A fence is not just a fence. There are hundreds of different types of fencing. It turns out knowing ‘what’s it for’ is critical to choosing the correct one. It is common sense once you know, but before you do, it is not.

The same is true with digital solutions. However, often the solution is not what is being bought and sold, it is us the ‘customer’. We are being bought and sold to advertising firms who in turn sell our clicks to others. And our children are the gold prize they seek. Each time our kids log onto their schools’ spelling or math apps for their homework, we learn this. And yet the pressure is that if they don’t log on they are left off the progress charts in school.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Digital solutions can be tools to help us rather than sell us. The choices are made not by our children and often not by us, but rather by those in leadership in organisations, companies, governments, and so on. But those people are us too, so yes the choice is up to us.

Photo by Ciprian Pardău