The impact of technology: Who we are becoming and why insights matter

• February 11, 2019
• Katherine Le
• no comments

In the real world, people interact with waves and hugs. We can look at each other, hold hands and take walks in parks. We listen and talk. We smell and eat. We live through sensations whether we realise it or not. As society becomes increasingly connected, the impact of technology becomes more evident as the ways we interact and types of responses we emit change. Waves and hugs become emojis, and kisses, thrown around like candy, can be in reality quite rare between friends. Our online identities behave in ways we might never consider, nor do they express the same history or struggles that our real world selves are conflicted with. Our personas shift, developing a different sense of who we are, as we spend more and more of our social time online.

How did we get to this point?

Time is a factor. Spending time online begins in seconds and ends in hours. Time disappears from us. We move from one endless digital reel to another with no apparent stopping cue. There is no last page, no commercial break. It’s swipe up-down-left-right, go back, then forward, tap on video, tap on link, and repeat.

We are drawn to the connected world.

This means that as our interaction with technology increases (through our mobile devices and social media), understanding the inner self, not just digital and physical, is the first step to getting back in touch with what matters. Technology is forcing us to take a good hard look at who we are because who we are becoming is up for grabs.

Insights with CitizenMe Data

How can we deepen this understanding of who we are? Personal data insights matter for this reason.

Insights piece together data about you to build a stronger foundation to your story. Using your data to find insights can bring out what’s hidden in both worlds. It’s not only about the digital you (what you text, email or how you behave on social media) or the physical you (what you say or what you do in everyday life), it’s looking at what’s core to you. Although technology has brought out a different side of us, it offers the key to understanding who we are better, which in the end, serves to empower us as digital citizens.

Everything that makes you who you are can be expressed in simple CitizenMe Data. Thinking about data means having some idea of the impact it has on your life, along with what you can do with it and how it gets stored. Having this data about yourself gives you the knowledge to weigh in on how you might choose or not choose to take action in your life, and ultimately, brings you closer to the centre of who you are.

The Key to You: The Self-Esteem Insight

“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.” – Mark Twain

CitizenMe develops insights, such as the Self-Esteem Insight, to delve deeper into data (with your permission, of course). Self-esteem is used to describe how you feel about yourself and reflects your sense of self-worth. Think about how you see yourself in the world. Are you thinking positively? Negatively? All of these thoughts influence your decisions, which is what makes understanding your self-esteem so important.

In mental health, self-esteem links to our emotional and mental wellbeing. Self-esteem is determined by factors within our control but which can be difficult to manage. In other words, it comes from our own rationale. Our inner beliefs can help guide our journey as citizens online and offline. Although we can’t change our past experiences, we can change how we think about them – not an easy task. New knowledge breathes new opportunities. The key is to unlock these opportunities by knowing more about yourself.

Tap here on your mobile device and take the Self-esteem insight today.

Citizen response on self-esteem

• Although most respondents are quite comfortable talking about their self-esteem, the answers are varied. In the graph below, most people in this survey knew what their level of self-esteem was. This means that regardless of what level of self-esteem a person has, self-esteem is not an easy topic to be completely comfortable talking about.
• Respondents also generally believe that someone appears more physically attractive if they have high self esteem. Although studies have shown there is no correlation between self-esteem and physical attractiveness, it’s evident here in this survey that high self-esteem is an attractive quality in a person.

At CitizenMe, we’re adding new insights that allow you to develop a deeper understanding of yourself. This contributes to your data profile enabling you to build on self-knowledge. By having the data stored on your mobile device, you become empowered to control how that data is shared – who sees it and what they do with it is completely up to you.

Questions?

Contact us for more information.