I wonder how many people around the globe would say – not utterly happy. Could be billions, but who knows; those who have never felt the gist of natural (not virtual) life might say – extremely happy, and this is one of our modern-day discrepancies.
Today’s overly digitized world is managed and controlled by digital media, the classification of which is changing on a permanent basis, the reason for this being the expansion of the margins of contemporary technologies and, concomitantly, the enlargement of the scope of its activity as well as coverages.
The digital media is taken by some of us in Sakartvelo as consumer knowledge and involvement on a screen and within the range of myriad platforms like mobiles, computers, televisions, smartphones, tablets, iPads, not to mention digital video, music, videogames, podcasts, e-mail, e-books, e-commerce, e-learning and what not.
Digital media’s job is mainly to entertain, inform and educate (exactly as was the work of nondigital, i.e., real, manual, analogue, offline, physical, mechanical means of mass communication) by means of creating digital content, putting all that on the screen for a user to enjoy and utilize.
Meanwhile, if we delve into the depths of the Internet space, we might come across umpteen definitions of digital media, but on the whole, let us limit ourselves to what has just been said.
In our modern real life, digital media incorporates so many different things that it has become practically impossible to name a segment of human activity which can survive without the services of digital media. It is important to emphasize here that any person, firm or public office, even the arts and music, is involved in the content of our digital life and work.
To put all this in simpler terms, digital media has glued us to a screen without which we can no longer continue living. Behind digital media, worldwide, there are probably millions of computer software engineers and programmers, IT specialists and computer designers involved in this type of work.
These are the technically savvy people who design the applications allowing for the creation or distribution of content to us, facilitate sales, marketing, distribution, public relations, human resources, financial and project management that comprise countless occupations and opportunities around the globe, further propelling the digital lifestyle of a human being.
This is certainly a clear sign of progress on Earth, and the success and indispensability of that sign is universally recognized, including in Georgia, only we don’t know how happy, how concretely and specifically happy that digitized way of living has made us in life.
Happy or not happy, there are so many things that are only the consequence of media production, digital files that are created by thousands in a second, enhanced, encoded and distributed using different methods of processing via computer hardware and software applications.
Digital media content creators rely on creative production and cutting-edge technology to produce goods that are cultural in nature, such as interactive games, virtual worlds, cross-platform media and others.
It’s not rocket science to understand that we happen to be trapped, severely stuck and surrounded by the exigence of making digital consumers of ourselves. Otherwise, modern life for us may turn into factual hell, and there is nobody out there who can help, and instead of sitting and waiting for the mana from the skies, it’s better to go ahead and learn, get skilled in using the digitized means of survival.
The reason I am saying this is that there are people around, both old and young, who are trying to escape the digitized way of life and means of survival. Even worse, there are some who don’t even want to come close to where digits operate and determine for us what to do and how to behave.
Let’s beware of the imminent future of digits, within which none of us will be able to operate unless we are very well-versed in what the modern world calls the existence in the realm of digits; call it figures if it makes us more comfortable.
I hate to be dependent on digits, but, against my will and character, I am learning it all like crazy to meet the necessities suggested by our accelerated way of life, having nothing to do with our regular, mundane, commonplace existence within which a genuine human happiness was absolutely possible without any digital juggling.
No longer!
Blog by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
