Digital+Innovation.Obsolete

Digital Culture: Innovative/Obsolete
In today’s information based society, technologies, such as HDTV, Web 2.0, TiVo and other new creations are replacing the old ones. All of these technologies are transitional, meaning that while they may be new and innovative today, within a few years, they will become obsolete. The rate of innovations seems to be increasing as well across the field of electronic and web based products. Top of the line video cards of only years ago are now bottom of the barrel, with new cards that are leaps and bounds faster. Companies on the web that stuck with complex and difficult to use search engines no longer exist, while ones like Google are adapting daily to keep up with the ever evolving market.

It is also important to keep in mind that as new technologies come along and take over the roles of older ones, things are getting more complex. For example, with standard Cathode-Ray tube television sets, one only had to choose what size they wanted. If you are buying a set today, you have to consider if you want Plasma, LCD, PDP, HDTV, Analog or Digital, Active or Passive Matrix, and a whole host of other factors. When Web 2.0 is implemented globally, it may become complex in finding information that you normally may not search for due to the way it is structured.

This process of innovation and obsolete shows that modern developed cultures are transitional. As everything, ranging from important tax documents to family photographs, is logged today on transitional technologies such as computers, those who do not keep up with changes will eventually lose what they have created and stored because the technologies they used will have become obsolete. A transitional culture forces people to buy innovations, and as the rate of new technology increases, people will fall behind due to prohibitive costs and ever increasing complexity. This would lead to the creation of a technological divide in-between citizens and classes living in the same nation.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/?articleID=4153&page=2
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