We are only getting started.
A couple of months ago I attended a lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg. While discussing findings of the World Internet Project, a study on the impact of computers, the Internet and related technologies on families and society, he noted that a mistake had been made in not tracking television users from the beginning – before television was presented to the public. We missed out on what would have been some very useful metrics. For example, where did time for television come from? Who are the never-users? Researchers have taken advantage of the opportunity to track these metrics for Internet usage.
Since 1998, computers and the Web have led people to watch less TV. However, as Cole explained, broadband has become the unifier. The Internet is on all the time, moving it from the “backstage to the centre stage of the home.” He cited a statistic that over 50 per cent of those who have WiFi use it in the bathroom. We are constantly online and this has allowed TV to co-exist with the Internet (as opposed to dial-up access, which often saw people retreating to a back room to go online). And this is still just the beginning of the transformation digital media will have on our lives.
Twitter, iPhones, Foursquare, the ubiquitousness of Facebook, Nings, location-based media – the list goes on. All of these media developments are changing the way we perceive and interact with the world. According to Dr. Cole, in 2009, 55 per cent of members say that their online communities are as important as their offline communities. This was an increase of 12 per cent from 2008. Improvements in technology will only blur these boundaries further. Augmented reality is the most interesting of the developments in my opinion. The overlay of information over tangible space using GPS will provide people with the option to experience a completely different and enhanced reality powered only by more information. The speed of change, not just in the technologies available, but also in the way our culture is adjusting to the constant presence of the Internet is astounding. And because we are, in my opinion, so far from our long-term media and technology goals, I think we are still very much at the beginning of it all, even though this decade has seen such dramatic evolution.
I know that I am far from the first person to observe these changes. But it is at this time in my life that, more than ever, I am amazed each day by some new development in technology and, more significantly, the way people are using new technologies. I feel fortunate to be working in media and so I am writing this blog in order to join in the conversation and really be a part of what is happening. See you out there.
