Are you prepared for the internet of tomorrow?

Where once web users and technology each formed an independent part of the internet, something happened in recent years where the distinction between man and technology slowly disappeared, where each “realised” that the one could not successful evolve on this thing called the world wide web without the other.

Enter the web of today, a system where web services, applications and content survive because of the very people that use them and develop them further.

Likewise, never before has technology played such a vital role in the very existence of how people think, what people do and how they do it on the internet. You see, where once technology used to take a back seat in society, it is now taking a more central and dynamic role. This is because of the numerous ways in which people are shaping, through their usage, the development of technology. And this is just the beginning, and the crux of this post.

While people still play a very real role in the way the web works today — and how it evolves — the future of the internet will really be beyond what most of us consider possible. The most natural of its developments will be about technological and informational output being the result of intuitive processes that tap into the vast amount of usage data. And while this may sound a bit confusing, it’s the natural progression of how we live our lives. We want things to be easier, less complicated and more exciting than in the past, and for the internet to remain the phenomenon that it is and always has been, even though the way in which it works will shift.

But there is something else we need to understand: we as people, as marketers, as communicators, as students, as employees and as business owners — heck, we as a society — must “get with the programme”. We must understand that for us to be prepared for things that are yet to come, we have to start trying to recognise and accept that an attitudinal and experiential shift must happen.

What is it that we need to grasp?

People are challenging the very way in which ordinary day-to-day things occur. They are out on the internet creating and engaging with communities of people, vast amounts of content and content types, and innovative applications and platforms that, believe it or not, are still at the grasp of normal understanding and usage. It is only by facing it head on, and experimenting with it, that we will be prepared for however the internet will evolve. And evolve it will!

However, the sad truth is that too many people in seats of commercial, educational and societal influence are turning a blind eye to this fact. And this, in the long term, cannot be good.

What do you think?