Previously Published in Psychology Today "Positively Media." 2011 will be the year when technology takes a back seat to human experience. In 2010, people grappled with the deluge of social technologies and focused on how to manage, monitor, measure, and adapt information and tools. 2011 will bring a move toward simplification. People will not abandon technology, nor loose their enthusiasm. Technology is not going away. The simplification will come from lifting our sights above the tools, features, and click-throughs and focusing on the psychology underlying our interaction with media. Technology doesn't happen independent of human behavior; it happens because of it. Here are 15 trends we'll see in 2011. 1. Change as Normal. In 2011, new technology will go from being "totally unbelievable" to "that's so cool." We have seen staggering innovation in the last decade, but we are beginning to acclimate to the pace of change and move past the 'shiny … [Read more...]
The Psychology of the First Modern Revolution
We are experiencing a great revolution—the First Modern Revolution-- the result of a seismic shift in individual and group psychologies that come from the development and use of social media. This revolution is unfolding across societies around the world and is driving the techno-cultural trends we see for 2011. The really profound revolutions take place by shifting people’s worldviews, changing their expectations of how the world works and their place in it. The wealth of communication and media technologies have created a global community. Although perhaps not the Utopia many hoped for, it is clear that the days of isolation are over. I don’t care if you’re talking about global capital flows or conducting academic inquiry, to understand what’s going on, you have to get out of your own bucket, box, shoes, vantage point, ivory tower, or boardroom and look at the world from 360 degrees and appreciate it as a system. As humans, in our quest for certainty and answers, … [Read more...]
The Big Switch: Trading in my BlackBerry for a Droid
So it comes to this: I am part of the first new revolution. Technology has changed our fundamental expectations about how things should work. One of those things is access to information. We want information on-demand. More importantly, we want the information we need on demand. Most of don’t even realize our expectations have shifted. (And worse, most companies don’t either.) I have been a loyal BlackBerry user for a number of years. Right now I have the BlackBerry Tour. But after last night, I’m switching to a Droid. (I use Verizon, so iPhone isn’t an option here.) This new commitment to change happened because I got lost. At night. In the rain. Like a good social media observer, I was on my way to a Meetup event in a town where I don’t know my way around. Sure, I had the full complement of electronics in my car: Garmin, Blackberry, laptop, and iPad. Garmin didn’t help because I didn’t have the right address and in a moment of over-confidence, I … [Read more...]
