a community around people who want their voices to be heard. You post with the purpose of engaging with similar or like-minded people.
Actually, I don’t want an ‘extremely offline’ life. I belong to Generation X. Which means I sent my first email around the mid-1990s. And not from a smartphone or my own laptop at home, but sitting in some miserable internet café. I still remember the excitement and the challenge of writing to my friends on a daily basis.
I do understand that today the reputation of social media platforms has been undermined by the presence of recurring hate speech and the dissemination of fake and fabricated news. The former often incite violence and intolerance. The latter typically has the aim of slandering a person or institution.
But I nonetheless support the idea that we need to learn how to fight these negative attitudes and don’t be seduced by an ‘extremely offline’ life.
This takes the debate to another level. Positive education becomes a key factor to help us separate the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad.
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram should increase transparency and counter online disinformation and speech that stir up hatred and discrimination.
Some images purporting to show the destruction wreaked by the recent earthquake in Turkey are from previous disasters in other countries, some media channels have pointed out recently. Scammers have created fake donations for Turkey-Syria earthquake victims, others have warned.
Media and information literacy too can strengthen users’ resilience and educate them to recognize and counter disinformation, as along with violent extremist narratives and conspiracy theories.
The voices of well-informed journalists, brutally honest, transparent, and real writers, as well as fussy scholars should rise above those of haters.
I support the enabling of a free, diverse, pluralistic media sector online, as well as the dissemination of good practices against hate speech, and the training of media professionals based on international standards for freedom of expression.
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