At lot of the feedback I get when talking about how the world is changing around us, is around the scepticism that any of this makes a damn bit of difference in our world, especially when it comes to public services.
Well, maybe you’re right, but it’s so easy to pass this off as a fad, or only of interest to a minority audience – and I think that’s quite simply a mistake.
The feedback I hear most often is that this is “all about the kids” especially when it comes to social media. Many studies have shown that actually, the biggest growth areas of use of social computing are not where the media would have you think, spotty, bottle bottom glassed weirdo’s in their bedrooms that never see the light of day, but actually are in the older generations, and just to be inclusive, when I say older generations, I mean people who grew up without a computer in their home. That’s people like me and you folks.
Increasingly older generations are finding that these social tools can make a real difference in how people live our lives. Whether it’s simple things like people creating a more interactive experience from traditional one-way events like watching QuestionTime and interacting via the QT hashtag on Twitter or more serious uses where older people can open up a whole new social world that provides them with critical contact with the outside world providing far great success with Assisted Living programmes.
Quite simply, these technologies make a real difference in our lives – if we can make the most of them – and that seems to be a big if…