Digital Dependency

I love technology.

Most of my life was built through it. My music and the tools I designed for myself. It allowed me to create something from nothing and the internet allowed me to share it with people across the world. It's one of the most powerful forces shaping modern civilization. But something about the direction we are moving in is starting to bother me.

Step by step, more parts of our lives are moving into a shared digital space. Our phones already run a large part of our lives. Our messages are there. Our money. Our tickets. Our work. Our social presence. Our personal history. And now, the next step being discussed is digital identity.

On paper, it sounds reasonable. More efficiency. Less paperwork. Faster services. Everything easier. But underneath that convenience is a more structural question:

How much should our lives depend on systems we can't control?

Because once identity, payments, communication and access all depend on a digital infrastructure, whoever governs that infrastructure gains significant leverage. Systems like this naturally concentrate power. And history shows that when such tools exist, they tend to be used.

Control can arrive through force. It can also emerge through dependency. When services begin to require integration, opting out may remain technically possible, but over time it becomes economically and socially impractical.

This is where I set a personal boundary.

As an artist, most of what I do exists online. My music lives in digital spaces. My audience is online. My DAW and most creative tools are digital. In many ways, my artistic identity and my real identity are already partially connected through an infrastructure beyond my domain.

That level of abstraction makes me more aware of physical, real-world tasks in general. Recently, I've been spending more time doing manual work outside screens and platforms. It feels grounding in a way that is hard to replicate in digital environments.

I rarely speak publicly about what I actually think about many of these things. Part of that is caution. The internet has become a place where certain statements can close doors, trigger bans or create downstream consequences that are hard to predict. Many people end up self-censoring without even realizing it. But I also think that if you create art and never express the ideas that actually shape your thinking, something is missing.

This is simply me expressing a concern that has been growing for some time.

I am not comfortable with a future where essential aspects of identity are fully tied to systems outside my control. Even if such systems are implemented gradually, I think it is important to remain aware of what is being centralized and what that enables long-term. Because once too many essential functions depend on shared infrastructure, stepping outside of it stops being a realistic option.

And that is worth paying attention to.

Thank you for reading "Inside The Mind Of An Artist".

Until next time,

Vítor