NOTE

Indexed Reputation

Digital technology assigns social positioning by attaching a reputational level to individuals based on the field they pursue. In simple terms, when someone asks about a person’s name, the first response is often to conduct digital “stalking” across online platforms—to examine how far their reputation, portfolio, track record, and professional trajectory extend within their chosen field. In the academic world, this logic operates even more strongly. Numerous indexing and ranking systems effectively place scholars under a regime of measurement, where individuals become bound—and in many ways constrained—by quantifiable indicators. This reality feels suffocating, yet it remains difficult to escape, even when one is reluctant to accept it. Therefore, anyone’s arrogance about past greatness may ultimately become nothing more than a fading name and a diminishing brand, day by day, because the public and netizens judge what is displayed in those indexing and ranking systems. This condition is dangerous for those who continue to think within narrow, insular frameworks.

In many cases, a person’s reputation endures because it is genuinely recognized by the public and has not been eroded by new developments. Unfortunately, much of this recognition is not recorded digitally, while today’s world increasingly demands such digital traces. It is acceptable to reject this logic, but one must be prepared to be perceived as coming from outside the very field one claims to belong to—to be excluded from consideration, and ultimately, not counted. In this context, anyone who fails to grow with the times will inevitably be left far behind. If the era itself is moving and accelerating, at the very least one must grow at the same pace. Many successful individuals, in fact, grow faster than their time—so much so that they end up reshaping the era itself.  Unfortunately, egoism—feeling always right, feeling great, and feeling powerful—often shackles a person’s capacity to grow. It is further reinforced by comfort and the absence of any real urge to challenge oneself to move far beyond the currents of the times. This mindset frequently takes root in the minds of the arrogant. More dangerously, such people seek to preserve the status quo and push aside those who are actually growing. Abdullah Khusairi