Do Not Disconnect - The Real Digital Divide

The fly in the ointment, Opito Bay, around 2007.

This post was originally published in November, 2007. Almost two decades on, the photograph and the argument both feel — if anything — more relevant than they did then. I have updated this post lightly in May, 2026, some 19 years later!

The Photograph

I was on holiday in Opito Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, sitting on the couch in the place we were staying at. A friend's iPod was resting on the coffee table, on top of a copy of The Economist from March 2005, whose cover story happened to be titled "The Real Digital Divide." A fly landed on the iPod's click wheel and stayed there.

I reached for my camera, took the shot, and edited it later in Photoshop to give it the grungy, oversaturated look you see above. The fly on the iPod along with "The Real Digital Divide" struck me — immediately, and with a kind of embarrassing literalness — as the fly in the ointment.

The Original Digital Divide

"The Digital Divide" as a phrase had been around for nearly a decade by the time that Economist issue went to press. It described the gap between people with access to computers and the internet, and people without — a problem of poverty, infrastructure, geography, and inclusion. The Economist's leader article from 10 March 2005 argued, persuasively, that the way to bridge that divide wasn't cheap laptops but mobile phones, which were already reaching billions of people the PC era had skipped. (That link is a gift article, so you can read the original in full without an Economist subscription.)

That divide was real, and is still real. But I was struck even then that a second divide was quietly opening alongside it — and the fly on the iPod felt like exactly the right small reminder of it.

The Newer Divide Is Between Us and Each Other

The newer divide isn't between us and the technology. It's between us and the people standing right next to us.

Flash back to the late 1970s and 1980s, when the Sony Walkman and Discman were revolutionary. They offered something genuinely new: a portable, private soundscape that travelled with you. They also offered something genuinely strange — the social acceptability of standing in a crowd and not being there. By 2007 the iPod had succeeded the Walkman; by today, smartphones and earbuds have succeeded the iPod, and the bubble has only thickened.

Living in Southern California, with little public transportation, I've long felt the isolation that cars impose on a city. But the isolation isn't just physical now. Even in bustling urban centres, where mass transit hums with activity, people willingly cocoon themselves in music, podcasts, and glowing screens. The serendipity of public space — the overheard conversation, the chance recognition, the brief eye contact that becomes a chat — quietly empties out.

Social networking sites promise connection, but do they really bridge the gap? It seems that for every friend request accepted, there's a conversation lost to the hum of headphones and the pull of a screen. The irony isn't lost on me: as our digital networks expand, our real-world connections seem to wither.

A Small Reminder, Almost Two Decades On

When our devices tell us "Do not disconnect," I sometimes hear a plea in the message — not a technical instruction, but the voice of the ghost in the machine, reminding us of its dependence on our touch. In this dance between humanity and technology, who's really leading?

The fly on the iPod was nearly two decades ago. The iPod has long since gone the way of the Walkman. The Economist still publishes. The fly, presumably, is also no longer with us. And the divide it accidentally illustrated is, if anything, wider.

Perhaps it's time to pause, unplug, and reconnect — not just to our devices, but to each other. A walk in a local park or garden with your camera, perhaps?

Available on Redbubble

If the image resonates, the original photograph is available on Redbubble as a notebook and on other products. If you're truly brave, perhaps you would like to order it printed on a smartphone case! 😆 — a small daily reminder of the fly in the ointment.

👉 The Real Digital Divide — Notebook on Redbubble

View all my work on Redbubble by searching @kornkobart.