Digital Lifestyle
Children begin using consumer electronic devices at an average age of 6.7 years old, according to The NPD, up from an average age of 8.1 in the research firm’s 2005 study. A mother sues her daughter’s best friend over the loss of an iPod. Meanwhile, a British government study reports that robots could one day demand the same citizen’s rights as humans.
Welcome to the Digital Lifestyle Ubertrend, or the “marriage between man and machine.” As technology weaves itself ever more tightly into the fabric of life, the timbre of humankind is changing. Slim attaché cases have disappeared only to be replaced by carrying cases with wheels and retractable handles, better to carry those 10 extra pounds of digital gear. Automobiles are now chosen based on their compatibility with Apple’s iPod:
Meet the 4,000-pound iPod peripheral. The 2008 Cadillac CTS, pictured above, interfaces directly with Apple’s popular player, has a 40GB hard drive than can “TiVo” radio broadcasts, plus a host of other digital lifestyle features.
More than 50 million people worldwide have donned avatars, or “digital masquerades,” to play in remarkable virtual replicas of our real worlds, such as Rexon’s MapleStory or Second Life. Classic human dialog is being replaced by terminology heavily influenced by technology, from multitasking to crashing to googling to photoshoping to blirting (flirting by BlackBerry) to texting.
For many, e-mail resembles a cocaine addiction. In fact, the ubiquitous BlackBerry, now used by some 8 million consumers, is popularly known as the “CrackBerry.” The result of all this digital interaction is that human relationships are being affected in ever so subtle ways.
The New York Times reported in August 2006 that “as the number of home wireless networks grows, laptops — along with Treos, BlackBerries and other messaging devices — are migrating into the bedroom and onto the bed.” In other words, technology’s most important tools are inserting themselves like a “digital enfant terrible” into the relationships of life.
In online chat forums, consumers are increasingly referring to their laptops as their “lappy” — suggesting that computers have become an extension of the user’s persona, and deserving of a pet name.
Nike Chairman and Founder Phil Knight recently announced that all of it running shoes would be “iPodified” – able to accept a Bluetooth transmitter that reports wirelessly from your running shoes to your iPod headset how many calories you’ve lost and how far you’ve run.
A long line has formed in San Francisco. Harry Potter movie? No. Celebrity picture signing? No, it’s “iDay”: the Apple iPhone line on June 29, 2007.
Is it any wonder that we’re increasingly becoming addicted to this lifestyle? As Canadian Daneane Gallardo once told BusinessWeek, “I stopped watching TV a month and a half ago. If I didn’t have to eat, pee and have sex, probably I’d have no need for the 3-D world.”
Now that’s a digital lifestyle indeed.