Digital pains and the young

Since I last explored the myth of private sector digital superiority over the legendary sloth of state agencies, there has been a running narrative from friends and colleagues who continue to point to notable omissions on my part.

There have been people who have called and messaged me essentially proposing that I had forgotten to mention this or that enterprise, agency, or service.

We can indeed spend a lot of time adding to an extensive list that conjoins government institutions with private enterprise when it comes to the general state of underdevelopment relative to the embrace of technological solutions to societal obstacles.

There is little in sight to suggest studied commitment by most to the required precision and efficiency of the modern era, despite occasional declarations of grand intent. It’s nowhere in the partisan political discourse and persists as PR imperative elsewhere. We can’t be serious!

The last time I mentioned, in passing, the prevalence of shiny, new operational facades hyperlinked to a backend of primordial confusion. I called out the banks, insurance companies, telecom operators, commercial enterprises, public utilities and state agencies, as all displaying disturbingly similar symptoms.

Today, I propose to address links between these undeniable shortcomings and two seemingly unrelated but entirely connected features of the current reality.

The first speaks to the deliberate marginalising of youth and the second considers prospects for improving the well-being of future generations in the face of numerous challenges, including those of global scope, such as the climate crisis.

We have limited control over most of the latter, except to adapt and to be more agile. But we have virtual full control over the former. In both instances, though, there cannot be hesitation over the embrace of what’s new.

Almost every enterprising, creative and productive young adult I have interacted with in recent years has attested to the fact that the processes intended to keep our country viable explicitly undervalue and disregard the young.

Had this not been the case, we would have more likely than not by now negotiated more than one significant developmental hurdle. There is no way the current crop of digital natives, once handed joint control, would have tolerated the utter backwardness of operational processes in the public space.

Of course, this is difficult to contemplate against the backdrop of a notion of a presumed “lost generation.” The deviance of some is cast as statement on the condition of all. On the contrary, when I look around me, I see young people ready and set to take the reins.

Instead, they are actively blocked by official and unofficial processes that openly discriminate against them. For starters, try as a 25-year-old to register a business and open a bank account.

Meanwhile, people of my generation with the required mortgages, utility bills and established mailing addresses have already displayed a general inability to effectively align knowledge and experience with digital opportunity.

The transition is viewed with the kind of suspicion and scepticism ignorance breeds. Yet, the attributes that accompany experience are required in the transition out of a dark past that hangs like a stubborn shadow over current realities.

Additionally, while there is absolutely no doubt that digital technology is an indispensable pillar of our developmental goals, it raises questions requiring brand new ways of looking at how our societies operate.

For example, while it is true innovation can both address efficiencies and create economic opportunities, there are trade-offs to be made against some potential costs.

The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to cite poignant examples, advises that while innovation is important as a tool in addressing the crisis, there can and will be the prospect of managing increased levels of e-waste, addressing the negative impacts on labour markets and attending to a widened digital divide.

These are matters that clearly call on a whole-of-society approach driven and inspired by young, inventive minds and tempered by the contemplation experience can bring.

But none of this will be possible if we constantly erect barriers against the forward march of the young. I am not among the old fogeys looking on at them in disapproval.

Employ a battalion of young people to fix the digital mess. Elect them to public office. Provide them with the means. Get the hell out of their way.