I’m still processing the information I gleaned from that Canon Webinar on BYOD and mobility that I wrote about last week. It makes me think of the Tom Waits song (Some of you may be familiar with The Ramones version.), “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” and the line, “How the hell did I get here so soon?”
In high school in the seventies we had to read Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock in English class. It’s been a long time since then, but I haven’t forgotten my reaction to the book even if I’m sketchy on the specifics. I had to turn to Wikipedia for a refresher. Toffler’s succinct definition of Future Shock is the perception of “too much change in too short a period of time.”
As a teenager I couldn’t grasp that concept.” The world seemed to turn much more slowly then and I was completely oblivious to the rapid changes. Now I realize I was either blind, ignorant, on drugs, or possibly all three. It turns out the world moves in fast motion like a silent movie or like one of those chase scenes in a Benny Hill sketch.
Look how quickly mobile technology has changed everything. Just a couple of years ago no one was talking about BYOD or mobility in the office imaging space. Or if they were, few of us were paying attention. Today, it’s not a novelty or the latest and greatest, it’s how we live and how we function even if the office imaging space is just starting to embrace it. There was a scene in a recent episode of Louie C.K.’s show where he’s in a coffee shop having a conversation with a friend while all the young people around him are focused on their smart phones, completely oblivious to the world around them. It’s just a visual gag, but we get the joke and it’s funny because that’s the way it is now.
Now that I’ve been around for awhile and I’ve seen how fast things change in a short period of time, I better understand this concept of Future Shock that I didn’t as a high school senior. The only thing is, it doesn’t shock me.
Thanks for reading.
