Technology is our friend, but it can also be our worst enemy, writes Nikolai Eiken.

This is a chronicle. Chronicles reveal the attitude of the author. You can submit chronicle and debate entries to VG here.

NIKOLAI EIKEN, student in the field of media and communication

I was fortunate enough to be a media student and to be part of a generation that grew up online. It gives me digital competence that I will never have in the future.

Today, there are two worlds: the digital world and the real world. My generation has grown up with one foot in each.

However, too many know too little about the digital world, because it is, to the surprise of many, much more complicated than the real world and contains many dangers, often more hidden.

Now, a new revolutionary element has been introduced to the digital world: artificial intelligence. I’m finding it difficult to know how to approach this, so I’m sharing my concerns with many experts.

However, it is not my generation that I am most worried about. Many elderly people in Norway have digital skills so low that it really freaked me out.

Now I’m not talking about those who can’t buy bus tickets in the app or don’t even dare to use Facebook, but those who really dare to set foot in the digital world.

Digital competence is not about the ability to use website or application functions. It’s about how you use it and you have a critical relationship with how.

Technology is our friend, but it can also be our worst enemy.

You keep seeing examples of parents struggling to make sense of the digital world.

Many, for example, are exposed to fraud in various forms, because they have not yet developed a critical understanding of media, because the whole digital world is generally something new and man-made, many cannot imagine that it will contain as many dangers as the real world.

They’re used to spotting a mugger on the street, but not someone who sends an email that looks like it’s from your local savings bank.

Based on this, I believe that more resources are needed to improve digital competence among parents, but also for future generations.

To be honest, I don’t know how to handle artificial technology.

This is despite the fact that, far more than any other, I have received training in critical media use because of the line I took in high school.