Where once web users and technology each formed an independent part of the internet, something happened in recent years where the distinction between man and technology slowly disappeared, where each “realised” that the one could not successful evolve on this thing called the world wide web without the other.
Enter the web of today, a system where web services, applications and content survive because of the very people that use them and develop them further.
Likewise, never before has technology played such a vital role in the very existence of how people think, what people do and how they do it on the internet. You see, where once technology used to take a back seat in society, it is now taking a more central and dynamic role. This is because of the numerous ways in which people are shaping, through their usage, the development of technology. And this is just the beginning, and the crux of this post.
While people still play a very real role in the way the web works today — and how it evolves — the future of the internet will really be beyond what most of us consider possible. The most natural of its developments will be about technological and informational output being the result of intuitive processes that tap into the vast amount of usage data. And while this may sound a bit confusing, it’s the natural progression of how we live our lives. We want things to be easier, less complicated and more exciting than in the past, and for the internet to remain the phenomenon that it is and always has been, even though the way in which it works will shift.
But there is something else we need to understand: we as people, as marketers, as communicators, as students, as employees and as business owners — heck, we as a society — must “get with the programme”. We must understand that for us to be prepared for things that are yet to come, we have to start trying to recognise and accept that an attitudinal and experiential shift must happen.
What is it that we need to grasp?
People are challenging the very way in which ordinary day-to-day things occur. They are out on the internet creating and engaging with communities of people, vast amounts of content and content types, and innovative applications and platforms that, believe it or not, are still at the grasp of normal understanding and usage. It is only by facing it head on, and experimenting with it, that we will be prepared for however the internet will evolve. And evolve it will!
However, the sad truth is that too many people in seats of commercial, educational and societal influence are turning a blind eye to this fact. And this, in the long term, cannot be good.
What do you think?
Hi Gino
You’ve touched on something interesting – it absolutely eludes me how business has not embraced that learnings that the internet [today's even, let alone tomorrow's] has introduced.
The phenomenal rise of social media online has been quite startling, but its popularity [and the fact that this causes it to be taken for granted] hides the real underlying mash-up of IMPORTANT business fundamentals and principles – and business ignores this to its detriment.
For a bit of my take on this, please read this
As I said there, what you’ve noted [turning the blind eye] in itself presents a wealth of opportunities to those who keep their eyes open!
What do you think?
Hi Gino
The experiential shift has already happened – more and morekids in the States (where technology is economically viable)cannot remember the surname of their new best friend because they have yet to cross check it with their credit card sized shimmer pink and baby blue address book that contains thousands of irrelevant names. Perhaps the question should as to how we can make technology relevant in the age where millions are stateless and lost, whilst still managing to create a confluence between connections and the disconnected indifference of the world re: high speed internet – which in south africa is barely affordable anyway..
Allowing for people to realise their independence, specifically in the business sector where the middle man multi national corporations are less required – in fact, totally unnecessary, will perhaps prove to be the undoing of the corporate psuedo fascism that has taken over the world – *scream rip clothes off dance around naked on red bull -
nonetheless, the almost melancholic essence of your prose was touching.
”The most natural of its developments will be about technological and informational output being the result of intuitive processes that tap into the vast amount of usage data” ….i could guess or pretend that that i know what you mean by this….but i could easily be far off the mark. hence, i would prefer that you explain to me in simple english what this means.