Emotions in real time
From the point of view of creating, sharing and exploring content, mobility is a twofold path. On one side it’s a physical thing where our device of choice has to be easy to carry around and easy to use as well. It has to be a natural extension of the movements we already do. Then we will like it for sure.
On the other side it’s an emotional thing. Expressing yourself is a serious matter - even when we don’t take it very seriously. It signals to everyone around us who we are and what we stand for, either directly or indirectly. As humans we connect with such expressions emotionally and we judge one another on the basis of those emotions. They might not always be fair judgements, but we we make them none the less.
So whatever technology we use to express ourselves has to be as pure towards our emotional intention with our expression as possible. If technology itself becomes an emotional filter that waters out what we are really trying to say, we have a problem. We become misunderstood and unfairly judged by others - and none of us wants that.
Publishing is next! Any new publishing technology must consider that, whether it’s an app or a device. It has to be a natural emotional extension of who we are and what we feel like expressing through that technology. This is what gives mobility its inner quality. Just carrying a device around isn’t enough. If the way we use that device doesn’t support our needs for emotional expression, we are not going to bring it anyway.
In other words, the mobile revolution is about external and internal mobility being intertwined with the purpose of supporting human evolution to be as natural as possible. Nothing less than that, but that’s where we are. It’s a fundamental game changer in mobile technology, and the next big thing is to bring it into publishing for good. After all we develop according to the stories we tell - and how we tell them.
Spontaneous publishing Even more important is the connection between our emotional expressions and the ability to publish spontaneuosly. It’s usually called instant publishing but that term doesn’t hold any emotional value. Why would want you to publish instantly after all? Because you have a spontaneous urge to express yourself emotionally. It’s not thought through. It’s just a feeling.
What we are dealing with today is emotional expression in real time. That’s what mobile technology has given us. There is a direct link between what we feel right now and our ability to capture that emotion and publish it.
The ideas of Blogger, Flickr, Youtube and SoundCloud have fundamentally changed the world and given everyone a voice. With the mobile revolution it’s all coming together as personal expression in real time. And, such an expression will always be emotional for the simple reason that we haven’t had time to think it through before we publish.
Is it good or bad?
Well, it seems to be our evolutionary path. People want it. People love it. It makes us understand each other better even if there are a few misunderstandings along the way. But that again makes us communicate and engage in each other’s lives across continents and cultures. How could that possibly be a bad thing?