December through January is always the time when we are bombarded with predictions for the year. Me, I prefer futurists. I'm not watching what is going to happen in 2012, I already know that. I'm more interested in where we are going five to ten years from now. How is social changing the economy, politics, relationships and technology?
In watching and reading media, the world is more uncertain than ever. Uncertainty seems certain as the world seems to be changing in the blink of an eye. Social is a huge part of the uncertainty and the pace of change in business, politics and our personal lives. Formality is out, social and mobile are bringing on the adoption of more casual communication. Consistency is out, disruption is in. Here are some of the things I'm watching...
Disruptive Haptics
Social media is great, but suffers from a lack of the so called "sarcasm font". It's really easy to overstep and make a mistake in tone and we've all seen how brands can suffer the consequences. I'm dying to see haptic communication between people via social media take off. Haptics is exciting because it's where psychophysicists, engineers, and designers come together to envision a future that benefits from rich physical interactions between humans and computers, generated through haptic (force and tactile) devices.
Haptic communication is the way people communicate with the world around them through their sense of touch. Touch is one of the earliest senses to develop in the fetus and is one of the most basic and important senses for us. Touch provides deeper information about surface, texture, emotion and intimacy. Humans (infants even more so) have tremendous difficulty surviving if they do not possess a sense of touch. As people begin to relate and interact more through technology than human to human interaction, haptics will become important to our survival as healthy humans.
Haptic technology takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations and motions to the user. Haptics incorporates both touch and motion elements. For applications that simulate real physical properties-such as weight, momentum, friction, texture, or resistance-haptics communicates those properties through interfaces that let users "feel" what is happening on the screen.
There are already so many practical applications in education and training for haptics. Haptic tools can teach concepts and train students in specific techniques. So why not use haptics to train customers on your product, deliver service or improve communication by giving them a virtual environment to manipulate and experience the physical properties of your product and then share the experience. And if it comes with a "sarcasm font", even better.
Disruptive mHealth
Mobile devices are revolutionizing health care. This is a great depiction by Fast Company demonstrating all of the things your smartphone can do for you to monitor your health. mHealth is booming and disrupting medicine as we know it.
There are so many start up companies building apps and hardware enabling your mobile device to work like high end medical equipment. Experts predict by 2013 smartphones will be able to do things like detect erratic heartbeats and monitor Parkinson's tremors. These amazing disruptive technologies give the patient more insight into their own health, which leads to more empowered decision making about treatment options. I don't believe these apps will really alter our behavior unless you add the social feature to them. This is why we are starting to see more social sharing capability in weight loss apps, exercise apps and sharing between practioners.
How many doctors would like to see what their patient is really doing? You could bring the data from mHealth to your next appointment and review the results with your physician. I know when I share information about my fitness or eating on Facebook, my social circle encourages my behaviors (good and bad). What if I tracked my behaviors and gave the data to my physician? Would their recommendations be different? Would they be able to better diagnose and prescribe treatment? Options for wellness? Keep me running as a healthy optimized machine?
Another trend in medicine - digitizing the human being. Eric Tropol, just published "The Creative Destruction of Medicine", calling on patients to demand digital medicine. In his interview with Wired's Thomas Goetz, he discusses the disruptive technologies capturing people's personal health data and building tools like Khan Academy to radically change the way physicians learn, share information with each other and track trends.
What if your doctor could have you digest or inject a pill allowing them to diagnose you by moving the pill around the inside of your body? Not too far fetched, as this pill camera does just that. The device is controlled in an MRI machine and it's wireless. Future generations of this technology can actually help you constantly monitor your health and interact with your doctor or share information with other people suffering the same afflictions.
Social symptom management is already upon us. There are forums for every kind of disease where people willingly interact and share information about their diagnosis, symptom management and treatments. The disruption here will be when the technology allows a more personal experience tracking our own health and more open networks for sharing this information and receiving better wellness opportunities. Making health care more accessible and creating a healthier society through social sharing is a trend I would love to see take off.
Disruptive Politics
This is a big one, world politics are at a crucial tipping point. Much of the pressure is due to economics and resources and those who control them. WikiLeaks, Arab Spring, Occupy Movement, Anonymous, the list goes on.
The Arab Spring protests thrive due to their ability to use social and organize, communicate and raise awareness even when faced with attempts to censor Internet usage. Where WikiLeaks was positioned to be the whistle blower or watchdog, Anonymous is the enforcer. This trend will continue. What is a bit different is the factions are not just country against country, but ideology against ideology. The Internet and social media allow us to identify with ideas rather than governments, leading to uncertainty on where uprisings will start and who will lead them.
Social media can be a great equalizer, you no longer need the biggest budget or power to have a large voice. In some ways, social media is meritocracy in action. This is troubling for those in power. Just looking at this chart on SOPA support switchers in Congress proves the power of social to disrupt politics. Called an "Internet strike", but who is striking? It's not an official organization elected officials could plan for, and many of them didn't. No longer can the people in power hide from the voice of the people, the conversation is going to happen with or without them. This will lead to more collective decision making, almost like taking a vote on each and every issue. Are we moving away from electing an official and asking them to go to Washington and do the best for the people by voting his or her conscious? Or, do we send them Washington to wait for us to collectively tell them what to do?
Personally, I am excited by all the change going on and the impact potential social has in the world. What are some of the futuristic social disruptions you are watching?