Social media has become a true extension of our lives. Now that our phones are always with us, and powerful enough to vividly display photos and videos in near real time, our phones become companions in our hearts and minds. Human nature adapts to technology on a deep level, and it seems we always find a way to keep up at paces that just a year ago seemed impossible. Technology itself pushes human nature into adapting new consumption patterns of media and culture.
Kevin Kelly’s book “What Technology Wants”, provides a realistic and believable explanation of this force. He elegantly describes how technology is evolutionary in nature, with repeatable patterns of new technology leading to more new things, and more new behavior, which creates an inevitable march forward.
I’ve been to many places in the world, the poorest and the richest spots, the oldest and the newest cities, the fastest and the slowest cultures, and it is my observation that when given a chance, people who walk will buy a bicycle, people who ride a bike will get a scooter, people riding a scooter, will upgrade to a car and those with a car dream of a plane. Farmers everywhere trade their ox plows for tractors, their gourd bowls for tin ones, their sandals for shoes. Always.
When we integrate new technology into everyday culture, our behavior changes.
This one-way pull toward technology is either a magical siren, bewitching the innocent into consuming something they don’t really want, or a tyrant that we are unable to overthrow. Or else technology offers something highly desirable, something that indirectly leads to great satisfaction.
If you are into technology, media, culutre, or just new ideas, I recommend you read this book! His ideas are intense, but you can digest it slow because it works one meme at a time. His thinking will cause you to look at technology and humans as a co-evolutionalry force that shines light on whats to come!
What Technology Wants – Kevin Kelly
