The line between technology as an enabler and a necessity are shrinking quickly. Last year alone Smart Phones saw a 42% increase in sales and more manufacturers are adding functionality that blur the lines between a practical communications device and portable, all encompassing, connected 24 hours a day 8 days a week 500 days a year life-lines. How does this impact you? You are now more likely to check e-mail in the strangest places, and the stranger fact is that it is becoming more socially acceptable.

Is it essential to check e-mail every 5 minutes 24 hours a day? Maybe if you are monitoring some life sustaining application, but even then wouldn’t it send you an alert if something was amiss? But the real point of this post is to talk about how a phone is no longer just a phone, it is a Smart Phone, or a BlackBerry, or a PDA. Basically it is a phone, a camera, a dry cleaner and your third grade teacher all rolled into a shiny or matte, depending on your preference, little box with a lot of buttons. 

The upcoming release of the Apple iPhone is a great example. Most of the marketing around the product talks about everything BUT its core function. Cool ways to manipulate Safari with your fingertips, management of various file types, touch screen interface, cooks and cleans your house and takes your kids to school. But little is mentioned about its main function which is just being a phone. I have had a soft phone interface before with the 8125, and I still prefer hard plastic buttons anyday. Plus I am not a fan of the smuggyness factor. Yes, I just said smuggyness. Street cred just went down 3%.

And this is how it happens. We as individuals have certain expectations that once a certain threshold is attained we expect the same level of performance and additional enhancements. Think about any job that you have ever had. Once you exhibit a certain level of proficiency that becomes the norm and additional skills or value need to continue to evolve.

You as an individual have now gone from employee version 1.0 to employee 2.0 without even really realizing it (Service Packs may vary). Now does this mean technology is a reflection of our own desires towards extreme self actualization? Or is the technology driving human behavior? We live in a bigger, better, faster society. How much of it is defined by the way we interact and consume technology and vice versa? Are we a reflection of the expectations of technology? Or does technology simply mimic human behavior moving forward?

If anyone knows please tell me, otherwise I will continue my lifelong research towards the infinite monkey theorem, or just go play Xbox 360, I have not decided just yet.