This week reporting from Delhi, India
Good morning. It’s great to be back after a much needed 18 days of much less rest and relaxation. Not that it was not busy with Christmas shopping, family functions and all that the holiday season brings. However, I was not flying anywhere, working or writing the daily blog!
So, are we entering the post-smartphone age?
One of the things I did during the break was to catch up on some favorite TV spots. One of those, Reliable Sources, with Brian Stelter, included a segment with futurist Amy Webb. Stelter asked her whether the smartphone will just be physically attached to our hands in the coming years? No, she said, “the 2020s will be the beginning of the end of this product that we all hold so dear… It’s not going away, it’ll start to just recede into the background. What replaces it? Smart glasses, accompanied by rings, and very likely bracelets.”
I know, I know. It is hard for us at the start of 2020 to imagine that we will not depend on our most reliable gadget by our side at all times. Rings and bracelets? How will we tell stories? What will we do with our hands then? Just thinking out loud here.
Apparently Webb is not alone in anticipating the post-smartphone era.
Kara Swisher shared a similar vision in her most recent NYT column. “Whether we move toward more intuitively created tech that surrounds us or that incorporates into our bodies (yes, that’s coming), I am going to predict that carrying around a device in our hand and staring at it will be a thing of the past by 2030,” she wrote. “And like the electrical grid we rely on daily, most tech will become invisible…”
Invisible tech! That’s an interesting thought.
Swisher writes:
That’s right, I am calling it now: There will be an internet in the future that stops screaming at us. Added bonus: President Trump’s tweets will probably be gone, too.
While it may be difficult to imagine what Webb and Swisher are suggesting, I have no doubts that their experts views should be considered. What it means for people in newsrooms is that the quest for new platforms in which to present our content continues.
Content managers will have to be experts at various platforms. Content will be routed in many different ways. While the story will continue to be important, communicators will find that their craft continues to require that they update their skills.
Now, about rings and bracelets? Wonder what role Tiffany and Cartier will play.
Start the year with The Story
A good read to start the year 2020: The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon
Mario’s speaking engagements
March 13, 2020
Keynote presentation at the National Media College Association Spring Convention, New York City, NY
March 27, 2020
Keynote
New York Press Association (NYPA), Saratoga Springs, NY.
TheMarioBlog post # 3179