I’m one of the biggest Google fanboys around, but recently they freaked me out and I have video to prove it. This happened when I was setting up a Gmail account. Take a listen to the video below.
Should I be scared?
The Mindset of 2014 College Grads. What will 2030′s List Look Like?
We had a conversation at our staff lunch today about the Beloit College Mindset List. The list started at the college as an aid to help their faculty understand how to better relate to new students, but it has grown since its inception into a helpful snapshot for people everywhere to understand how rapidly our culture is changing.
Here’s a snippet from this year’s list:
The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since “digital” has always been in the cultural DNA, they’ve never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who’s that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.
It’s a pretty fun read with a list of 75 items, some of which made me feel pretty old at the ripe old age of 31.
Looking to the future to when my oldest daughter will graduate (possibly) in the year 2030, I imagine the world will be very, VERY different. Here are some ideas that I think might make the list in twenty years:
- Will think it’s a bargain to pay $5 per gallon for gas.
- Won’t have a clue what DVDs or CDs are.
- Blockbuster won’t even be a memory for them.
- Apple will be seen as an old, unhip company instead of the elite buzz they have now.
- Will laugh at their parents talking about facebook, since it will be replaced by something newer and better.
- Won’t know how to use a computer mouse, since they’ll grow up with touch-screens like the iPad.
- The daily printed newspaper won’t exist in any form.
- A “home phone” won’t make any sense in their minds.
- They won’t understand having to schedule a time to watch a TV show or movie since they’ll be able to watch whatever they want whenever and wherever they are.
- Going to college will be less popular than taking online classes.
As a church leader, I think it’s good for us to keep an eye on what’s happening in culture around us. I’ve written previously on what churches can learn from the demise of the print industry and I think preachers everywhere should keep their eye on the culture so that they can best present the never-changing message of the Gospel to an ever-changing world. We probably could use an update to the statement attributed to Karl Barth to “Read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other,” don’t you think?
What do you think the list might include in 20 years? Will my list be accurate at all?
Image by flickr user Matti Mattila
Must Watch Video for All MacBook Owners
I’ve been a MacBook Pro owner for a little over a year now, and apparently I’ve been winding the cable on my power brick the wrong way this whole time. Lifehacker to the rescue. They posted a video and link the the site Tested that will hopefully help me get a much longer life out of my (expensive) power brick.
The main concept is that you don’t want to put too much tension on the two end of the power cord. That could both create a fire hazard and cause the power brick’s life to shorten. Both are not good in my books.
If you own a MacBook, do yourself a favor and watch the video below. If you’re an Apple hater you’ll probably find humor in the video, too. They take a couple shots at Apple and all of its minions. Good stuff.
Got any tips like this for your Mac products or laptop? Share in the comments!
Meet “Bo the Bailer”
Just saw this video posted over at Mashable and it cracked me up. I feel bad for the dude that this will be his fifteen minutes of fame, but you don’t bail on your woman.
Public Facial Recognition: The End of Privacy or Awesome Use of Technology?
Mark Cuban just blogged about a new company he just invested in. While he didn’t give any details about who the company is, he did outline some of the key features. The two main features he described are: 1) Accurate, real-time stats on how many people or vehicles are in a given place at a particular time; and 2) Facial recognition of people in public places. Here’s an excerpt of what he wrote:
The next extension is to install it in places where we can add facial recognition software. So rather than someone checking in to a specific application, we would already know you are there.
I’ve been using location-based apps (like foursquare and Gowalla) for a little while now and I have conflicted feelings. At one point it’s kind of fun to let people know the places you’ve been or are at, but at the same time it’s kind of creepy to know that random people can know you’re not at home and can take advantage of that (see PleaseRobMe). I haven’t been creeped out enough yet to stop using Gowalla, but I’ve scaled back my use some.
What Cuban is talking about could take things to a whole new level. He’s right that many of us already have a publicly-accesible picture on our facebook profiles or other sites, so in a sense this data is already out there. But it would be really, really weird to walk into Walmart and hear a computerized voice say “Welcome, Kevin Rossen.” I imagine that something like that will happen in the not too distant future. I can think of some cool ways that churches could use a technology like this.
What do you think? Go read Mark’s post then come back here to discuss. I’d love to read your thoughts!
—UPDATE—
TechCrunch posted about this today and thought they had some interesting thoughts as to when this type of technology might be commonplace. I think they’re on to something. Here’s an exceprt:
But to say that the check-in is 2010 implies that 2011 is going to be the year this stuff starts coming into play. I say no way. We’ll be lucky if we see that kind of stuff in play in 2020. Not because the technology isn’t there — it definitely will be, and probably already is — it’s because we’re just not there yet as a society.
Image by Flickr user Rob Pongsajapan