Gamegrandpa

TThe last barrier to any effective technology is for it to be adopted by those most resistant to change.

Older generations are generally the hardest demographic to reach out to, and while Microsoft has been ubiquitous in the world's offices and homes for years, we are now seeing a visible shift in the way technology, specifically electronic technology, is being perceived. Starting with the original Gameboy, which is 20 years old tomorrow, and more recently with the Wii, Nintendo has been able to effectively break down cross-generational barriers in a way that no other electronic gaming company has. The Gameboy was the first electronic gaming device I remember my parents using. The Wii was the first electronic gaming device I saw grandparents using. Mobile phones have been instrumental in breaking down cross-generational attitudes to technology as well, but most older users generally don't use their mobile phones to play games. This is significant because the playing of an individual game, which typically has no intrinsic value other than to pass time, can be viewed as a milestone because it is not being used as a tool to accomplish anything else. ie. you are playing Tetris because you want to play Tetris rather than because you need to in order to get other tasks done. The next significant shift is in taking this activity out of the privacy of the home or office and into a public realm, as this signals true acceptance of the medium. A couple of days after taking this photo, again on the Tube, I overheard a couple of old ladies talking about "getting Sheila onto Skype so that we can see her". This is part of a larger shift that has far-reaching implications (for organising social and corporate entities) that the recession is accelerating. The last major shift in this equation is to make technology cheap...or free. With broadband, running a business from home is relatively simple. Keeping in touch with friends and colleagues (which is what you lack when you are not leaving the house to go to work every day) via free apps like Facebook, Teamviewer, Skype or Twitter - easy peasy. Resources such as Wikipedia, Google and supplier's websites are seconds away. I can reach far beyond my physical capabilities as a human because of these electronic enhancements, so that we are all connected and able to share information almost instantaneously. These kind of facilities available now would have cost tens of thousands of pounds even five years ago. With 20 years to get familiar with personal electronic technology, and these services costing next to zero, a critical mass of people of all ages are now at the table.

The promise that working from home was supposed to deliver might actually be coming of age and I would expect, demand notwithstanding, to see an explosion of small service businesses with low overheads popping up over the next couple of years, able to react fast and with a global reach. Certainly, it is almost impossible to get hold of web programmers and designers at the moment. They are all flat out as growing numbers of people clamber to get a half decent website up.

Once the banks start lending again, the comprehensive uptake of these tools may well mean that be that this recession will bounce back more rapidly than previous ones precisely because of the extent to which computer and broadband networking technology have become ingrained in all of society.