Tomorrow's world
The view that tomorrow’s world will have no place for the traditional daily newspaper is not new, with many agreeing that its demise is already well underway. Will our children ask, with wonder in their eyes, whether we really read inky sheets of paper without moving images, instant updates or the facility to instantly feedback.
But how many of us in communications are preparing for the possibility of a paperless future?
The popularity of Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, LinkedIn, Hi5, Tagged, Xing and Twitter, along with findings in a recent ChildWise report, suggest that paperless communication is already a reality for the next generation.
ChildWise found that a third of four to 16-year-olds surveyed named the internet as the one thing they couldn’t do without, compared to a fifth who prized TV above all.
The report demonstrated that the average child spends 1.7 hours a day on-line – with one in six spending more than three hours on the web. Half of all teenagers asked spent more than two hours a day on social networking sites.
A ChildWise spokesperson described those surveyed as ‘a generation abandoning print and paper’. This raises the question that if our future audience is abandoning traditional forms of communicating, should we be looking at doing the same?
I’m not suggesting that there should be an immediate end to issuing news releases to the local paper, or the next hard copy run of your annual report needs to be cancelled. However, it is worth keeping digital in mind when planning communications - as one Labour Party communications think tank said, you’re not communicating with the community if you’re not online.
It’s difficult to predict where it will end. History teaches us that there is always something bigger and better around the corner. However, perhaps we need to ensure that we have mastered the last ‘big thing’ before we can move onto the next one.