The future of behavior in a digital world

The world is becoming more and more digital. Technology helps in our everyday lives and helps us to be more efficient in our work. Undoubtedly, digital affects more aspects of our lives than we are aware of…

But are we amazed by this digital world and its infinite possibilities, or are we being overwhelmed by it?

What will be the future of behavior, considering all of this? Let's see below:

Attention Battles: The world of tomorrow is about the division between those acutely aware of where they are putting their attention and those who are not. Consumers are mindful of the stimulus they are responding to, and consumers making their choices without understanding it and just responding to external inputs will be the opposing fronts of the attention battlefields. Consumers of the future work towards mindfulness and focus on the objects they consume because they know.

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” (Thich Nhat Hanh).

Data Suppliers: Individuals will become increasingly aware of the data they are giving away freely by being digitally connected.

This will lead to an awareness of the value of their personal data and, progressively, lead to a shift from information consumers to information suppliers as people (i) comprehend the data they are sharing and (ii) work to create value from it.?

Datacy, for example, raised last year €2.4M to help consumers monetize their own data – very likely, this is only the beginning of a wave of users consciously re-using their data to make money from it.

Digital Divide: The digital divide is the new inequality gap of the 21st century. As the Covid-19 pandemic brings us full-speed into a digitalization area, taking us more and more online, it is crucial steps are taken to provide data literacy skills as well as to bridge the gap in a sustainable way - the work being done by non-profits such as human-I-T is a great example of this.

As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks in 2021: “Almost half the world’s population, 3.7 billion people, the majority of them women, and most in developing countries, are still offline.”

“Almost half the world’s population, 3.7 billion people, the majority of them women, and most in developing countries, are still offline.” (Amina Mohammed’s remarks in 2021 - UN Deputy Secretary-General)

Augmented Humanity: While future thinkers turn to this human-computer integration?technology concept, society will need to balance transhumanism with modern issues - ranging from poverty to climate crisis.?

As humans' behaviors, thinking?patterns, and emotions are more and more impacted by the?technologies surrounding us, we will collectively need to keep our eyes on vested interests?and collaborate to weight transhuman technologies with meeting our human needs in an equitable manner - from share of resources to bodily autonomy.

For more about the behavior of the future: Loyal Future Insights #6