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When the mainstream internet seems to be growing ever more divided and fractious, Aleks Krotoski discovers if the digital world is still one that can be a force for good?

This year, The Digital Human celebrates its 10 year anniversary. During that time, we have explored all corners of the digital realm, and told hundreds of stories that have revealed how we as humans have been shaped by the technological world we have created, and what we may become in the future.

Some of those stories have always stayed with us, because they have generated more questions - questions that we’ve always wanted to have answered, and in this series, we finally will.

In one of our all time fan-favourite episodes, Altruism, we told stories of online kindness, and how the internet could be used to bring out the best of human nature. But in the last decade, we have seen the online environment become more fractious, less community based, and in some cases, outright hostile. Aleks sets out to find out why some online spaces can bring out the best in us, while others the worst, and discovers how we could actually tailor our technology to become a real force for good.

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Mon 12 Sep 2022 23:30

Dr David Goodman

Dr David Goodman
David is a writer and broadcaster with a deep interest in the spiritual and digital dimensions of tikkun olam, ‘healing the world’.

Professor Paul Fletcher

Professor Paul Fletcher
Paul Fletcher is a psychiatrist and a Professor of health neuroscience at Cambridge University. He’s interested in researching psychosis, hallucinations and delusions and was a consultant during the development of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Jack Skirianos

Jack Skirianos
Jack Skirianos, reached out for help on Reddit ten years ago when he had run out of anti-rejection drugs that were keeping his kidney functional. He returns now to talk about how he has witnessed the internet and its ability to be a force for good change over the last decade.

Dr Gillian Sandstrom

Dr Gillian Sandstrom
Gillian Sandstrom is a Senior Lecturer in the Psychology of Kindness at the University of Sussex, and Director of the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness. Despite being an introvert, she has become quite addicted to talking to strangers. She has been doing research for a dozen years on the benefits of minimal social interactions, and the barriers that prevent people from connecting. 

Professor Sander van der Linden

Sander van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. Before coming to Cambridge, he held posts at Princeton and Yale University. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making. In particular, he is interested in the influence and persuasion process and how people gain resistance to persuasion (by misinformation) through psychological inoculation. He is also interested in the psychology of fake news, media effects, social networks, and belief systems (e.g., conspiracy theories), as well as the emergence of social norms, attitudes and polarization, reasoning about evidence, and public understanding of risk and uncertainty. His research spans from social psychology to cognitive science using a variety of techniques, from virtual reality to survey and lab studies to computational social science and large-scale (online) interventions.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 23 May 2022 16:30
  • Mon 12 Sep 2022 23:30

Podcast