Against the grain: Technology and us

The Art of Bitfulness: Keeping Calm in the Digital World

Author: Nandan Nilekani & Tanuj Bhojwani

Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 228

Price: Rs 799

While the world hunkered down after Covid-19 struck, every minute of 2020 saw 188 million emails, 8.1 million text messages, 4.5 million Google searches and 8,000 Instagram photos happening. In their tour de force, The Art of Bitfulness Nandan Nilekani (one of the rare individuals to have conquered both the public and private spaces in India, decisively) and Tanuj Bhojwani tackle how all this may be the other silent big war confronting mankind (in addition to pandemics and climate change).

The book argues that about five years ago, the average user would tap their phone 2,617 times a day and the top 10 per cent would do 5,427 taps per 132 different sessions per day. In other words, one million touches per year over 27,000 sessions for an average user (for the record, I am in the top 1 per cent here). What we forget is every time we look at the screen, the screen looks back and is quietly keeping a record of everything that we do. This brilliant book tackles the complex subject of the unseen toxicity filtering through the seen world of devices, and their strange and influential relationship with us. It makes sense of the intersection of human behaviour and the digital world around us.

I have been spending time in the Bay Area and at Stanford, and have gained an understanding of the start-up ecosystem. Many start-ups are solving real, tough problems but one of the fuels driving much of their mission is advertising as also mining, collating, analysing, classifying, manipulating and reframing data left by you and me online. Every keystroke, every swipe, payment, purchase and lingering tells the nerds of the Bay Area something about you. We are their data.

We get benefits (such as Google giving us unlimited free email and the ability to search the world with a click) but we are also feeding all the beasts all the time. On the other hand, tools such as WhatsApp become a weapon for continuous follow-ups and getting things done inside government bureaucracies, which are sometimes lax and red tape-bound.

The book argues that the vicious cycle created between the indiscriminate use of devices and us leads to not only a lack of attention and focus but, more importantly, feeds on procrastination. In other words, it leads to “phenomenological aversiveness” — or the reluctance to do what we should do in the routine course of life. Our devices become our escape whenever we are confronted with any cognitive effort-making task or decision. The book also argues that humans are not multi-taskers by nature but single taskers —whereas our devices force us to do the opposite. 

The book is replete with interesting studies and examples — such as from the world of casinos and slot machines, as also studies from behavioural economics to show the paradox of choice (when people have more choice they actually decide less).

Messrs Nilekani and Bhojwani are the moving forces behind India Stack, which is perhaps one-of-its-kind public infrastructure created by a confluence of government, corporate sector and volunteers and which, in turn, is given out almost free of cost to the private sector, which creates value by using it. For example, in the West identity is established through either a driving licence or a Social Security number or online through Google or Facebook or Apple IDs. In India it is done through Aadhaar, a unique population-scale digital public trunk infrastructure, which is simply marvellous and costs about a fraction of the benefits that it is delivering to India. The book argues that such India Stacks can become the building blocks for architecting the future, not just for us as individuals but for the country as a whole. Mr Nilekani is one of the patron saints to many of Bengaluru start-ups, who would do well to read pages 167-174 where a mythical start-up is described. It starts off with the solemn promise of saving the world, then comes down to a less solemn one of saving itself (from bankruptcy and closure) and does so by treating those very humans who it promised to save as its fodder, target and data. It is a surreal story with many lessons for everyone, especially founders and investors, about the insidious challenges at the intersection of technology and greed.

I would like to end with a thought that crossed my mind repeatedly as I considered the intersection of convenience and conscience when it comes to technology and us. There is something that Henry Longfellow once said which could be equally true about us and modern technology tools: “As Unto the bow the cord is, so unto the man is woman;/Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows;/ Useless is each without the other.”

As India makes the journey to become both the world’s largest digital economy and the data-richest country, we all need to abide by the tenets of Bitfulness for the sake of our own sanity and that of the world.

@srivatsakrishna. The reviewer is an IAS officer. These views are personal