I have just been reading through Peter Bryant's Blog 'Making Social Media Tick'. I found the video interview with Don Tapscott an interesting view, quite scary in some ways about how things are changing and possibly daunting for the future.
He starts by explaining how the new generation of 'tech-savvy' kids have the ability to multi-process- listen to music, surf the Internet and talk on the phone all at the same time. I would agree, I have often been found doing all three at the same time! The interviewer argued that surely then this mean kids will grow up with a short attention span and inability to focus. Tapscott's response to this was no, kids can focus just fine. His example was how kids can spend hours concentrating on a video game. Well yes a perfect example of that would be my 15 year old brother who we cannot tear away from his PlayStation 3! Does he have problems focusing at school? Unfortunately yes he does. So I do not agree that because a kid can sit on a video game or the Internet for hours that is a good measure of their focus. I can quite easily be very focused in dance for hours but not necessarily housekeeping!
He goes on to talk about a new "Generation Lap" whereby children are advancing on their elders in their digital knowledge, lapping their parents on the info track. This is very true. Two years ago I introduced my Mother to the world of emailing and the giant social site Facebook. It took some time but she eventually got the hang of it. Now there was good reasoning in introducing her to this new cyber world. Since I am often away on contracts it has been a cheap and easy way to stay in contact. She can send me a message, see my pictures of where I have been and even figured out instant chat! Now this was not an easy task to teach someone who was scared of computers how to find her way around. But now she has the basic knowledge and sees the benefits. E-mail has come in very handy. My brother attends The Royal Ballet Associates Course in London and they regularly email her about updates and classes. She regularly uses trip advisor most recently to search reviews on restaurants for their upcoming holiday. Now although no expert (she probably couldn't upload a YouTube video unless properly shown) she has become one of the millions that relies on the Internet.
As long as she doesn't take any advice from How parents stalk then I should be safe!
Tapscott feels that companies need to rethink the way they are targeting their customers. "Don't focus on customers, engage them" (Growing Up Digital, Don Tapscott). Prosumers want to be engaged in co-creating products they buy. He gave an example of The Threadless Company whereby the Customer is the Company. You can design your own product which will be put to the public to vote on and when there is enough demand for it they put it into production giving you some prize money andonline store credit. Is this innovative concept where producer and consumer collaborate slowly shaping the way businesses will be run in the future?
Tapscott does warn at the end of the video that the problem with this new generation is that we have a"cavalier attitude to privacy" (Growing Up Digital, Don Tapscott). I am glad to see that he did raise an important issue Web 2.0 technology faces. Going through every one's blog it is something that we all seem to raise concerns on, especially in professional practice. You wouldn't want a future employer to suddenly see pictures of you on a drunken night out and for this reason I have created a whole separate Facebook account. We leave a trail of digital media behind us that can end up being the image of us therefore we need to take the time to understand privacy settings and protect are personal information. I agree with Tapscott that or generation are too cavalier about privacy exposing more and more of themselves. We can see how this can lead to trouble from my blog about the school teacher that may get fired.
I then went onto watch the video called Social Media Revolution from Socialnomics. One clip that really stood out to me was:
"In the near future we will no longer search products and services,
they will find us via social media"
In my earlier post about Web 2.0 technologies I touched on how I think the web will develop in the future and I felt search engines will become more personalised to our needs. No doubt social media is changing the way we now socialise (who doesn't have a Facbook account?) and the way businesses are run and marketed. Developing at such a rapid pace it is overwhelming to think of the possibilities for digital media in the future.
The Future of Social Media (Steve Rubel,13th Jan 2010)
I found the above video on socialmediaexaminer.com. It is an interview with Steve Rubel, the director of Insights for Edelman Digital, the world's largest independent PR firm that help clients identify new trends in digital technology. He gives advice to businesses talking of "shared mutual gain" in which the customer wants to walk with you. Like Tapscott he shows us another example of a company listening to their consumers- My Starbucks Idea where anyone in the world can give Starbucks their feedback and ideas. At the end he closes with a powerful statement:
"Digital is not optional, its is mandatory" (Steve Rubel, 2010)
He predicts "there will be no tangible media in 5 years" and "it is where the world is going". Good or bad there is nothing we can do except hold on, be careful and embrace it!
thanks for that engagement with my post, I really appreciate your insights.
ReplyDeleteI liked the notion of shared mutual gain. I think one of the powerful aspects of web 2.0 is the ability of the user to engage with the creator for both of their gains. It enshrines in the digital world a concept that the creative industries have been wrestling with for centuries, which is the relationship between audience and creator.
I once met a sculptor who said that his perfect world is where he would stay on his farm on the North Island of New Zealand, make his sculptural pieces, finish them, put them on his farm and move to his next, and never an audience member shall glance them.
This tension between audience and maker, and whether there is an influence on the behaviours of each due to the interaction is at the heart of some of the literature in this field, but you observation of mutual benefit sums up the positive approach to the interaction, as opposed to the issues of commercialisation, corruption of artistic ideals or corporatism that typify the negative
Brilliant post. I'm going to go and read Peter's now. A couple of things you said really made me think. I think you're right about children's attention spans reducing and I don't think the fact they can concentrate on a video games counts. Video games are designed to be fast paced with rapidly changing imagery and situations. They don't require attention in the same way reading books (for example) do because the game changes for the user. It doesn't mean that kids don't have new and interesting skills that generations before didn't have because I think they do. The problem arises with the way kids are then taught. Traditional methods are beginning to mean less to children and it is becoming more difficult for teaches to engage students because they don't have billion pound budgets. I think it is important that schools and teachers do their best to try and keep with the technology to maintain the interest of students.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that made me think was The Threadless Company and other companies like it. I think it is great that people can get involved in the creative process and end up with products they actually want. The thing that worries me is that I feel like companies have the opportunity to take advantage of those people. If you come up with a great idea that the company then uses and profits from and all you get is token prize money are they not getting your ideas and work practically for free? Something that would not have been possible before.
Just a couple of initial thoughts but I loved the post.
Interesting conversation- the issues are there within the generational divide but there is so much emotional content as well. The rational world where technology reigns is actually driven by individuals who make decisions that are based on various assumptions. Knowing those assumptions are the starting points. The social world is full of the post-modernist capital gains of others... I just found discusses these in http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/cultural-capital-and-social-exclusion/project-summary.php
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