Either you can live in hope that the sword will not cut you or you can choose to ignore this and go about with self-inflicted wounds.

It sounds hilarious but one could get paranoid when overindulged in this thinking, and that is what led to the caption; “A double edged sword; Without a sheath; As part of your body armor.” The advent of new ethos and values in social living and doing business.  Living for others, as some might call it, while living their lives to the fullest in a modern way, as certain others might see it.

It’s not about a life in despair, but the question of a society living in values built on clouds. Values built on fluid structures. We dream on a cloud literally. We live on a cloud seeking attention and likes () from others. That’s one end of the spectrum. The very same cloud, as an application, gives rise to many an economic benefit and great business collaborations. That’s the other side.

Look at the extreme ends of technology led values that sit in our society today. As we continue to develop and embrace ‘social technologies there is a tendency to be governed by these. Years back, social technology was a term referred to and practiced by corporates, where they used socially driven technologies to further their businesses, be it Facebook type applications or yammer type networking applications. These led to understanding behaviors better, thus the ability to predict consumer behaviors better. Today, these technologies have become domestic, meaning personal and not just any longer an institutional based behavioral trend analysis. This essentially brings heavier polarizing ends to balance.

Fragmented value deliveries vs wholesome entities – (The Organizational Value)

Take the issue of a gig economy. The people led, people centered, collaborative mechanisms used to provide services or enable a business. That’s how I would put down gig economy in layman’s terms. This great thinking has led to many great business ideas, be it Uber, Talk Space or Onefinestay to many other in therapeutic mobility, and it keeps growing. Every time we grow in gig, there is a new situation that evolves in the traditional economy-based institutions. They become more attuned towards cost-based business deliveries. Economically, there is great advantage to both, as I believe, but socially?

Let’s fast-forward 20 years. Would this lead to further deterioration in social fabric, which for centuries has been governed through larger institutes? Imagine the different cultural mindsets at large gig economy-based organizations (not so much about value based action but technology based economy and speed) or try to understand the difficulty in controlling and managing values across the organization when part of your delivery system is gig and has its own value system. Naturally, the organizational values are going to be challenged. Isn’t it the value system that drove the ultimate customer service experience?  Isn’t it that empathy centered value that gave life to the system? If new organizations are challenged to uphold that value, would this have an impact upon the ultimate focus on the customer, who would at the end of the day decide where to go?

On either side of the pole; at one end, we have friendly, empathy filled, collaborative service delivery. On the other end, a service, focused on economics and faster delivery, that could be even close to a drone delivery.  That’s the doubled edged sword.  As consumers keep moving and changing, would a value-based alignment do better and if so, how do we manage this polarization that stems from an economic centered mindset to a value driven mindset of serving a customer?  On one end a machine-like service and the other end, an empathy filled journey.

Shared wellbeing vs self-wellbeing – (The Individual values)

The most ironic of all is the concept of living on the cloud, as I call it. We today try to portray ourselves and profess to the world, who we are, through social technologies. We take pride in showing from how we dress, how we look, what we eat, where we go, whom we are with, what we like to many other, through social technology.  Living to show others who we are, to a level never seen before.

The other end of this is, when you are isolated from social tech driven mind-hype, the feeling of emptiness posing greater challenges in being normal with the family. A life without tech seems like a dark tunnel. If we start validating our actions, thoughts and directions through social technology-based societies, it could pose serious challenges to individual self-esteem and could perhaps challenge the shared well-being.

Shared wellbeing stems from the family and close circles, who probably are not in the tech driven social circle. The self-wellbeing overpowering the shared wellbeing; thus, we could be living on false values built on cloud. The cloud-based platforms.  Once again, the double-edged sword of living with shared wellbeing and self-wellbeing centered values through societal opinions. The word self-wellbeing is portrayed here to depict the adrenaline rush through social technology-based validations.

Where do we go –

Let’s get back to the start. Social technology brings a double-edged sword without a sheath. You can either create a cover that protects you or leave it open with the hope that it will not cut you nor any other. Technological advancements have been there for centuries in one form or another. However today the speed, intensity and proliferation of it is at a stage that has never been witnessed before. The issue is how we shape our values thus we don’t self-inflict wounds on us or society but further the values more meaningfully.

The write up is not about what is right or what is wrong, but to bring in the thought process and the need to understand technology, culture and values on its merit thus we live in cohesion getting the best of all. It’s about living on the edge of technology, which could compromise your values and ethos, but could give economic benefits. Whether it’s a trade off or a trade in will depend on how we respond.