Convivial Tools

Owen Kelly looks at the evidence for considering three different dimensions of the digital tools we use.


Episode 071     March 1, 2024
Contributors    Owen Kelly    

This continues a mini-series that looks at whether or not we should feel concerned about the digital tools we use and the effects that they have on us. In this episode Owen Kelly explains three dimensions that we need to consider when thinking about the tools we use and why we use them.

He suggests three kinds of problems that can arise with the digital tools we use:

1. They can act as double agents serving 2 masters
2. They can act as black boxes locking us into systems that may radically change or even vanish overnight
3. They can eat away at our agency and turn our human communication into mere ‘content’.