My digital platform usage
In my current position I am a working-student in the IT department, more specifically in IT Project-Management. My team is responsible for realizing change within the IT department as well as Controlling and Reporting. In my specific role I was mostly working on Data Analysis as well as managing smaller IT Projects. For collaboration within the IT department, we usually use Atlassian’s Jira and Microsoft Teams. I conduct Data Analysis using EazyBI, which is a powerful BI tool. EazyBI can import all data from Jira and is able to create a wide range of tables and graphics. The reporting as well as documentation is mostly done through Microsoft 365 software, Confluence or Miro. Our work is supported by a company-internal version of ChatGPT 4.0. It is a very useful tool for any issues regarding programming, generating ideas or enhance agendas. Apart from that we simply use SAP like any other company on the globe. In my role I get in touch with any of these tools more or less frequently.
Possible enhancements
While writing this page I realized that my company already provides various digital tools. Most notably, I did not even realize that my workplace integrates so many of the most advanced tools but rather thought of it as the basic working environment of this modern era. Due to that I was not able to include any new tools that have been on the list of suggestions but rather had to go into deep research about other applications that might be useful complementing the tools we already use.
The only thing that I could come up with to improve the efficiency of my work is the integration of automation through AI Tools. On the market there are several specialized products like otter.ai and Hypercontext that will use specifically trained AIs to improve collaboration and the efficiency of meetings. Integrating otter.ai for example could lead to faster and more comprehensive summaries of Meetings. The tool can write transcripts and create tasks derived from the meeting. Since in our company the sharing of information is very highly valued, the implementation of otter.ai could help organize the shared knowledge from meeting. There would be no need for the organizers to write protocols and summaries, as otter.ai will do that automatically. On top of that, one can just ask otter.ai questions about the meeting. This would significantly reduce the workload for organizing and recapitalizing meetings. Hypercontext on the other hand is a tool that manages calendars and team alignment. Hypercontext automatically finds practical meeting times for all desired participants and can transform notes into a high-quality agenda. This could be particularly useful to set up meetings more quickly and speed up the process of preparing these meetings.
On the value of social media
The discussion about the extent to which social media is either useful or damaging is a wide topic. The most basal reason that social media was created for is to connect people globally. This itself is a huge achievement to meet people with similar interests and learn about other cultures more easily. It can be very useful to find new friends or to remain connected with people, even when you are on the other side of the globe. It also happens that via social media strong communities are formed, which are very powerful just for the number of people they assemble. These communities are known to do highly useful work, like solving cold crime cases. Unfortunately, at the same time it is possible that these groups assemble for less noble purposes like cyber bullying. In this aspect of social media, we can find chances to do something good, but it also poses dangers when misused.
Another danger arises from the way most social media pages are programmed as it promotes addiction and enhances narrowmindedness. Social media companies usually make most of their money through advertisement, so it is their business to make people use their page for as long as possible. For this purpose, they utilize psychological principles that keep people engaged, without them knowing about it, which can silently turn into an addiction. One of these principles is to only show content to a person that the algorithms figure to be interesting to that certain person. This feature, of course, can be very helpful for people as well. If I am an absolute lover of Lego, having customized content, showing me new Lego tools, is helpful. But when news or political posts are customized to one’s opinions, it will naturally lead to people becoming more narrow-minded, since they only get their views confirmed and never challenged. This might lead to polarization or even the separation of society, with signs of this already visible. Another problem is people not being prepared to critically view contents on Social Media platforms. It often is hard to forget that most pictures or videos are completely set up and edited before uploaded, especially when they show a situation resembling everyday life. Many people start envying the lives of social media celebrities or question their own beauty, when they only see edited pictures of the influencers, that claim to showcase their everyday life. In this regard the shown content can generate a distortion of reality that in some cases leads to severe mental illnesses like depression or eating disorders.
To bring this discussion to a conclusion I want to share my personal practices for consuming social media.
- It is crucial to critically review every piece of information received on the internet. Therefore, I ask myself: Is the source reliable? Does the source gain any advantages (e.g. financial) from sharing this information?
- Use multiple sources to verify information: even a reliable source of information might just cover one point of view – so systematically research other perspectives on the same topic to get a more accurate picture and stay open-minded.
Self-evaluation
Working on this chapter showed me that I am already familiar with various digital tools and platforms and integrate them into my work and everyday life seamlessly. However, I must always remember myself to remain aware of the dangers inherent in these technologies.
Also, since I am already integrating many different tools in my work, it was very interesting to go into deeper research about what other tools might be helpful. And even if my company does not want to provide them to enhance our work, I will apply them in my personal work.
I also commented on: