The mouse and the Graphical User Interface were both controversial and criticised whilst being developed. Why? They changed the way things were in the name of moving towards something better. They valued innovation over tradition.
Sometimes it’s easy for us to get lost in the hype of technology – especially in an age where talking about technology is made easier by the very technology we’re talking about. As thinkers, we need to be able to step back and think about the bigger picture.
The digitall use tech for all – iPhones, apps, Twitter, Augmented Reality. The digicool use technology based on how cool it is. The digeratti – the Scobles and Rubels – are challenging us to think in new and innovative ways.
But it isn’t the digitall who help change tradition. It’s the masses of digicools – the general population – who helped Facebook spread, realised the worth of Wikipedia, and used Google because they couldn’t remember URLs.
Here lies the decision for us all: are we going to talk about innovation and tradition, or be the ones who actually help put innovation over tradition?
The former only requires tweeting, liking, commenting, retweeting. The second requires thinking – how to take innovations used by a handful of digitalls and present them in a way the digicools can use.
That’s the gap that needs filling.