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The Revolutionary Aspect of Technology is its Ownership

photo credit: Peter-Duke

This morning, I heard a conference keynoter say the following:

The biggest difference between the youth of the 80s and 90s and the youth of today is the introduction of technology.

This is a pretty common characterization of today's technology as something new. I've argued with myself before about whether or not we are in an era of technological revolution as it relates specifically to the internet. In the moments that followed the delivery of the above statement, however, I had an epiphany. Here it is.

The biggest difference between the youth of today and the previous generations of youth is not the introduction of technology. New technologies have been introduced during every generation's youth. What is different now is the ownership of the technology. The emergence of personal computing is the first technological advancement that is owned by the younger generation. That ownership is literal and figurative - the youth not only own the physical devices, they own, almost exclusively, the knowledge to operate them. Even further, the younger generations, for the first time, own the attention of the manufacturers and marketers of the technology.

The television, the radio, the telephone were all household technologies own by the middle generation - the power generation. They were introduced to homes by the owners of those homes - the parents. The children and youth were exposed to these technologies not on their own terms, but on the terms of their parents. The technologies were owned not by the youth, but by the adults.

So let me say it again succinctly for you.

The revolutionary aspect of today's technology is not the technology itself. What is revolutionary is that the newest technologies are owned, both literally and figuratively, by the youngest generations.