Monthly Archives: July 2016

As a gen-y-er, I find myself in a transitional phase of consumption. I have a collection of music and movies, the majority of which is digitised. But I still find value in physicality, particularly when it comes to music. It’s not just the warmth that comes from placing a record on the turntable and hearing the authentic crackle, but it’s also the larger hangable artwork that often comes as an extra add-on that is appealing. Norway’s booming DJ scene as outlined by the reading, is responsible for a staggering 30.5% increase in physical music sales. Although the statistics aren’t quite the same in Australia, there are pockets of Melbourne with a similar mindset of collecting vinyl for use.

But, as a few classmates and I were discussing yesterday, there is a high chance that those 5-10 years younger than us are totally engaged in digital consumption. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is just the way the world is progressing and developing. It seems to me that (besides Norway’s vinyl habits) the general trend is to become more and more possessionless as our access to more and more content (both news and entertainment) rapidly grows.

What I have noticed from this is that the huge influx of news content, for example, has improved spread but reduced depth. By this I mean there is a large amount of coverage on the same topics, but the quality of the coverage is lacking as our attention span gets shorter and shorter. We want condensed information or we run the risk of losing interest. That has become a major flaw with the way we consume our media. We are so privileged with our options that we perhaps take quality content for granted, hence the rise in popularity of sites like buzzfeed feeding the advertising sector.

I’m perhaps a bit standoffish when it comes to embracing new technologies. I think this comes down to being relatively satisfied with how I am set up at the moment. I am both a producer and consumer of content and don’t yet see the advantages of reading the news off a fridge… In saying that though, it’d be stupid to not keep an eye on the happenings of the entertainment industry because if I want to be involved in it down the track I, along with my colleagues will need to find clever ways to be innovative.

Such is the nature of our technological world today, whilst reading through this article, I could concurrently connect Schwab’s ideas and theories to other pieces of information in my web vicinity. He discusses a few different ways in which the world’s technology is advancing. One of these is the continual development of autonomous vehicles. Elon Musk is a key figure in this field, and his forward thinking plans with Tesla are something to keep an eye out for. One other advancement that Schwab discusses is the genetic modification of DNA in humans and plants alike. I am aware of Artificial Intelligence and the potential risks and rewards that studies in this field can bring. But I had not given much thought to what happens when we interfere with the biology of nature until I watched a Documentary on Netflix called The True Cost. In the most efficient way possible, it is a doco about how the fashion industry has become like fast food restaurants, creating a lopsided system whereby communities in third world countries are being outsourced to make clothes dirt cheap and suffering severe conditions in slave-like environments. Now, this is a serious issue and has huge repercussions. From the environmental perspective it means that more cotton is being consumed. The answer has become to genetically modify the plant to withstand poison and other pesticides in order to increase production efficiency so that more clothing can be made. The obvious problem with this is the amount of toxins being released in the air and directly into the soil. It is damaging, not only to our environment but the way in which our world functions as a whole.

Okay, so I’m not an expert in any of these fields, but you can’t disregard even the loose connections established between the few ideas above. The overarching theme that stood out to me from the reading is the ability we (those more so in the western world) have to access information through the Internet. But there is a huge disparity between those who have and those who do not have and it appears to be getting worse. At our fingertips is an extremely powerful tool evolving so rapidly that in order to effectively progress and develop properly we need to adapt to it in an inclusive way. With this adaptation though comes drawbacks. Our innate tendency to check our phones for example in an awkward/unnatural situation can simultaneously ease the tension and disconnect us from real human interaction – leading to individualisation, creating social issues as Schwab touches on.

It seems that the most important thing we can do globally is to collectively understand and embrace the changes in new technology in a way that benefits the human race as a whole.

– Gabe