Harvesting Care
Here’s a conversation I had with my 10 year-old daughter, a couple of weeks back: Bella: this is why I need a FitBit. Me: Why? Bella: Because we are walking. Me: We can walk anyway Bella: Yeah, but we could set GOALS! I was describing this conversation to a colleague and they agreed that on days where they forgot to bring their FitBit, they felt like exercising was ‘pointless’. It reminded me of an article I saw recently about London’s top 10 most ‘Instagrammable’ restaurants. These are restaurants where people go not for the food, but because of the pictures they can post and likes they will get, on Instagram. Imagine being a chef in such a restaurant, and realising that people are no longer coming for the food. This phenomenon is pervasive. It’s the birth of a new kind of economy – a virtual one – which monetises everything. Every little thing you do can be converted into a form of digital currency – such as views or likes. But something more sinister is going on, I