Step 1: Have a conversation With Yourself
NOTE: this is a rough first draft. Still to do:
- Citations and references
- A better conclusion and transition
- Maybe answer the question of what technologies to use here – but that gets really confusing and hairy.
I wrote this section in a bit of a haze and in a flow state, so let me know if I need to clarify anything further.
As mentioned in the introduction, there are two main considerations in “Augmented Humanity” that each of us must answer in order to be more integrated with the digital world. The first question we must answer is the one about the use of technology itself. This includes but isn’t limited to the physical items that access technology, from computers to Internet-enabled cellular telephones. More importantly, the second question we must answer is how to present ourselves on the Internet and in any digital realm going forward.
Both questions require two simple qualities that all of us have and can use effectively:
- The awareness of the technology and our digital presence currently, whether it be in actual contributions made or how we access the cloud.
- The clarity from making choices about the use of technology and of our digital bodymind.
Cultivating the awareness and understanding of the tapestry of our digital self is the first step. Without this awareness, choices cannot be made and behaviors cannot be modified to grow and evolve the digital bodymind into something that can potentially take care of your physical existence. This became apparent to Michael Port, author of the book “Book Yourself Solid”. In the book, he describes where he spent a couple of days reading every single page on his Web site to understand what he was presenting to the world. This eye-opening experience allowed him to become aware that he wasn’t attracting the people he wanted to work with. From that experience, Port re-wrote his entire copy and Web site to be more aligned with his message and bring in more clients for his coaching business.
Everett and I do not expect you to approach the construction of a digital bodymind from a purely business standpoint. We are not discussing how to use keywords, search engine optimization or other techniques to bring in traffic to your site. The digital bodymind we discuss goes beyond building traffic to an Internet site. Instead, it revolves on being authentic and focusing on what your contributions are to humanity and how you contribute, while at the same time achieving a balance with technology as to not overwhelm the other structures of your persona. The clarity generated from the purpose of your digital bodymind and striking the balance of technology in your life comes from the awareness of your current relationship to technology and the cloud.
To this end, there are a few questions that each of us can ask and answer ourselves in order to understand the current nature of our digital bodymind and what we need to do to evolve it. These questions are intended to start a conversation with ourselves to gain the awareness needed to be clear about our digital presence. The questions may be contemplated over days and weeks if needed, but it is important not to spend too much time gestating the perfect answer. When possible, speed and action should prevail after a some time for contemplation. Let’s look at the questions we may need to ask of ourselves.
How do you want to use technology to enhance the human experience?
This question specifically deals with the physical technology and the data available to us. This concerns the computers, Internet-enabled phones, and other objects that can be connected to the cloud. Mobile computing has evolved significantly over the past few years from wireless connections in coffee shops to instant car rentals, price comparisons, restaurant reservations, international communications, and a full entertainment center from a cellular telephone. In fact, many people today are using technology to build entire businesses online with minimal startup and inventory costs. The ability to have your refrigerator tell you that you need milk or the dryer send a text message telling you that your clothes are dry is certainly a possibility within the next decade. Communications technologies like social media, e-mail, instant messaging and SMS are everywhere, but how do you intend to use them? These are examples of questions you may need to ask to understand your relationship to the current and potentially future technologies.
Consider that any answer to this question must also deal with the balance of technology in our lives. Many people are noting that the influence of technology is unavoidable but also must be managed appropriately. It is easy to lose track of physical time watching the stream of social media flow on your desktop computer or telephone. There have been news stories of teenagers relinquishing Facebook for long periods of time in order to focus on schoolwork so that they can attend the college of their choice. Personally, I’ve lost hours over weekends over the perceived need to check Facebook on a regular basis. (A discussion of Facebook follows in Step 3.) Modifications to behavior can only come when the balance of technology comes into question and we are present to our interactions with the cloud.
It is important to find the technological balance so that we contribute as necessary and the connections are made and maintained while not being a burden mentally or emotionally. This will take some time and experimentation to accomplish. A good example of how we can do this comes from “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly. He cites the Amish as an excellent example of how to balance technology in one’s life. While he does not specifically state that the Amish have the best way of adopting technology, he appreciates the process in which they evaluate new technologies. The Amish allow technology to be used on a trial basis, where elders and others observe what happens throughout the trial. If the technology is disruptive, they disallow it or make modifications to when and how it can be used. Sometimes the results may not make sense (e.g. Pneumatic devices to run a machine shop, some cell phone usage without community-wide electricity), but they have defined criteria and an open mind to allow for experimentation and adoption to technology. Part 2 of this document describes more in detail about the use of digital technologies.
Do you want to present yourself online? In other words, should you develop your digital bodymind?
For some of us, the burden of building an Internet presence may not be worth the effort. Consider that prior to the Internet, most reputations were built locally. Over time, as people visited the local community, more people would get to know you better and understand who you were. In order to move beyond the local community, one primarily had to use the media to build a presence. National politicians and powerful businesspeople started locally and expanded their reach over many years. Consider the well known story of Abraham Lincoln’s political career to eventually become the President of the United States. He started as a local politician for the state of Illinois and lost numerous elections along the way before finally being elected as a United States Senator and eventually President. With the Internet, it is much easier to build a presence digitally that can reach all ends of the global community. For most people the investment is few dollars in a domain name and some time to write in a blog. YouTube is another possibility; consider how a short video can attract millions of views.
