We don’t know we need something until it arrives.

This is especially true in the digital and social media space. New applications and platforms spring up and are suddenly indispensable. Just think of Facebook and apps.

I know there are those who simply refuse to ‘do’ Facebook – but they’re increasingly in the minority. I know a lot of people who shun all forms of social media, except Facebook. It’s an essential part of their lives – allowing grandparents to keep abreast of what their grandchildren are doing, or for friends separated by time and space to keep in touch and wish each other happy birthday. It’s even a place for mourning and commiseration after the death of a loved one.

Apps are something else entirely. If you have a smart phone – you use apps. ‘There’s an app for that’ now sounds so quaint. There’s now an app for just about everything.

Can you remember the time before Facebook and apps? Was life any harder? No, it was just… different. But those two things sure are indispensable now. Think even further back. I remember getting my first mobile phone – an old Nokia that allowed me to send text messages! Wow – now I was connected. The internet. Now that was a revelation – something that has completely, absolutely – revolutionarily – changed society. But I can remember life before the internet; it wasn’t that long ago, and I seemed to manage just fine.

The point I’m getting round to is that right now – at this moment in time – we think things are amazing. We have phones that do everything, have apps for everything, we’re always connected. THIS IS IT, BABY!

Except it’s not. There’s more to come – so, so, so much more. We’re only seeing the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. And once that iceberg has emerged a bit more, and a bit more – there’ll be more to come.

And when that happens – tomorrow, next week, next year – we’ll be wondering how the hell we managed without it.

So where is this taking us? I sure as hell can’t answer that. I just hope that each new thing that transforms our lives transforms them for the better, makes our lives a little more fun. Forget Google+ and its perpetual desire to control us. Maybe even forget Facebook and Twitter, with their constant desire to make more money. Let’s hope the newcomers, the upstarts, don’t try and control us and treat us as commodities. Let’s hope a little more humanism emerges from all of this.