What We Got Wrong About Digitalization

Digitalization has become an epoch: a legend of our time, promising leverage, access, and a cure for systemic inequities. Policymakers and companies alike present it as a universal solution: once technology is introduced, progress will follow. And in many cases, it has; making industries more efficient, records more transparent, and trade more fluid. Yet the question remains: how deep does this transformation reach? How does digitalization live in people’s daily realities?

My study of social commerce in Indonesia revealed a more complicated truth. Among informal micro-entrepreneurs, digitalization does not mean algorithmic optimization or data-driven sales. It simply means selling the way one always has—only now through WhatsApp and Instagram. Products are showcased on stories, transactions confirmed via chat, and payments settled manually. In essence, it is conventional trade, relocated to your phone. These realities are not catered by its rhetoric, for digitalization is not a cheat code; it needs time to be translated among its users. When one focuses only on its promise, the grounds will echo its dissonance.

This dissonance became strikingly clear during a training I conducted in Maumere years before. I was showing MSMEs how to expand their markets through e-commerce, yet the room was hesitant. When I asked why, one participant answered: “Because the shipping costs more than what we sell.” Behind that single answer lay a deeper reality—structural constraints that technology alone cannot fix. What should be a training, became a mere pitch.

For many, digitalization has become a symbol of modernity but without the substance. It connects people to platforms but not to affordable logistics, fair financing, or stable markets. Until those foundations are strengthened, digitalization risks imposing as a façade. True transformation will only begin when technology grows not in width, but in depth. When it finally serves people’s realities, not rhetoric.