Download - Our reality is also our virtual experience
Our reality is also our virtual experience
Helen Mitchell
Why I’m igniting…in the next 5 minutes
Time travellingTonight we’ll go back and then forward again…how
we connect beyond space & time…
Daily life in Herculaneum, Italy, 79AD
Does what we want and need really change much?
The one constant is…
• Disruptive innovations, changing…– Business models– Culture– Spread of ideas,
beyond geography– Social interactions
For us, it’s the digital age
Once upon a time, I studied virtual communication
This is what I saw
This is what some thought
Where does ‘virtual’ come from?• “Being something in essence or fact”
• 14th Century: from Medieval Latin virtuālis effective, from Latin virtūs virtue
A current disruptive innovation“the virtual revolution”
Yet…Face-to-face as the ultimate?
• What if it’s not possible?• How do I build trust?
Second Life Image credit: NMC Second Life / New Media Consortium
It’s pretty much all ‘virtual’ anyway
• Ever since we began recording our thoughts
• Writing is… – “the translation of sound into a
visual code” - Marshall McLuhan
Consider mobile technology
Things that change how we connect
• Printing press
• Telephone
• Web
• Social media
Printing press
• Mid 1400s: Growing literacy, eager for more • “Information revolution”…and power shift• “Democratisation of knowledge”
Telephone• The transactional became the conversational – over time• Needed new social customs
Web
• Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal approved in 1989: “Vague, but exciting”
• Vision = social & collaborative
• Remember… “Why do I need a website?”
Social media
• Mass communication to participatory communication
• Flattens hierarchies and control of ‘the message’
• And it’s still new for a lot of people
• Some people don’t like it…
It’s changing our brains…
How we’re really using it…
They’re just new tools - our response makes it work
• “… the real revolution is in this later and prolonged phase
of ‘adjustment’ of all personal and social life to the new
model of perception set up by the new technology.”
- Marshall McLuhan (1962)
We are here
Reality - it’s up to us
• Virtual works best with our humanity
• Our behaviours make the difference
• Find ways to ‘see’ each other,be with each other
• Our opportunities are great– Individuals
– Organisations
Find me
@helmitch
helmitch.blogspot.com
linkedin.com/in/helenmitchellaus