“The only constant in the technology industry is change.” – Marc Benioff – founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company
To say that technology is evolving is a misnomer. Evolution implies gradual development, whereas nowadays, by the time we learn how to use half the features on our new smartphone, the next release is being announced and we feel like we’re missing out. We’ve become spoiled by the technological advances of our generation. We want what we want and we want it 90 seconds ago. Out with the old, in with the new. FOMO. And yes, I hate myself a little for having to know what FOMO means in order to relate.
We walk into traffic while texting or reading our emails, rather than wait the extra few minutes it might take to get to our destination.
We’ll miss the whole next scene of a TV show while we’re compelled to check IMDB so we don’t lose sleep over not knowing where we’ve seen that actor before.
If we don’t get a “BRB” or those three wavy dots to show that the other person is typing, we’re ready to send out a search party if it takes more than a few seconds to get a text response or a Facebook “like” from a loved one.
Those of us who are old enough to remember a time before the internet, remote desktop screen-sharing, email, dialup modems, or even the fax machine, may look upon this almost childlike need for instant gratification in our daily personal lives with disdain at how spoiled we’ve become. Our measure of success has become how many followers one has, not even caring that half of those “followers” are probably trolls who hide behind their keyboards and think they’re anything but self-important blowhards.
Our attitude shifts, however, once we start the work day. This is when we truly appreciate the technological world we’ve built for ourselves and that the company firewall blocks social media so we can focus on what’s important. Our measure of success should be self-awareness of a job well done (an actual job, not “YouTube sensation” or “social media influencer”) and the honest approval, not “likes”, from people who’s opinions actually matter to you. And if one of those people is the one who signs your paycheck, so much the better.
