Do you ever feel like the social world is moving faster than you can keep up with? I will admit, I often do. And since beginning to daily expand my horizons to the newest and latest social media happenings in my current Ryerson course, I'm amazed at how seemingly behind I am, when I thought I had a good grasp on things. One area that I still am not completely in tune with, but is spreading like wild fire, is the explosion of applications. The makers of these are truly "appifying our world". There are millions of apps available, some of which many don't use, others that are must-haves and more that are set to come that are going to break technological grounds.
While having lunch with a girl friend earlier this week, who has just announced she's expecting, she began telling me that he baby is approximately the size of an avocado, to which I replied, "Pardon? And how do you know that?!" Well, after a lengthy discussion, I learned that she, like many other women who are expecting, downloaded an app to her iPad (I'm Expecting - Pregnancy App, seen here: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/im-expecting-pregnancy-app/id383565674?mt=8). Now, rather than reading many hundred page books or sitting there confused and worried about all of the changes shes experience, she has access to information at her finger tips like never before. She receives a weekly email that lets her know the approximate size of her baby (comparing it to a particular sized fruit or vegetable), can read information daily about what to expect during each week and an exact countdown of when her baby is coming, letting her know how many days are left.
I also read this week about the launch of iBook from apple - the appification of textbooks. After reading a number of news articles about the product, I can already see how it is going to completely revolutionize the way future children learn in the classroom. Apple has already secured four of the nations biggest textbook publishers who will make their textbooks available on the iPad.
So while these are only two examples of the appification of the world, they stand out quite a bit. And while we, as PR practitioners, must remain current and in touch with the ever evolving social world, I can't help but think about how older generations (who may not be as with the times) react to this. For instance, my mother who is a teacher, simply cannot fathom an education system without physical textbooks, but it is becoming a stronger reality that textbooks could be a very distant memory in the not so distant future. Also, trying to explain to my grandmother that there is an app for pregnancy that keeps you informed throughout each trimester, she absolutely cannot comprehend the idea, saying "why would you ever need something like that?"
And this makes me think: Does the advent of the app world make us more reliant on technology and feel less and less like we can't live without it? Because the truth is, everyone got by just fine before us.
I agree, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by social media and that I can't keep up with it. I have the basic three social media accounts: facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. I keep up with all three quite regularly, but not sure that I can do much more. Plus I have other social media apps to keep up with such as instagram. When Path came up late last year, I decided to check it out but never signed up for it. I just didn't think that I could add another social media app for me to keep up with. I'm already spending so much time on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and instagram. Trying to juggle that with work and personal life? That's pretty tough. At some point, I think we have to pick and choose the social media platforms that we want to be involved in.
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