While I was trying to get inspired to write a worthy post, I stumbled upon the following Nokia ad with the tag line: "Welcome to the fourth screen."
Watch it if you haven't seen it already; it's only 2:22 long. It's simply brilliant. Can I hire these people to do my marketing?
Let's step back and take a look at this. They are selling the idea of dragging people out of their basements and into the streets so we can have interaction with real people. It is interesting that a way to accomplish this is to make a mini-screen that is portable, instead of actually encouraging interaction with real people as real people.
Let's take yet another step back and take a look at ourselves. There is so much truth in this picture. It makes me think. Are we slowly becoming (or have already become) people who are afraid of people? Are we becoming more and more isolated with the help of new technology? Are we becoming people who are so anti-conflict, anti-social, anti-failure and have such a fear of rejection that we would rather express ourselves and share ideas through the security blanket of a computer screen?
Or is the new technology actually helping us to reach out to people that we would not have dreamed of meeting otherwise? This Internet world, the world-wide web that I have become so attached to in such a short time... Is it really helping us? or is it actually hurting us?
I'd like to believe it is the former; because for now, it helps me stay connected to other thinkers and also my sanity.
My concluding thought is this: Just like anything else, new technology is only a tool.
No idea, concept, technology, or theory is good or bad in itself. It's what we make of it. Some will use it for good; some will use it for evil. Some will benefit positively; some will benefit negatively.
Ultimately, each of us has to think for ourselves and take responsibility for our own actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment