When I was a kid I was taught two things:
1. Everything you can touch is an object. What you can not touch is not an object.
2. What you can not see is not there. Only what you can see is here.
Modern technology and internet seem to challenge this two basic rules on the root. Internet is more real than the moon during daylight and more touchable and tangible than for instance a lion, nuclear radiation or clouds.
Technical devices get smaller and more compact every month, the development does not seem to stop but at the same time brains stop catching up with the rapid changes. Especially elderly people have difficulties understanding that hundreds of papers can be saved on an USB device being smaller than a sugar dice.
Even more surprising is the conformity of the digital world to the law of nature as for example rules about wave movements among masses, acceleration and gravitation. Maybe this is just a coincident because every of this inventions has been created by human brains which apply physical rules automatically or because of sheer luck. Nevertheless the amazing world of bits, bytes and wires remains fascinating for all age groups.
Small devices like pads, netbooks, laptops, smartphones and readers getting more popular every minute even so there is a lot of critique about the user-friendlyness of certain products. I still love my old-fashioned tower pc not only because it is more tangible in space consumption. Moreover tower pc’s offer more possibilities concerning extension of devices and drives, replacing of broken items and tuning the power and look of it. It seems like their fits more imagination and customization into a tower than into a laptop.
Nevertheless small devices are in and people do not ask for updating and tuning as new technological generations ask more and more to use and discard them because of compatibility and system business.
Finally one could say that people go over natural borders since years to gain innovation and that now the majority follows their path and act against basic rules can be seen as innovative society or just rule of critical mass – depends on your point of view.
Metropolia Business School Blog 