The Speed of Connectivity

“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” — Eric Schmidt

I had the chance to attend a conference this week about the growing world of mobile devices and mobile advertising. It was a fascinating and challenging experience, but it was also a time that made me think. In 2014, searching and connecting to the Internet via mobile devices (phones, not tablets) surpassed all other ways of connecting to the Internet. By 2016, it's expected that mobile device connection will double that of all other modes of viewing the Internet.

A couple other statistics that caught my attention:
* The average person looks at their mobile device 150 times per day.
* Those under 25 spend more time on Apps, but have fewer of them.
* Those over 25 have more Apps on their phone than younger peers.
* There are 7 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion people own cell phones. 4.2 billion people own toothbrushes.

The mobile revolution is here, and it's not slowing down any time soon. That is unless the plot of "Revolution" is accurate.

The more I thought about that, the more I reflected on how our world has changed. I remember in 2008, when the film "Wall-E" was released. There was a scene that struck me and stuck with me. When they go to the ship where the whole of Earth has retreated to live. The depiction of society was striking. Each of those on the ship floated, immobile, fixated on a screen. There was little person-to-person contact.

When I saw that, I found it unsettling. It felt, to me, a little too close to where we're headed as a society. We now not only look at one screen, we often look at multiple screens at the same time. And in all that, the Internet may have made the world smaller in terms of being able to connect with people on different continents, but it has also made up more isolated, in a way. We don't gather in person, and we don't go deep. Facebook and Twitter weren't designed for depth, after all.

And we've already seen some problems manifest. It's easier to suffer isolation. It's easier to feel bullied and helpless. And people feel more comfortable communicating their thoughts in whatever way they feel, including maliciously and aggressively. People who would never think of saying something to a person before them have no problem tearing into someone online. It's a kind of anonymity and "courage" that is effecting the way we communicate.

It has been said the flip side of every virtue is a fault. I think the same is true of technology. The Internet is a wonderful, useful tool. But its effect on our world is profound, and it's only growing. But are we taking time to think through these changes?