The question of whether or not to build a digital presence doesn’t have to be based on building a business or even if you are technologically savvy. With the advent of social media, you and/or your business will have its digital bodymind built by others if you do not contribute to it yourself. Facebook allows others to tag you in photographs uploaded by your friends and other people. Social review sites like Yelp provide instantaneous feedback about businesses to potential customers. Twitter can be used to provide recommendations for or against businesses, and it is a powerful tool to spread ideas.
Because of social media and community building, it is best to be active in the process of contributing to your digital bodymind. The whole world will assist in its construction, but as 50 Cent said, it is better if you control what you have and present than have others doing it for you. Step 3 and 4 of this HOWTO will give some insight on how to start constructing your digital bodymind.
How do you want to present yourself online? What do you want to put in the cloud?
This is a very broad question that has one simple answer: be yourself and be as authentic as you can possibly be. The Internet allows for play and experimentation that is unparalleled in history. Prior to this, one had to physically move locations to start over. Through most of human history, career changes weren’t even remotely possible except if you were wealthy or they were forced due to adverse conditions (e.g. Slave labor, collapse of government/community/agriculture, etc…). Most people had to apprentice or learn their one trade, primarily from family members or other powerful people, and most people simply didn’t live long enough to have other careers besides the one they learned. Throughout large swathes of human history, women only had one career: provider or homemaker. It wasn’t until the 20th century that most nations acknowledged that women are as capable in careers as men. Fortunately, the digital world has been a great equalizer of gender and any other quality that humans can identify themselves as.
Getting back to authenticity, the Internet allows for wide experimentation in discerning who you are. However, having multiple personas requires significant upkeep and context switching. It is far better to develop one personality, one digital bodymind that is as true and authentic to yourself as possible. This minimizes the potential upkeep and toll on the other aspects of you, and keeps the focus squarely in your control. In the digital world, authenticity is the currency that allows your digital self to take care of your non-digital self.
One important distinction to make with how to present your digital bodymind is in how you contribute to the digital world. Contribution is much more valued than opinion. It is very easy to dispense opinion on the Internet these days. When developing our digital bodyminds, we must transcend the tendency to publicly vent our frustrations and opinions that collapse the space of communication in which solutions thrive. Thus it becomes very important to have a public and a private space for your digital bodymind, so you have a place to vent and develop ideas privately and maintain a consistent public digital persona.
When developing your digital bodymind, it becomes important to layer access to parts of it. Layering access doesn’t mean that you have free and paid access, though that is a possibility for artists, bloggers and infopreneurs. Layering access means that specific people can see different and deeper aspects of your whole personality, depending if they are a business associate, a friend, a lover, or someone randomly visiting your Twitter feed. These layers are important to maintain a consistent public image while solving the dilemma of contributing to people who you personally know.
One question that cannot be answered is if your digital bodymind should be built based on aspects of who you are today, or if you can use your digital bodymind to build the other aspects of your persona. It’s a chicken-egg question and it will depend on who you are, who you want to be, and the circumstances surrounding your existence today. Mars Dorian provides a good argument for allowing your digital self to filter back and integrate into your other structures. As a first effort, consider constructing your digital bodymind from who you are today in the physical world as it is easier to build and maintain to begin. You may find that it changes, but people will not mind as long as you are authentic about why you are changing and evolving.
How technologically savvy are you? Do you want to be more technologically experienced?
When the World Wide Web was being first developed, you had to be versed in different operating systems and HTML in order to build an Internet presence. Most Web pages were built by hand in the mid-1990s. This changed with applications like Dreamweaver, Netscape and Microsoft FrontPage, but it was still very archaic. Any “blogs” of the time were built and maintained by hand.
Today, we have applications such as WordPress and social media applications that handle the infrastructure of a digital presence. Thus the barrier to building a digital bodymind is lower than it has ever been. There are many people that have built successful businesses and personalities without understanding the layers of technology that drive the presence. You also don’t have to pay large amounts of money to build a presence if you have the time and the drive to understand the application infrastructures. You can go as deep or as shallow as you wish with the infrastructure of the Internet.
Having said that, you can use applications that are presented to you to have an out-of-the-box experience. Facebook is the best known example of a standardized Web presence tool. However, for customization and the possibility of the fullest self-expression of your digital bodymind, you will need to expand beyond standardized tools and develop your own Web presence. You can build it yourself or with the help of professionals and a community who knows how to do this. This is one of the things to contemplate in order to be clear about your digital presence, but it won’t hurt to start with freely available standardized tools.
How accessible do you want to be?
The global economy is moving from one that cherishes ownership to one that promotes access. When considering your digital bodymind, personal access by e-mail, phone, and social media is important to consider. This is where layering of your access comes in very handy, as you can define which applications and who is connected by those applications has a certain level of access to you personally. It is recommended that you outline a social media and access policy and make it transparent so that people understand and respect the balance you are creating with technology and the digital world. How this looks is entirely up to you, but consider that less public access may be better to start with. This may mean a contact form on a Web site or blog instead of leaving your e-mail address visible to all. Once the digital public knows how to contact you, making a transition from that contact point becomes harder to do. So keep in mind how accessible you want to be and, more importantly, who gets that access.
These are just a few questions you may have to answer regarding your digital bodymind. There is a lot of information to digest and consider, so take your time. Do not be afraid to make mistakes either, as you can adapt the technologies you use and modify your level of access and the content you place on the Internet and the cloud.
The next step discusses physical technology in particular.