Jun 15 07
Would you eat technology if it was made of spare ribs?
Posted by: Jordan Bailey
For those of you out there who aren’t Will Ferrell aficionados, allow me to translate. Would you use a technology if it was appealing to you?
For me, the answer is extremely simple. Yes, I will eat technology use technology that is appealing to me. A better question is whether or not the majority of people would do the same. Going back to the same ideas I talked about in Those Pesky Natives, I think digital natives are inherently more trusting of the benefit that technology will add to their lives. The leap of faith, so to speak, is minimal.
I realize that the early days of computing weren’t always so rosy. Since there was a time when system crashes and other technical errors were the bane of corporate existence it’s no wonder that certain people are slow adopters today. The problem I see with this is that there might be a bottleneck occurring. In a recent discussion we had here at SNP, a question was raised. How long will it take for video technology to fully permeate the corporate communications environment? I said, “5-10 years”, an answer that garnered a few raised eyebrows. I didn’t suggest that time frame because that’s what I hope for; I just think that’s a realistic prediction. If I could have it my way, everyone would embrace every new technology as soon as it was in Beta testing. But the reality is that, as a culture, we move slowly to adopt new trends.
Imagine what would happen if the masses were all first movers, willing to try new things without hesitation, and accepted new technologies on a daily basis? If those things were true, imagine how it would affect the advancement of technology.
Without the bottleneck of acceptance, user feedback and developer improvement would move things forward at a much faster rate. The turnover of new technologies would be almost immediate because we’d be faster at weeding out the technologies that weren’t appealing. If posed with the earlier question about video, I’d be saying 1-2 years instead of 5-10.
But the truth is that technology is not accepted by everyone. While an individual can see the inherent benefit of utilizing a technology, a larger group such as a corporation, can’t or least doesn’t as quickly as the individual. Whether or not this is detrimental remains to be seen. All I know is that things would move a lot faster if we all put on our bibs, closed our eyes, and savored the flavor of technology.
