I know, I know technological change is hard to process sometimes.
You finish a boozy weekend, your spacial awareness is cloudy, at best, and then your piece of technology starts yelling at you, like a Tamagotchi, for attention.
I don't know what it's like to have a baby. I'm assuming it's worse than how often my iPhone wants its Apps updated. But only marginally worse.
Part of our angst is an aversion to change, change being anathema to the natural human impulse of 'knowing where everything is'.
The other portion of our torment is created by the actual difficulty in navigating the new. Take the recent Apple mobile operating system update, iOS7. The change was enough to bring this kid to tears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTpXVv-DaBQ
Funny, then heartbreaking on some level.
But when the tears dry and the shortcuts are discovered again, all will be forgiven. Because, unlike adults, children have a short memory for their concerns around technological change. Once they get over the initial shock, they are like a freshly shaken Etch-a-Sketch.
And that's why children get interesting new technology.
Sure, adults do too, to a lesser extent, but only because we have the wallets. If children had money of their own to spend, the vast majority of human technological innovative effort would be aimed at satisfying their wants and needs.
Weeks later, you won't hear kids saying, "Mummy/Daddy, I really miss the old user interface on my iPad." No, as long as there are still the Apps they want, children will survive.
By comparison, Apple were the first to get rid of the 3.5 inch floppy disk drive on their first iMac, released in 1998. Adults STILL talk about it today.
Kids are early adopters. We would have flying cars by now if it were up to them.
Instead, we still have DVDs rather than online streaming services; televisions that still don't properly connect to the internet; and a whole host of other backward facing technology. The adults keep resisting.
To our own detriment.
We miss out on innovations like an augmented reality children's book. It is, truly, incredible:
http://designtaxi.com/news/358872/A-Modern-Pop-Up-Children-s-Storybook-That-Uses-Augmented-Reality/
A child simply holds an iOS device, like an iphone or ipad, over the pages of the book, and they can see the 'hidden' content in the pages. Characters, literally, come to life and dance via the screen. I found it utterly amazing, but you should watch the video sample at the link and see for yourself.
And for filmmakers and visual storytellers, this would be an extremely powerful new way to tell stories. The catch, however, is that you would be restricted to telling stories to kids. Children are the only ones interested at this stage. The adults are not ready.
But thankfully, children's ability to adapt so quickly to new technology is not a skill.
It's an attitude.
And attitudes can be changed, or even emulated, even by adults. So, there is hope for us all yet.
Assuming we can ever get over the new iPhone software update, of course.
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