The Install Update Generation
As I sat watching the TV last night, second-screening with updates on the leadership spill across various news sites and social media channels, I realised that Apple had sent me a software update notification. Nothing was going to interrupt my media feast so I ignored it, knowing I could install the update overnight.
Then an interesting thing happened. One of the ABC hosts pointed out (via a text message he had received from a viewer) that the last time an Australian Prime Minister had served a full term of office was before the iPhone was released.
There’s no doubting we’ve come a long way since the iPhone Gen 1 was released on June 29, 2007. The world changed almost overnight. Nothing could be as big a disruptive force than the iPhone. Unless of course you like your politics more than your technology. It was only a few months after the iPhone hit the streets that the Kevin 07 caboose came steamrolling into town. Locally, in Australia, it was big news. At least it shook a few sauce bottles. John Howard, having served as PM since 1996, was beaten fair and square at the popular election in December 2007. It may have been the last time an Australian PM made it through a term of government without being ousted by his or her own party.
Well may we say God Save The Queen because (these days) nothing will save the Prime Minister!
It makes you wonder whether we have become infatuated with the impermanence of things. Our fascination and obsession with updating to the latest model, the newest version, the hottest gadget — it is a hunger that cannot be sated. We live in a time where we place more value on things that change rather than things that remain.
It happens all the time in business these days too. We jump onto the latest buzzwords and we blindly follow the thought leaders and influencers who have become the new evangelists of our time – only to realise a month later their thinking was so last month! It’s not that they’re wrong, or trying to lead us astray. It’s more that in our haste we forget to examine, to critique and to test these new rules of business. We consider them Gospel instead of hypotheses. We see this in SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, User Experience, Big Data, Digital Tech… each discipline has been primed and extorted, they have been held high as the next big thing, and sure enough, just as fast as they rise, they fall. All the hype dissipates because there is one steadfast rule to our humanity and we cannot override or uninstall, and that is this: humans don’t change at the same rate as things change.
Centuries of evolution and genetic codification don’t simply change over night because of a trending topic. We are hardwired to think in certain patterns and sequences. We are bound to cultural values that we didn’t create, but that helped create us, and yet we seek out the nearest self-help book or mindfulness app thinking we’ll find answers to our rising anxiety, depression or restlessness — without going back to those human-centered values and connections that actually offer substantial relief rather than superficial appeasement.
I don’t mean to ridicule the work that we do or the industry we digital servants belong to, but this trend for humans to not only want regular change — but to insist on it — is a trend that deserves some unpacking.
Similar to what Malcolm and family will be doing at The Lodge shortly. Well, that’s if the bloody renovations ever finish. (At least it’s nice to know some things don’t change!)
BTW… I ended up installing Apple’s latest update. I can’t stand seeing that little red reminder and not doing anything about it! Quite an interesting update if you read the fine print.
