In 2005, just 11 years ago, when Pope John Paul II passed away, people that went to Vatican were looking to the place where the reason that brought them there was happening. Some of them, very few as we can see in the photo below, used their cell phones to take pictures that would hel them remember the moment.
Eight years later, those who went to the same place to celebrate the nomination od Pope Francis, placed themselves in the sale position (facing the action) but, instead of looking directly into the action, did it through the screen of the device they were using to record the event.
The picture showing a sea of illuminated screens is very descriptive and became very popular because it was the graphical representation of how uses and behaviors can change quickly. In “just” eight years, not only had mobile devices become popular (and radically changed the concept of what was a “mobile” phone), but also had the habit of immortalizing moments: the video started to attack the leadership to photography. The cell phone had clearly won the battle to the camera.
And only three years after that iconic picture, we now find this other one placed below in which the spectator stops being such to be the actor. In which you no longer look directly at the place where the action takes place because the important thing is not to have a graphic document of something, but to demonstrate (and possibly share immediately) that you were there.
Selfie world in which who are supposed to be the center of attention are placed in the background and from seeing faces happen to see backs that make them just decoration.
It seems to be that regardless of what companies do, users are placing themselves in the focus.
Heraclitus was right when he said “everything flows”.
We live in times where the changes are vertiginous, in which we can not take anything for granted, in which what worked yesterday may not work today in the morning.
Some people call Digital Transformation to having the eyes permanently open and adapting to current times. I call it living the present. And we must be very awake, because at this speed, the present was yesterday.
