More connected than ever—and somehow more lost.
The other night, I woke myself up snorting like a pig. Not metaphorically. I snorted. In my dream and in real life.
I lay there in the dark, trying to figure out if it had really happened. Then I noticed my husband’s breathing. It was very soft and subdued. Like he was listening.
I whispered, “Did you hear that?”
He exhaled loudly. “Yeah. I thought maybe you had died and that was your death rattle.”
We absolutely lost it laughing. Tears were streaming down my face. I told him I was dreaming about wrangling pigs—I’d already gotten the little one and was trying to find the big one, so I snorted to call it.
He told me he was dreaming that he was at a pig concert.
We were toast after that. Laughed ourselves out of breath and couldn’t fall back asleep. And even now, when I think about it, I laugh again.
That moment? It reminded me what real connection feels like. No agenda, no device, no digital record—just two people losing it over something only they would understand. A ridiculous, totally unfiltered sliver of life. And it meant more than a hundred “likes” or perfectly timed replies ever could.
What a sharp contrast to how the evening wound down. Just hours before, we were glued to our devices… subliminally telling ourselves we’re more “connected” than ever. Something doesn’t add up.
We are witnessing the divide of society in a way that only science fiction has explored. It’s no longer just about race or gender or politics. The next line in the sand will be drawn by access to technology and whether or not you know how to use it.
At the time of writing this, 2.8 billion people still aren’t online. That’s over a third of humanity, shut out of the digital world—by choice, circumstance, or because the system was never built with them in mind.
To understand how deep this divide goes, we need to talk about five major blockers: Access, Ability, Belief, Education, and Overwhelm.
Let’s walk through them real quick:
Access
Tech isn’t cheap. In low-income economies, a basic mobile internet plan might eat up more than 8% of someone’s monthly income, compared to just 0.4% in high-income countries [2]. When you live paycheck to paycheck, devices and connectivity become luxuries. That leaves billions, mostly in the Global South, without regular internet access, and therefore, without access to modern jobs, healthcare, education, or emergency help.
Ability
Even with the best devices and internet in place, physical, cognitive, or age-related challenges can make digital engagement difficult or impossible, turning that sleek new device into a paperweight. For example, young people are more likely to be online (75% of those aged 15–24), but that drops to 65% for adults 25 and older, and even lower in regions like Africa [3]. If technology isn’t designed with accessibility in mind, it becomes a locked door.
Belief
There’s a growing mistrust of technology. Globally, only about half (54%) believe AI products offer more benefits than drawbacks, and 52% say they feel nervous about them—a number that has risen sharply in recent years [4]. In the U.S., France, and Japan, trust in tech companies to protect personal data is as low as 32% [5]. These fears—whether based on experience or perception—can lead to total withdrawal from digital tools, even at the cost of being left behind.
Education
Digital skills are the new literacy, but many people lack even a basic understanding of how to use the internet safely or effectively. Even in wealthy countries, people are online without knowing how to navigate it well [6]. Where traditional literacy is already a challenge, digital skills lag even further. We can’t just connect people to the web; we have to teach them how and how not to use it.
Overwhelm
The pace of technology is dizzying. There’s always a new interface, a new app, a new update. For those not immersed in tech daily (and even for those that are), it feels impossible to keep up. As of 2023, 52% of people globally say they are nervous about AI, not just because of what it can do, but because they don’t understand it [4]. It’s easier to just give up. That’s not laziness. That’s burnout. Complexity and speed have become their own kind of barrier.
When you add all that up, tech only “helps” if you’re young, have money, can read, have good internet, aren’t scared off by new buttons, and trust what’s on the screen. Without those things, tech becomes not just unhelpful but dangerous.
The Digital Trap
I think about my grandmother while I write this.
She’s not dumb. She’s not fragile. She ran a feed store and remembered birthdays better than any app. She wrote thank-you notes. She knew your dog’s name. She volunteered for two decades at the hospital.
But when it comes to tech? The world has left her behind.
She gets insane amounts of mail—paper and email—with official logos and urgent messages. Some are real. Most are scams. They look legit. So she clicks. Or calls. Or mails a check. And slowly, they’ve drained her savings.
She’s overwhelmed. Embarrassed. Sad. And when I try to help—suggesting filters or folders—she hears it as me saying she can’t handle her own life. That’s dignity being eroded.
She doesn’t take photos on her phone. Not because she doesn’t want to—but because she doesn’t know where the photo went after taking it.
She thought a Facebook post I made was sent just to her. She got her feelings hurt when other people commented and she realized it was public. It wasn’t lack of love. It was lack of design that made sense to her.
Digital literacy is a privilege. One that too many systems treat like a default.
So what do we do?
Well, we can’t make someone believe in tech. You can’t logic someone into trust. And we can’t force people to learn if they’re too overwhelmed to start. Motivation doesn’t download like an app.
But we’re not helpless.
We can expand access. We can keep building infrastructure. Lowering costs. Donating devices. That’s already happening. It just needs more focus.
We can build systems that don’t rely entirely on apps and screens. Sometimes people need a neighbor, not a notification. A paper form, not a login.
Most of all, we can ask better questions like, “Who is this leaving out?”.
That one question can change a design, a business, or even someone’s day.
My grandmother doesn’t want to be special. She wants to feel capable. In control. Not tricked, and not forgotten.
Humans have been doing just fine for thousands of years without smartphones. We raised families, healed each other, grew our food, buried our dead, and told stories. The reason we started making tools in the first place was to help each other survive.
Maybe we consider that the goal isn’t to get everyone using tech.
The real shift starts with how we think about it. What if we stopped treating technology as a milestone of progress and started seeing it for what it truly is—a tool? Not a measure of intelligence, not a proxy for value, but a modern extension of our very old desire to solve problems together.
Maybe the first call to action isn’t to connect more people—but to reconnect ourselves to the purpose of the tools we’ve made. That means shifting our mindset from “getting everyone online so they can be modern” to something more grounded: “How do we help this person talk to their doctor when they can’t drive?” When we stop chasing scale and start tuning in to real human needs, we start designing tools that actually work.
The goal is to make sure the tools we build help people live—with dignity, self-sufficiency, and maybe even a few moments of joy in the middle of the night.
That’s the kind of connection that deserves our attention—the kind rooted in presence, not programming.
Footnotes
[1] ITU. Facts and Figures 2023. https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/facts-figures-2023/
[2] ITU. Measuring Digital Development – Facts and Figures 2023. https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-ICT_MDD-2023-PDF-E.pdf
[3] ITU. Digital Development Dashboard. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx
[4] Ipsos. Global Views on AI 2023. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2023-07/Ipsos%20Global%20AI%202023%20Report-WEB_0.pdf
[5] Ipsos. AI Trust Statistics by Country. https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-trust-ai-2023
[6] ITU. Bridging the Digital Skills Gap for Inclusive Digital Transformation. https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-DIG_SKILLS-2023-PDF-E.pdf