Thought for the day: We are moving from being materialists, to being digitalists

I spotted a blog at Mindpark by Daniel Nuud, discussing mobile (the blog is in Swedish). He was discussing various evolutions of the analogue world going digital, such as movies and books etc. And Daniel made quite a profound observation, that we are moving from being materialists, to becoming digitalists. His original statement in Swedish was "Vi gar fran materialister till digitalister." (and I hope my weak Swedish was good enough to translate it correctly, ha-ha..). Yes, thinking back, mankind was involved in ever more materialistic pursuits, who had the biggest house, who had the nicest car (or if you're rich, who had the most cars), the nicest plasma screen TV, the nicest clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc etc etc. Materialists.

Now we are entering the digital age, the information age (going from the Networked Age to the Connected Age as we write) and suddenly the materialistic goods start to diminish in value, and it becomes the digital goods that are of value. Then lets look into the near future - as more and more of us are in virtual worlds, whether kids in Habbo Hotel or adults in Second Life or any one of the various gaming worlds like World of Warcraft, Lineage and CounterStrike. In South Korea already more than half of the total population has created an avatar of themselves (have you created your first avatar of yourself? If not, how can you relate to this new emerging world?) The virtual properties start to become ever more important. We report in my newest book, Digital Korea, with Jim O'Reilly, that there are many in South Korea who already spend more on the digital goods for their avatars than they do on their real clothing for themselves. Yes, we as a society are moving from being materialists to being digitalists.

Comments

[Dan Thornton]

An interesting concept, although I'm not sure it's entirely supported by the huge rises in the cost of living in the UK!

But accumulating knowledge/entertainment/virtual goods etc is becoming more important, and more about time and effort invested than financial implications for many areas of life.

The interesting thing will be whether the costs of accessing the digital age, such as broadband access etc, actually comes down.

And if it helps, min Svenska ar jetta dawlig ochsa!

[Daniel Nüüd]

Hey

Thank you so much for your comments:) According to me it´s highly interesting how mankind, (in this case the western world) are moving being materialistic and concrete to digitalistic and abstract. We more and more start do decorate a psycological self on the internet, sharing information on what songs we like, what movies we watch and what values we have. Bloggs, streamed moviesites, social networks and online shops like iTunes, are all tools that is helping the individual to move from an concrete chanin of thought to a more abstract and digital one both when it comes to materialistic possesion and thought.

[Daniel Nüüd]

One more thing...

....Tack så mycket:)

[Microsoft office 2007]

It is indeed wonderful to read your article. I appreciate your style.