You want to think things are always as they were. Believing that the Smiths and Johnsons will progress along their linear lives, walking a line of predictability. Not to worry, you will notice when shift happens.

You missed something the other day…
Your friend co-worker wife sister brother mother was there, but not.
Thoughts off in zero’s and one’s.
Bits of existence floating through debris fields of copper and fiber.
And there you sat, feeling so lonely at lunch.
All the while, the others thumbing away on their anti-social devices.
It is happening right now.

Right before your eyes you watched your children check-out on TV, then cell phones, then the internet and now a 4.5 x 2.5 inch window into the web.

They started with calls, progressing to texts, photos and emails. Snakes crawled along byte sized screens, that graduated to color, to touch to tilt zoom pinch. Then they added options.

Your toddler dumbfounded by a keyboard and mouse, instinctively grab the gateway, slid their finger and chose a song.

One day some man, some company, some machine decided it proper to give you more choices, more reasons to check-out, so you did.

Eventually the awkward lonely moments at lunch disappeared, you I and the rest of them converged together and alone.

Laughing, giggling, snapping your best framed moments to share with anyone who would take the time to listen.

Then a million people shouting in a room did not seem so silly. And ‘all those moments that were lost in time, like tears in the rain’, they were recorded too.

Vacuum tubes replaced by transistors, replaced by IC’s, replaced by microprocessor. Technology following an evolutionary path like the man, marching towards the unstoppable future.

Here you sit, you don’t know how you got here, but here you are. Reading away in your comfortable digital space. You might be sitting or standing at a desk, or maybe something other.

For many, you’ve taken me with you, on your daily journey and given me 10 minutes of time. Ten minutes of real estate in your mind.

You might be standing on the platform, waiting for the train. You might be sitting in the terminal, waiting for the plane.

Two years ago none of you would visited me on your phone. Two years ago none of you would of made a purchase on your phone. Two years ago is a million miles away.

Shift is happening, and while your bottom line gross margin dollars aren’t making much sense, and everyone is analyzing the analyzers, how many more Android/ Blackberry/ iPhone users in your office do you need to wake up?

Here’s a metric for your musing, it’s a personal one, so no contesting it.

I use to spend 6 hours a day on my laptop, now I spend 12 hours a day with my laptop condensed in my pocket.

I could spend all my time trying to get you to visit my site, to shop on my site, to watch on my site, to just be on my site. You still need to sit down, turn on and connect to get to me.

Now, you can’t help the impulse, just slide your finger and there you are, looking out your window to the web.

—-

Here’s a shiney gem: PhoneGap