Guest Post: Emma Vernon, my valued research coordinator, is 22 and a recent college grad. Emma is of the first generation that has never known life without the Internet and 24/7 connectivity. Because of this unique perspective I have asked her to join in on the conversation. Below is her first post.
How difficult are you to impress?
Apple’s introduction of the iPad last week has sparked rounds of what amount to bash fests in social media across the web. But, while techies are discussing, analyzing, applauding and degrading the new device, the youngest generation of adult technology users seems to have passed it by already. Aside from the hilarity of Apple’s obvious name FAIL there seems to be little discussion at all. The day of release I saw a flurry of activity updates and tweets, mostly joking about the silly name. Since, there has been near radio silence among my peers when it comes to the iPad.
Consider a group of people young enough to have always had cell phones. I, at 22, have literally, never gone on a date, or to a meeting, or performed any other adult function, without a cell phone. I honestly don’t know how anybody did anything in the dark ages before constant communication.
One of the clearest side effects of this kind of access is that we are not easy to impress. As a group we already expect connectivity everywhere, all the time and the ability to do several things at once (we all have ADD, remember?), and a customized tool, or app, for every need. We don’t just require these things, we take them for granted. It seems blasphemous that Apple would even consider releasing an item that does not fulfill these basic requirements.
To this group, a tablet that seamlessly integrates into our lifestyle is not an exciting possibility, it is an inevitability. It is a product that we expect, not in the future but now, and we’re tired of Apple’s games. We know they have the capability to give us something new, and instead they’re withholding features and functionality for the next generation of iPad, or the next.
Give us something we haven’t been able to get before. Versatility and options are always good, like the Lenovo laptop that can be a notebook OR a tablet. The infamous JooJoo Tablet is even further behind than Apple. The mythical Microsoft Courier has, along with a vastly superior name, a lot of potential, and a really cool interface, however it doesn’t seem to fill in the holes that Apple has left wide open and not sure anyone has actually seen one anyway.
What so many of these companies don’t seem to realize is that, for us, the future is now, not in a year when the next gen iPad comes out. Because of this, for the first time since the iPhone came out, I do believe gen Y is up for grabs. Let us know if anyone steps up. We’ll be online.
Emma
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Excellent response to what seemed to me, as a “boomer”, to be so anticlimatic. Let me add that as a very connected “boomer” I am more than content with what I have in my hand at this moment. alliswell