Shifting, in Retrospect

I briefly referred to the presentation, Shift Happens, in last week’s post. I didn’t want to reflect on it at the time because I had just seen it. I find that when I see something so thought provoking for the first time, I get overwhelmed. I have to let the feeling pass for a few days before I can make sense of it all.

So, a week has passed and the video has since received about 1.7 million views and counting (note that I count for at least five of those views). What you would have thought if you saw a presentation given 15 years ago, in 1992? The presentation tells you that in 15 years, something called the “information superhighway” was going to revolutionize…

• The way you read newspapers.
• The way you post classified ads.
• The way you meet new singles.
• The way you keep in touch with friends and family.
• The way you browse for and buy books, clothes, and one-of-a-kind stuff.
• The way you calculate your taxes.
• The way you pay your monthly mortgage fees and conduct all of your banking.
• The way you apply for a job or a position in university.
• The way you draw, with a stylus pad instead of a pencil and paper.
• The way you develop photographs.
• The way you share photographs.
• The way you store photographs.
• The way you shell out your parking tickets.
• The way you watch TV.
• The way you listen to music.
• The way you give presentations.

Statistics unto themselves are powerfully suggestive. But statistics about technology and the rate of change we anticipate to come are even more evocative. Why? Maybe because technology is an area we feel we have little control – political, legislative or othewise. The idea of the internet and its ramifications, of globalization and its sociological, psychological, geographical, political implications should be nothing new for a civilization that’s voyaged every corner of earth and a bit of space. I think we’ve proven adaptable.