The tremendous progress of technology over the last 20 years, primarily thanks to the internet, has brought significant transformation to our society; a trend that is expected to continue as relatively new technical developments such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) settle in.
This digitisation of society, as well as changes in work-life balance, breaking the traditional 9 to 5 work model in exchange for increased flexibility and the ability to work from home will come with a price tag of 24/7 availability and are therefore likely to profoundly affect families.
While these changes may allow families to better manage their time, 24/7 availability could also be a curse, increasing pressure on people to perform and prolonging working hours.
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Automation and AI have revived the deep-rooted fears of massive unemployment caused by the replacement of jobs by machines. While many stakeholders have pointed to the tale of the boy who cried wolf and the fact that such doomsday scenarios have never materialised, the moral of the fable is that when the wolf did came, nobody believed the boy anymore.
Even if this is not the first time we have been warned about such a risk, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be cautious and closely monitor the developments of automation and AI.
The digital economy has been celebrated widely through success stories like Google, Amazon, Facebook and even AirBnB and Uber. But closer examination shows that many of these business models pose serious monopolistic issues such as censorship and control over user data (Google and Facebook), working conditions (Uber) and pressure on content producers or product sellers (Amazon). What, therefore, are the 'real' effects of the digital economy boom?
Big Data appears to be the new gold of the digital economy. By analysing huge datasets, algorithms can provide many services such as searching for content online, sorting content, understanding user preferences or even allowing for the development of technologies like voice recognition.
However, all this relies on accessing huge amounts of data, much of it user generated. This raises many ethical concerns, especially around certain sensitive information such as health related data, credit histories, personal address information and political viewpoint.
How many of us are already engaged in so-called smart working? Can we bring social and health services into the 21st century, with the support of technology? Do we all know our digital rights?
Are families ready for these digital changes? Through a series of workshops and networking sessions, COFACE-Families Europe aims to answer these questions in Berlin on 8 November at a European conference on 'The impact of digitalisation on 21st century families'.