3 - People under Scrutiny

Summary

Our personal lives are shaped by digital transformations in very obvious and tangible ways. Billions of people spend hours a day sharing, commenting and liking photos and stories. We have easier and better access to all kinds of information, and more and more daily activities take place in digital spaces. Most people coordinate their work and social relations in new ways, and many use digital technologies to raise awareness of what they do and who they are. Digital technologies make communicating, sharing and engaging with others easier than ever before. These developments blur the lines between what is public and what is private, and require that we reflect on what openness and privacy imply in a datafied world. But digital transformations also shape our lives in more fundamental and subtle ways. How we sense and experience, how we depict ourselves and how we understand the world are inseparable from digital technologies and the environments they give rise to. Digital spaces and data exchanges are increasingly the foundations of our existence, whether we like it or not. At a rapidly growing pace, they offer new possibilities for action and guide our conduct in important ways.