digitalization
Digital expert expects “enormous progress”
Experts see many opportunities, but also dangers, in digitization
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The corona pandemic is finally driving digitization in Germany. This is how a digital expert sees the situation.
Almost eight years after Angela Merkel’s (66) now legendary saying that the Internet is “new territory for us all”, Germany is still struggling with digitization. However, as recently emerged from a survey commissioned by the industry association Bitkom, German consumers were more intensively involved with technology during the corona pandemic – and on average also spent significantly more money on it.
The digital expert and author Holger Volland, whose new book “The future is smart. You too?” (Mosaik Verlag) has been available since mid-March, explains in an interview with the news agency spot on news how new technologies helped him during the corona pandemic, where he sees the greatest benefit and what dangers there are.
Digitization made significant progress during the pandemic. During the crisis, how important do you think it is to be able to order groceries online, stream series and contact friends via video chat?
Holger Volland: For many of us, this made life in the crisis more bearable and easier. Especially people who live alone or have physical limitations opened up completely new possibilities for organizing their own private life, but also important services such as video consultation hours. I myself was able to solve a health problem during the first lockdown with telemedicine. I am very pleased that at least this aspect is a positive result of the corona pandemic. We Germans finally seem to be more open to digitization and more willing to experiment than before.
A Bitkom survey recently showed that respondents spent an average of 10.4 hours in front of the screen every day during the pandemic. Isn’t that a bit much?
Volland: Even before Corona, that was around eight hours a day. If you ask scientists, that too was already too much. It’s bad for our eyes, our focus, and our ability to switch off. At work, however, we often cannot choose whether to take part in meetings in Zoom or to work on the screen. It is therefore all the more important to take screen breaks whenever possible and to limit the screen time privately. Apps can also help with this.
Where do you see the greatest benefits for people in digitization?
Volland: In the education sector in particular, I expect enormous progress in the next few years as a result of digitization. This makes access to content and services much easier and cheaper for us users. You can already learn all the world’s languages for little money or take part in university lectures at Yale from your living room at home. That’s fantastic! In the health sector, too, digitization will lead to completely new treatment methods and easier access to medical services. In just a few years, for example, an initial opinion on a skin change via app will be standard, whereas today you still have to wait months for a doctor’s appointment.
And what dangers do you see in particular?
Volland: The greatest danger of the further digitization of our lives lies in the misuse of our personal data. However, this risk cannot be solved with a clumsy data protection club, which initially forbids every new app regardless of its usefulness. We need a better informed public and also more knowledge in politics in order to be able to better weigh up, for example, between data protection and protection against infection. Why is our Corona app being put on the shortest possible leash, while at the same time Mark Zuckerberg can collect the most intimate details from millions of Germans via WhatsApp and Instagram?
We have to approach the topic in a much more differentiated way – also in private life, by the way. Most people do not secure their robotic vacuum cleaners or smart light bulbs well against data theft, although that would be very easy. On the other hand, many reject the establishment of an electronic patient file for reasons of data protection. The system is optimally monitored and is always better than the previously practiced transmission of patient data by unsecure e-mail or fax. As you can see, in the end it comes down to dealing a little more with the various aspects of the digitization of our everyday lives. In this way, many dangers can be assessed or even avoided.