So Wednesday we had the big Apple announcements. New iPad! Apple TV! More Siri! We learn what Voldemort’s plan is!
. . . er, wait a second. Yeah, sorry, the last sentence was wrong. See it only felt like some giant release of a big novel.
I’ve noticed lately that big technical announcements, especially ones relating to Apple, consumer electronics, and of course games, are huge events? Have you noticed the social bonding as people wait for products and specs, then share them? Have you fanned over gizmos and games and stats?
Well, if you’re reading this you probably have. For all I know now you’re wishing Mass Effect 3 came on the new iPad so you could play it using Siri. For all I know someone is doing it.
Technical announcements and events have become just like big book events and big movie events. They’re big productions, important, everyone is there, and we line up around the block to get our stuff (even if it’s only a virtual block). We bond over it, it provides *meaning* to us. It provides social bonding and connection.
Nerdstock is every few months.
I can’t overstate the importance of this – we are now bonding over technology and tools. Sure some of the technology is fun technology, but even then there’s a technical aspect to it (“What machine are you running ‘Mass Age 3: Effect of Dragons’ on?”*) Our social interactions now have a strong component of “what tool is coming out next?”
Our social bonding has thus taken on a strangely practical quality in the geekosphere. We’re analyzing what we can do and what we can achieve and what we can play on some new device. Tegra chips and hi-res screens are things we talk about over dinner. We walk the Apple store with our friends appreciating the lovely gadgets. We make jokes about the Adobe building**, in contrast to their software.
It’s not just geeks either. Google TV has my parents talking about the virtues of browsers-on televisions. Tablets are discussed by education professionals. Everyone has some kind of smart phone that does many things including let you direct unhinged avians at angry bacon sources.
We’re bonding over technology as sure as we would of a film or a book. It’s getting even more prominent.
I actually think this is a good thing – as in many ways it’s practical and educational. People learn. People use the technology. People do stuff (even, again, if it’s winged creatures versus walking pork). It’s a celebration of stuff we do stuff with.
This may also be part of what I noticed is an increasingly progeny streak in younger people (which, as I head to 44, I should clarify means anyone under 27 to me). They’re used to celebrating tech and using it, used to the amazing things coming out. Also, they’re probably thinking more of the future since some of us kinda screwed it up for us.
I only see more Nerdstocks in the future. I see people discussing where they were when SiriBot 6000 came out. I expect to see people discussing how they fell in love at a Microsoft Event openly.
. . . I’m kind of all for this.
* Dragons in space and sexytime with alien elves. Tell me you wouldn’t play it.
** Really, that thing is ugly.