Digital Tools

Slack, Monday.com, Jodel, Evernote and Asana are digital tools that serve somewhat similar purposes. They all are designed to help with communication, productivity and organisation, and I do not use single one of them. 

Slack is used for team communication and collaboration, it works through channels, direct messages, file sharing and is said to integrate with other tools. I could consider using this, if all of the school messaging would not be on Teams, which I suppose can be convenient software if you do have the rest of the MS Office tools – I do not. Slack could potentially take the place of Zoom in my use, but well, I have not yet had anyone asking to connect via Slack. Maybe if I would have a small start up, I would consider this.

Monday.com is called work operating system that helps teams to manage workflows through boards and automation. If I would need better organisation of my tasks and perhaps work within larger groups of people, maybe this tool would be convenient, but I see no reason to improve my current work flow with this. 

Jodel is a social network where one can be in touch with people found in nearby geographical areas anonymously. Here you can share updates, ask questions, and discuss matters within a local community. This might be useful, not necessarily to what I can consider as my professional life, but to engage with the community nearby quite freely as it is anonymous. I currently do not feel any desire to do so. I satisfy this need by reading Reddit and comments on news outlet websites.

Evernote is made for note-taking and organisation of them. I think the Apple Notes I use quite a lot works for me fine, and I do not wish to learn another software for this I think I already have covered. I presume Evernote is pretty much the same, with maybe some preferential organisational possibilities for some who have gotten used to using this. 

Asana is a platform where individuals and teams can plan, track and manage projects through boards and timelines, which again is probably quite useful for work organisation, setting deadlines and tracking progress. What I gather from reviews it can be more easy to use than Monday.com, but as I have not felt the need for this kind of tools, I believe my life quality will not be improved with this either.

To summarise, these digital productivity, collaboration, and organisation tools can be beneficial, and I suppose they’re imperative in some teams. For me now, I doubt these offer substantial benefits, but just hassle to learn and get others to use these tools.

Currently for my studies, mainly as I have to, I use Teams, Zoom, Keynote (Apple version of Powerpoint), Pages (Apple’s Word) and occasionally Numbers (Apple’s Excel). Whilst the Apple ecosystem alternatives might not offer as many possibilities as Microsoft’s Office, they offer enough and come with a low cost of nothing when you run the Apple OS. They also feel less bloated. I have used Webex for meeting or two, and I would hope that maybe there should be just one, or one application that could use Teams, Zoom or this Webex if needed. For my previous work I relied on Shopify and Squarespace for online stores, aforementioned Numbers for line sheets and stock (I did longer time ago use also Excel and the rest of the Office Package). And utilised Lightroom and Photoshop for imagery, and Instagram and Facebook for promotion and research. I could also use ChatGPT for initial spell check and drafting ideas for initial texts. 

Aspects of Social Media

It probably would not be an exaggeration to state that social media has become integral aspect of lives of many people around the world. It has enabled instant communication with people we know or don’t, at least yet. It enables access to information, such as those dubbed educational, those offering professional opportunities and the news. Through these one can learn new skills, check up on trends and in general get exposure for different perspectives. Social media can raise awareness for social issues, such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, #FreePalestine, Black Lives Matter: it can give a voice to the marginalised and potentially advocate a change. You can also advertise, engage with customers and build your brand online for example through Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, in these and other similar channels you can also share more creative content. Through social media one can also entertain oneself with endless supply of clever memes, stories and streams. Whilst these can be considered positive, there are also downsides to this. Social media works as a source for misinformation, which can lead to harm. It is also possible that algorithms amplify sensational content and it can also create sort of echo chambers where users are only exposed to content that already aligns with their views, this in turn can reinforce biases and limit critical thinking. Often mentioned is also low-self esteem that can be felt when one is exposed to curated and idealised lives of others. Counterintuitively social media can also increase feelings of loneliness due to lack of face-to-face contact. Information shared in these sites is also vulnerable to misuse and abuse.

In short, social media offers opportunities for connection, but also poses risks to mental well-being, privacy and societal order.

Reflection

I do think there is plenty of software, maybe too much. Still, I suppose at least innovations can be made and possibilities to work in a way that feels most suitable for whatever the task has grown. Quickly developing and increasingly implemented AI can speed up some tasks and it can also inspire in form of novel connections it can generate. All this still should require control to make sure that at least some capacity of autonomous expression and thought is still maintained. 

Regarding my software usage, for now, I don’t find any new software, platform, or ‘work operating system’ that I would like to implement in my current workflow. However, I believe I am easily adaptable to whatever can be deemed more useful to achieve a specific goal at given time.