The scan above is from this week's edition of my local newspaper.
There are two popular pairs of terms used to describe users in Internet terms - Digital Migrants and Digital Natives, and Gen X and Gen Y. Personally I prefer the first term because it describes the groups perfectly.
Digital Migrants are pretty much anyone over about 20 years old, who remembers life before The Internet. They (errr, 'we') had to change our mindset to adjust with the cultural and technological challenges and advances the Internet has provided. Digital Natives are the opposite group - those under about 20, who don't know any different.
Back to the article in the newspaper.
I have two thoughts regarding the 81 year old Mr Moller (and yes, I do think his age is important):
- The poor old pensioner. Not everyone needs or wants a mobile phone. It's neither an identity or mandatory device (yet) and it should be up to individuals whether to have one or not. The pace of change is happening too quickly. After 40 years of credit cards (25 years older than mobiles), you can still live a perfectly normal life without plastic. Migration through technologies should be a slower process.
- It's evolution. Yes you can live life without a credit card, however you can also live life without cash too, and just use plastic. It's natural evolution to move from cash, to plastic, to mobiles. In fact Mr Moller highlights the very real possibility of jumping straight from cash to mobiles. Mobile penetration is above 84%, so it's perfectly reasonable to expect everyone to have one.
Earlier this week we ran an event at Endava called The Future of Social Media for Financial Services. At the event, the author Richard Watson gave a speech on The Future of Money. I wasn't quite expecting to read an article in my local paper the following day highlighting that it's not so much about the future... it's already happening right now.
