ie business school question j

IE BUSINESS SCHOOLADMISSION QUSTION J

Social interaction within 10 years

Julien Somogyi

Social interaction

“Social interaction is the process by which we act and react to those around us.”

-Erving Goffman

Historical evolution Social interaction has evolved quickly

during the last centuries to become more and more indirect.

Telegraph

1792

Telephone

1890

Radio1891

E-mail1966

Facebook2003

Currently...

Every minute, every day, in 2014:

•100,000 tweets are submitted•23,000,000 messages are sent on

Whatsapp•48 hours of video are uploaded on

Youtube•3600 photos are posted on Instagram

What has changed with technology?

It is now easier to hear someone from a long distance through telephone or skype.

It is also easier to interact visually with

Skype, Viber and multiple other applications that allow you to “face time”.

...Or you could simply check this person’s digital

photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter or

Instagram.

A sense of progress

Technology improved a lot, which dramatically changed the way we communicate and interact.

2 of our 5 senses can now be transmitted by technology, enabling us to interact with other people located far away.

Those senses are sight and sound.

What is next? (1/3)

Looking back at the historical evolution of technology and the resulting new social interaction trend can give us an idea of what to expect in this domain within the next few years.

What is next? (2/3) A few generations ago, we used to interact with

others directly, face to face. The technological progress seen during the past decades has enabled us to have an almost similar interaction, indirectly.

As previously mentioned, this has been possible because of new technologies reproducing 2 of our senses:

• The sound

• The sight

What is next (3/3)

Technologies are always improving and based on the previous conclusions we can expect our indirect interactions to become closer and closer to a face to face relation.

In order to perform a more realistic imitation of a direct interaction, our 3 other senses need to be technologically involved:

•Touch•Taste•Smell

Let us use our imagination...

Within the next 10 years, we may have technologies allowing us to use all of our senses.

Smell

• Try a perfume on your Smartphone• Share the “smell sample” to your friends!• Buy it online

Taste

• Try food you see on your friend’s photos• Like it• Share it

Touch• New “touch features” on applications such as Skype.

Too much?

Subculture

Although all these new technologies can appear to be very exciting to some people, they may seem like very bad news to others. For a few years now, some people have argued that our society is too addicted to social medias and technology.

During the next decade, we will probably assist to a rise of a subculture promoting

a simpler way of life, with more direct interactions and less technology.

A forward-thinking person?