This morning on Twitter business analyst Benedict Evans provoked mixed responses by drawing a parallel between Apple’s little local difficulty with maps and the new Flash for iOS. @kentindell ’s response included the phrase “it’s the going backwards that people loathe”.
Which set me thinking.
I was in the kitchen washing up at the time. Yes. Washing up. We do have a dishwasher (frankly never over impressive in its performance) which gave up the ghost over a year ago and which I’ve never sought to repair or replace. Why? Because when it broke down I made a discovery: put a tea towel in the hands of a screenager, it mobilizes their mouth. Teens who are rarely parted from their mobile devices become lucid and engaging. I’ve learned more about their experiences at school and college over the drying up than I ever did at the dining table (and yes, we do still eat at one of those and at risk of sounding as evangelistic as a reformed addict – there’s no TV in the room). Courtesy of our dishwasher I’ve learned that going backwards – technologically speaking – is not necessarily loathsome.
This week I made another discovery. If I don’t work in my study in the evening, but lie on my bed and read – all three teenagers will, at different moments, miraculously apparate in search of conversation. Which meant that this morning my copy of @ajkeen’s #Digital Vertigo lay abandoned on the floor by my bed. “What’s #Digital Vertigo about?”, mumbled Felix (14), wandering past, mouth full of toothbrush. “Um, it’s about the Internet, I guess”, came my reply. Felix swilled, spat and snorted (physically and metaphorically) “What?! People getting dizzy on the Internet!?”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.