Web Summit: Speaking about Democracy, Ego and Empathy (Day 1)

After a 3 days amazing experience, it’s time to return to the reality. However, before do it, it might be a good opportunity to reflect on everything that I learned and heard in the Web Summit during these last days. This way, the aim of this article is remind me about the messages that I listen and I would like to retain.

Despite being a mechanical engineer student (usually interested in technology), almost all the talks that I attended were related in some way with global challenges (global warming, poverty, social movements), education, gamification and storytelling. As result, when I crossed all the talks that I would like to attend, the shedule said that most of my time would be spent on the “Future Societies Conference”. 

The filter bubble versus democracy

One day before Trump was elected as the new United States President, it was discussed the fragility of the democracy. One of the speakers, from the European Commission, spoke about how fortunate we are for living in a democracy and about the importance of the communication. Using her own words: "democracy it's communication", the possibility of being able to express our feelings and our thoughts. 

She predicted that the probability of, in the next 4 years, having someone non democratic being elected was quite high, which was proved as being right in the following day. However, she also said that maybe it’s what we need right now, take a slap in the face to help us realize the advantages and the benefits of the democracy.

Finding your calling in the digital economy

Why do we help other people? Is it because we want to satisfy our ego and be recognized, or is it because we feel empathy to the other people? How can we distinguish these 2 feelings?

Tricky! That was the answers of the speakers. It depends on what moves us, however in most of the situations the ego might not be enough. Once in a while, we should stop and take some time to reflect and think about what we are doing and the reasons that are moving us to act. Are they the right reasons or not? If what we are doing isn’t going as planned, it’s hard to be recognised and have our ego satisfied. The worst part in these cases is: probably we are going to end by giving up. Also, if we are helping other people, the expected outcomes might not be instantaneous, this way we need a considerable amount of time until we receive the recognition that we are waiting for.

During this talk, it was also discussed the role of technology in our society and how it's changing our working methods. The evidences are obvious, in the last few years everything is becoming automatized, the robots are replacing the humans’ jobs, by doing the needed tasks faster and without making any mistake. As it was said during this talk, this new tendency hardly is going to stop. This way, it’s urgent rethink all the people jobs in order to be able to adapt to this new reality. The world and the society is changing, we need to learn to evaluate these changes and understand how can we keep with them.