the displaced texan

Over the weekend I got some wild notion the era of social media was over. I opined we were embarking on a new time period I dubbed, Human2.0.  My thought-process for such a random, if not selfishly promotional, statement was that technology is at a place where people are more easily able to connect to each other in ways that weren’t imaginable.  Now, I realize anyone could have stepped out to a busy street corner and introduced themselves to passersby, but it’s the ability to connect to a broad group of people in a relatively easy fashion that makes this Human2.0 concept fresh for me.

Because of technology and social media, people can now engage with people they would have never come in contact with in their regular daily lives.  My wife connecting to an old high school friend she hadn’t spoken to in over 10 years and then us having dinner with him in the matter of two days is astonishing.  Businesses are being asked by their customers to engage with them on Twitter and Facebook.  This goes beyond personal or corporate brand and reputation issues.  This goes to the heart of human interaction.  Human interaction that’s accelerated due to the immediate connection technology brings.

So, I take all that thinking and then read Steven Levy’s column in this month’s Wired magazine about how the Magic of Gadgets is gone.  Levy writes how as gadgets have become more simple the wonderment as been lost.  He starts off with this great quote from Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” He ends with the notion that maybe the way you get the magic back is by shutting it all down, which I almost agree with.

As I’ve noted on my About page, there was a great deal of magic happening when my dad and I unveiled our pizza-box Mac 7200 with 1GB hard drive.  We stared at it like a bunny had popped out of no where.  The same magical moment happened with our first CD player, our first iMac, the first big screen TV and all the other electronic toys.  All were magical and life-changing occurrences.

What’s magical about technology today?  Magic is watching my sons eyes light up when he watches a video of him doing TaeKwon-Do on the Flip cam. The magic is reconnecting to old friends and catching up digitally, so time spent in person is about moving forward, not on updating eachother.  The magic is being able to talk to bloggers, companies, friends, and agencies, old coworkers on Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis.

Now, the magic isn’t what technology humans can make, but what technology allows humans to do.  This new medium for relationship building, dialogue and engagement will all lead to where we started: building community to make sense of the crazy, unknown world.

Human2.0 won’t be defined as what website you use to connect with or what platform you choose to build community on.  Human2.0 will be all about reconnecting with people in an honest and open and immediate and unencumbered way.