How Is Technology Changing Our Lives

? In the 1960s, technology focused upon delivering structured information to the internal consumer via mainframes. In the 1980s, technology had moved to producing structured information for and between internal consumers via minicomputers and PCs. By the 1990s, technology had developed into delivering unstructured information to any consumer through the worldwide web. And today, technology focuses upon the production of unstructured information for any consumer using social networking. In other words, we have moved from structured to unstructured information, and from company usage to anyone using technology. The future will be one where unstructured information used by anyone on the planet will be related and analysed, so that information becomes intuitive. The thing is that this changes our thinking dramatically. For example, the millennial (also known as the Generation Y or Gen-Y, and born between 1982 and 1995) is now our mainstream new hire employee, as they're in their 20s now. This generation has grown up without ever wondering where technology came from or how to use it. They are not considering technology to be magical. It is just there. That is why our generation talk about digital cameras; they just talk about taking a picture on the mobile. Our generation talk about taping things; they just TiVo. We talk about having to call someone; they Skype. We talk about sending a letter or email; they just text and message. We arrange a social evening in real worlds; they meet virtually. The new workforce use technology at home that is far better than the technology you give them at work, and telling this generation to use your office systems is a bit like trying to force them to wear an office uniform. It just doesn’t happen. Their systems are as personal to them as our clothes are to us. You cannot define their work tech, and separate it from their home tech. That just does