Sharing? Or Suicide?

Generation S

Are communication technologies and the internet a save haven from real communication? When parents attending a football game of their child are sitting in the stands, googling, or when Facebook status updates are done at dinner or during funeral receptions, when smartphones are the focal point while walking on the street, then the user is actually unable to realize what is happening in the real environment.

To digitally transport oneself to a different place is an everyday routine for a lot of people. Psychologists view this trend with great concern. This new form of communication is very efficient and optimized through algorithms. But what happens when this efficiency starts to dominate our human interactions? And what happens when powerful advertising companies like Facebook or Google use our personal data for their own profit? Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the WWW, calls this an endangerment for the universality of the internet.

People living in the Generation S want to "share" their life and their interests to stay connected. To prevent this from resulting in digital suicide, it is important to develop alternatives to the commercially-oriented data krakens. First and foremost to protect the human right to privacy.