As the year of 2020 is almost in the end, and COVID-19 crisis came and changed our daily day, perspective, ways of social interaction, and impacted our world economy, showing inequalities in some ways we have not to pay attention as who posses privilege was too busy, swimming on it [although, there are some articles and studies about how is hard to see your own privilege and it is connected with the social evolvement during those thousands of years]. 

The whole social engagement structure was changing through digital transformation and its impact on society. The COVID-19 crisis accelerates this process, as now we need to practice social distance and be more socially responsible, as we not only can be sick, but worse, we can spread it and impact lives. 

During my online searches, I found a great article written by Matt Stempeck, and he is also a curator for the Civic Tech Field, a platform [crowdsourced] with a diverse collection of tech for good tools and projects, check it out [it is excellent].

The article is “Next-Generation Engagement Platforms, And How They Are Useful Right Now (Part 1)” and can bring perspective on what is a platform that engages people. Is social media truly a platform that engages people? 

There is a perfect reflection of how digital and analogic worlds connect. It can start a great discussion about digital technologies impact in society as “Their designers have connected their software features to real-world levers of power so that when they talk about empowerment, they mean someone gets power as a result of the process.”

Also, we can’t forget that platforms “included in this assessment were designed by people with their philosophies, biases, and cultural expectations.”. And the issues we have not solved, that are “structural” will be transferred to those platforms and all the digital technology, as they are designed, created and developed by people.

The article brings some great examples of digital platforms that engage and has an impact in society, in a sense that is bigger than a “like”. 

Platform and the new engagement / A black woman in Edinburgh, studying Digital Society by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0