Living in a World of Digital

"World of Digital" sounds so clinical, doesn’t it? But we've been living in one for some time now. I was sixteen when I got a mobile phone, seventeen when I set up an email account. I guess I’m the last generation that remembers teenage relations without texting, bebo, facebook, instagram, twitter, flikr, tumblr, chrome… If someone was going to bully me they had to do it verbally, face-to-face. If someone wanted to ask me out, they’d have to write a note and pass it clandestinely under the science desks. It sounds so antiquated already.

“We need to reclaim the word 'feminism'. We need the word 'feminism' back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist - and only 42% of British women - I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of 'liberation for women' is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? 'Vogue' by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?” 

When Claire Balding tweets about marrying Alice Arnold, that makes me #happy

These examples of world-views are constantly infiltrating our thoughts via social media, seeping into our cultural environment, sculpting our society. And I like it. 

What if the Suffragettes had lived in a digital world? Would it have taken so long to get the vote? In 1907, three thousand people participated in the “Mud March” in London to advocate women’s suffrage. It’s good going, but what if they’d raised an army on twitter? Petitioned online? Raised funds online? 

In my idle moments I like to imagine Christabel Pankhurst getting all up in Asquith's (digital) face.  

Imagine Constance Bulwer-Lytton (seriously, look her up) in the digital age. Imagine her organising her Morris Dancing Troup of working class women via twitter or Doodle, or setting up an online presence for her nom de guerre Jane Wharton. 

Imagine the facebook group for Edith Garrud, first female professional martial arts instructor. 

I’m not naïve enough to think that the digital world can change everything for the better. But it does open up pathways to new friendships. When I wake, before I even greet another human face-to-face, I’ll have interacted with my little twitter community, scattered all across the globe. I’ll have empathized with their ailments, cheered a baby’s first steps, discussed a film’s narrative strengths, been alerted to interesting articles, encouraged good people doing good things. What follows is a collection of just a few of the amazing connections and communities that have been forged in my life because of my online presence...

(click the above link to see the article)

Online twitter banter with my friend and colleague @snazdoll led to us being asked to write an article about script editing and writing for Mslexia Magazine.

I think the reason people responded to the idea that was the same one that kicked it off - that there’s no reason too small to live for. Yeah, sometimes it’s your parents or your partner or your kids, but there can be a lot of complications attached to those relationships too, and that can make focusing on them fraught sometimes. Things to do with your career or work responsibilities can also be loaded with stress, and “being grateful” that you live in a developed country or whatever only gets you so far. But nothing can take the shine off, like, how much you love that piano intro at the beginning of Skyfall by Adele. How totally awesome it was to watch Jonathan give Buffy the class protectors award at the Prom. What it looked like the first time you saw a cow give birth to a calf. The sound that a box of LEGO makes when it’s tipped on the floor. Eating marmite from the pot. These are all totally valid reasons to live. 

The fact that you can watch TV on your PHONE – we’re living in the future, guys!

Looking to the future, I think we’ve seen by now that the digital world doesn’t necessarily change the way society behaves, but provides more platforms on which to do the things we like doing best. We might not be kinder or more informed, or more empathetic or more patient or smarter. But equally we might. We might gain a different perspective on the world from the wider group of people we get to know. We might learn something from an article that’s posted. We might fall in love with someone we wouldn’t have met in ‘real’ life. We might gain the power of teleportation. We might. Isn’t that what’s so wonderful about it all? And there’s nothing clinical about that.