The times are changing, and changing…

I am 49 years old. Apple computers have been part of my equipment since april 1989. I was 27 when our first Macintosh Plus with an external disk drive arrived and since that moment I have been in love with every device I’ve bought from Apple. Believe me: there have been many devices passing through this home!

In the early 90’s we started to use internet. E-mail and web surfing with Netscape. A new world was opening up. I have lived almost half my life with computers and internet. I am in fact a good user and I know more than average. In 2005 I started my first blog, Åsa Mitt i Världen – my Swedish blog and 2008 I was hooked by Facebook – though I had tried it earlier but didn’t like it. Today I write on six blogs (planning one more…) and on three Twitter accounts.

The world of social media is very familiar to me. Sometimes I bump into situations that reminds me of the fact that there still are a lot of people who don’t use mail, internet or social media. Today I read in the local paper about an old man who got a shock when he was about to pay his bills at the bank. Without any information they had raised the fee for payments from 50 kronor to 150 kronor. He paid four bills = 600 kronor. I do understand the bank’s wish to get more people to use other ways to pay, like internet, but come on, the man has been a customer for 60 years. He’s worth some extra nice treatment!

This week I gave a lecture about social media for business owners and some of them where already using Facebook or Twitter, others hesitated. Their arguments are ”Facebook is not safe” and I say ”Well, but you can decide what you want to share and you can adjust the safety level and another argument is ”I can’t get the time” and well, I can understand that partly but not if the option is that the customer chose another product because it’s accessible on the internet and they like the Facebook group.

In the beginning of the 90’s people talked a lot about on-line shopping but I think that it’s a phenomena that didn’t start to increase with speed until later, maybe from 2005? I buy a lot of stuff online. What impact does the online shopping have on the IRL shops? I have no statistics on that, but I’m sure that if I had a shop I would also have an online shop. Or just an online shop. And if I had an online shop, it would probably be a good idea to make sure I created a relation with the customer, for example on a Facebook page.

Some people still seem to think that computers are for the young people – but hey, I was young when it started and I have learnt so much during the years because I’m curious and love Apple. Today I’m also experienced and I’m still curious and love Apple.

Even so, sometimes I think about everything that has happened since that april 1989. I knew nothing about the future. I still know nothing about the future. That’s exciting.