In a recent study by Cisco, college-aged students and young professionals ages 18-24 were surveyed on the involvement and importance of technology, the Internet and social media in their lives. The results? Astonishing.
Fifteen, even 20 years ago, the Internet was a novelty, just hitting the scene; Facebook and Twitter were words and ideas yet to be spoken. Today, we speak these words every minute – our phones and computer constantly connected to email and social media sites among other things. For us, it is impossible to imagine an hour, yet alone a day without having an Internet connection or logging into our Twitter account. Coincidently, the survey found that 1/3 of college students or young professionals said that the Internet was just as important as other life-sustaining necessities: food, water, air, and shelter. One-half of the participants stated that they “could not live without Internet, it is an integral part of their daily life.”
Additionally, 66 percent of students and 55 percent of young professionals said that mobile devices were the most important technology in their lives – this includes the likes of smartphones, laptops and technology’s newest phenom, the electronic tablets.
Over the next few years as we all enter the business world with these conditioned habits, it is safe to say, based on the aforementioned statistics, that the work place is sure to change. With 40 percent of the surveyed individuals saying that the Internet is more important in their lives than dating or spending times with friends it is easy to foresee that the lines between work and personal lives are slowly starting to blur. Already, employees are beginning to 'friend' and 'follow' their superiors, coworkers and companies on social media sites.
As the world changes and adapts to all these new technologies, our generation relies more and more on them for an increasing number of tasks in our work and play. We can begin to wonder, where will we be in ten years from now? Will there even be personal, human interaction in the workplace? Will there even be a workplace?
