Globalization by gear
I've been traveling a lot this month. I've been in Canada, Korea, Hong Kong and am just leaving Sweden right now, where I was speaking at SIME 07, the big Scandinavian multimedia event; which was absolutely wonderful, by the way. Something that I've been reading loud and clear is how the Internet is quickly breaking down cultural barriers. In most relatively urban places in the world, people (read: young people), use advanced communication technology in every part of their daily life. Chat, Facebook, SMS, you name it.
The lexicon of this technology is not linked to any one country but is becoming a mish-mash of international abbreviations, mostly in English. Memory cards have been easily available in every place that I've been in the last few years, more apparent than Starbucks. The pictograms of technology like USB plugs, wi-fi hotspots and ethernet jacks are a sneaky new international symbology.
As new abbreviations and dialects come into existence from the ground up, this will serve to tie the world's youth together in a new and interesting way and incidentally pushing pop culture instantly out to the edge of the circle with imperceptible delay.
When I was a kid I could tell who was from urban hot spots and who wasn't by what they wore, what music they thought was hot and even by what kind of slang they used. No more.
I realize that these aren't new thoughts but call it another data point. I wonder what the world will be like in ten years and what the new generation, Gen Z(?) will think is important, given that they will be the first generation almost literally wired from the cradle.
Posted on November 16, 2007
