Within the last year, a fundamental shift has emerged. Keeping up with every latest technology is no longer something to strive for. Reddit had an interesting thread on this that offered genuine insight.
People want to keep up with technology in areas that are relevant to them or have a particular interest in. The focus has shifted to what is important and useful to us personally, what will help us progress in our field of work or career and what we find interesting or fun.
The most asked technology questions on Google aren’t even technical. The top 5 include 3 questions on how to get rid of technology. How to delete Facebook was #2, Instagram #3 and how to delete apps was #4.
I see worthwhile social media posts in precipitous decline, not only in the numbers who post useful content but also in the numbers who acknowledge and engage in those posts. And I am not the only one. Opinion – social media platforms will see a mass exodus in 2025 – Thred Website
Relevant technology is still important to keep up with because it will not only impact your profession but also how you navigate your personal life.
In the early 2000’s, I was in an MBA class where the professor gave take-home tests. Essentially, it was open book, the only rule being you couldn’t collaborate with others in the class. To him, this meant no phone calls of the landline rotary version. What he didn’t realize is that every one of us had a flip phone that had texting capabilities. At the time, I was working in the telecommunications industry and knew exactly how wireless mobile phones worked.
After the first exam, I knew something was amiss when the usual bell curve resembled more of playground slide because so many had perfect scores and A grades skewing what would’ve been an A grade for me to a B-. Before the next exam, I did have a conversation with the professor if he was aware that most students now had cell phones that can be used to exchange texts with each other. Looking back, I honestly don’t believe he knew what a text was and why he was utterly unconcerned with that notion.
On the next exam, I gathered proof forgoing a high grade. The principle of this was more important to me. Technically, no one was breaking his rule of no phone calls. They were just collaborating via text, dividing up the questions and sharing where to find the answers. Since everyone had real work experience, it was equivalent to working on a project together where more input and collaboration would get better results. However, it was being graded as an individual effort.
A trusted professor who I showed what was happening, encouraged me to go to the Dean with academic oversight as did my husband. The Dean understood and that professor had a short career at that university.
Years later I would use this experience to call out a similar situation at work when we were merging databases. IT hadn’t fully vetted the data migration and there was double counting occurring. So, in the interim until they could fix the issue, you had to manually back out duplicated data which I personally did for financial reporting. Sales, however, saw this as an opportunity.
We had a local company event with the Region Executive team, and they were impressed with the recent influx in revenue with much conversation and accolades surrounding this. As I was talking with them, I realized what was happening. I tipped off the Finance VP via my personal e-mail that the sales were being double counted and not only would double commissions be paid but also these trusting new customers would be double billed and ultimately our financial statements would be misstated.
When two of the VP’s showed up that following Monday morning walking directly into that meeting unannounced, I vividly remember thinking holy shit I’m so getting fired! But it was the sales director’s demise that day.
Keeping up with technology whichever way you want to spin it, still matters when the integrity of the work or business you are in is at stake. This is even more important as AI continues to infiltrate.
Where is the shift from technology and social media going? Private niche spaces and face-to-face discussions and interactions. I see this as a good thing where technology doesn’t rule, it compliments. Will 2025 become the pivotal year into a new era? Only time will tell.