There is Nothing Wrong with Disruptive Technologies. How We Respond Matters.
It is about our response to it.
Technology has been changing the world forever.
That is its job. It will continue to do so 24/7/365.
Every technology genre has its Sunrise moment, Golden Age, and then Sunset.
Sunset in the world of technology is very different from the physical world we know. There is no complete decline of civilizations till the point of disappearance. There are no endangered species awaiting extinction.
When a form of technology faces a Sunset moment, it retreats from the center stage and takes its position in the background, allowing emerging technologies via adoption to come into the limelight.
Social media platforms are approaching their Sunset moment.
To explain what I mean, consider 2 pieces of news released by social media giants, FaceBook and Twitter, on their vision and intention to move forward and how.
Facebook Inc. (Owns Facebook, Instagram, What’s App, Occulus)
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees about an ambitious new initiative. The future of the company would go far beyond its current project of building a set of connected social apps and some hardware to support them. Instead, he said, Facebook would strive to build a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci-fi — a world known as the metaverse.”
In Zuckerberg’s own words:
“… you can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content — you are in it. And you feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn’t necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage, like dancing, for example.”
Mark went on to explain what metaverse meant:
“the metaverse isn’t just virtual reality. It’s going to be accessible across all of our different computing platforms; VR and AR, but also PC, and also mobile devices and game consoles… I think that this is a persistent, synchronous environment where we can be together.”
Most importantly, this is the vision Zuckerberg has for Facebook for the next 5 years:
“.. my hope, if we do this well, I think over the next five years or so, in this next chapter of our company, I think we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”
Zuckerberg’s interview falls in line with Bottomsup Perspective’s thinking. The Sunset for the Social media era is approaching, and it will fade into the background.
Facebook, Instagram, What’s App will still be around. They will no longer be the talking point.
Let’s hop on to Twitter.
Twitter Inc. (Owns Twitter, Revue)
“… (Journalists, publishers), writers and long-form content curators are a valuable part of the conversation and it’s critical we offer new ways for them to create and share their content, and importantly, help them grow and better connect with their audience…”
Take note, they did not mention people who tweet to build a personal brand or those who tweet for leisure. The shortest format of social media is now focusing on groups of people working on long-form content.
“To jumpstart our efforts, Twitter has acquired Revue, a service that makes it free and easy for anyone to start and publish editorial newsletters. Revue will accelerate our work to help people stay informed about their interests while giving all types of writers a way to monetize their audience – whether it’s through the one they built at a publication, their website, on Twitter, or elsewhere”
Twitter is building an ecosystem where long-form content can be monetized via newsletter subscription and allowing those with Twitter accounts to seamlessly promote their work through tweets.
Twitter will be a supplementary product, complementing newsletters and long-form content. You can read more here.
Once again, the common denominator can be extracted.
The Sunset for the Social media era is approaching, and it will fade into the background.
How Will The World Look Like from now till 2025?
We will be living through and riding on many ebbs and flows of technology changes. Unlike deployment of enterprise-grade software in our office environment, there is no User Acceptance Testing or rigorous requirements gathering.
These disruptive technology platforms will be made available to you for use and are waiting to infiltrate your homes. It has done so before, and it always does.
Apple products have never required any form of getting used to because they are designed for the customer. Same for social media.
It will be the same for the metaverse products (such as Occulus) and the greater ecosystem of social publishing (Revue, Substack, Swapstack, Medium, Vocal, News Break).
They are seamless and intuitive. You know how to use these technologies when you are onboard.
Jeremey has doubts about adoption during this week’s Bottomsup Perspective. There is no doubt with regards to adoption because it follows the Innovation Curve:
The hard-core techies are going to give it a go.
The early adopters get curious about the feedback, reviews, and user experience from the techies. Then, they will give it a go.
The mass-market follows because they get bombarded left and right over the Next Big Thing.
The late adaptors follow suit.
The laggards have no choice but to follow because everyone else is there.
There is no doubt about technology adoption. The history of all social media platform adoption has proven so. The only point of difference is the velocity of adoption. How fast can they filter through the hard-core techies and the early adopters to reach the mass market?
What Does That Mean for Us, Regardless of Our Vocation and Profession?
Whenever one form of technology comes along, it will filter through the entire system, value chain, and society.
Bigger is better, better is faster, faster is safer, safer is social, social goes viral, viral brings footfall, footfall converts, new businesses are born.
We have to get comfortable with emerging disruptive technologies. The best way to do that – and all 4 Bottomsup Perspective co-founders agree – is via content. Regardless of our day job and identities, we have to get onto the treadmill of content creation.
That is step 1.
Step 2 is to learn from our content creation process how to monetize our work.
Step 3 involves searching for platforms that allow us to do that.
Here at Bottomsup Perspective, our website onboards content creators to create work they are proud of and monetize their efforts.
We are building one holistic digital ecosystem for supporting content creators, small businesses, and digital marketers.
We do that via our research, broadcast, and distribution via long-form articles, newsletters, YouTube, and social media groups.
You will not be alone in the Content Creation treadmill.
Our Work On Disruptive Technologies
You may enjoy the following digital assets from Bottomsup Perspective useful for thinking about and planning out your digital roadmap:
YouTube BUP Episode 63 AR & VR.
YouTube BUP Episode on Blockchain.
YouTube BUP Episode 62 on Robotic Era.
YouTube BUP Episode 61 on Change Management.
Medium Article on Occulus and Shopping Experience.
Medium Article on Tokens and NFTs.
Medium Article on Blockchain.
Medium Article on BitClout and a possible Web 3.0.
You may also enjoy our weekly newsletter, Insights-In-Sight.
See you next week,
Aldric,
On Behalf of Bottomsup Perspective