August 2010
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
In June of 1776 Thomas Jefferson, borrowing from the philosophy and writings of John Locke and George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, penned these words that would escalate what was until then considered to be little more than a heated disagreement between brothers into a full-blown war for independence that would change human history.
Locke's original text alluded to a right to property, but by property Locke is not referring, necessarily, to land or possessions, but to one's own body, one's self. Nevertheless, Mason and Jefferson made a point of making the clear distinction between a right to property and the more general pursuit of Happiness. Quite prescient and insightful thinking from an era when property, whether gold, land, a home or even people, meant everything to one's social standing and place in the world.
Ironically, with this document America's Founding Fathers set in motion a series of events that would eventually lead to the creation of the biggest consumer society the world has ever known. In our pursuit of Happiness, Americans have created and embraced a culture of consumerism and the accumulation of things. For more than two centuries we have made a religion of acquiring stuff, often to the detriment of the very freedom we so cherish.
Jeremy Rifkin, the head of the Foundation of Economic Trends and author of The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life Is a Paid-for Experience, takes a dim view of this culture of materialism, saying "ownership is based on the notion that it's worth the effort to keep physical items for a long period of time", adding "in market capitalism, 'having' and 'collecting' were important and cherished concepts. But they are increasingly unimportant in an economy in which change is the only constant." Rifkin goes on to warn that companies are no longer content to simply sell us things, but that these things now come with the additional obligations of contracts, service agreements, payment plans and leases. "They're striving towards a continuous and long-term relationship with us", Rifkin observes, "which means they can earn money from us over and over again. They want to acquire a permanent place in our lives." Yet Rifkin acknowledges that all of this is voluntary and that these types of services would not be possible if there was not a market for them. Indeed, there is a big market. When it comes to getting the newest and the best and the coolest new stuff, we are obsessed with keeping up with the Jones'.
But the Jones' aren't home anymore. Their grass is overgrown and the newspapers are piling up on the porch. They've opted out of the rat race and have joined the Amazing Race.
More and more the measure of success for many people is no longer about things, but about experiences. So it is fitting, if somewhat ironic, that more and more Americans these days are enjoying life and liberty by forgoing property in their pursuit of Happiness. They are declaring their independence from stuff.
Study after study confirms that experiences, shared or personal, result in longer-lasting happiness, satisfaction and a greater sense of fulfillment. Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, conducted one such study which looked at 154 people and their reactions to purchasing a new thing versus purchasing some kind of experience or activity. "The most striking difference", he says, "was in how participants said others around them reacted to either the purchased object or experience. Experiences led to more happiness in others than purchases did. A sense of relatedness to others -- getting closer to friends and family -- may be one of the reasons why experiences generate more happiness."
In another article entitled Experientialism, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Leaf Van Boven (University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Psychology) points to similar research findings showing that people are happier when spending their discretionary income on experiences rather than on things. He writes that recent research extends these findings by demonstrating that allocating discretionary resources toward life experiences makes people happier than allocating discretionary resources toward material possessions. As good fortune would have it, we are seeing the trends in information technology also moving away from ownership into what is known as The Cloud.
Technically cloud computing refers to a shared network where infrastructure and software is shared amongst multiple users and purchased on an as-needed basis, like Pay Per View or electricity. Currently we all have a computer of some sort with a local hard drive where we install our software, store our files and manage our personal and work-related information. For the most part we work locally and share files via email or over a network. We've all experienced the pitfalls of this configuration: computers can be lost, damaged or destroyed, taking valuable information with them. Yes, we all know the importance of backing up our data, but few of us do it on a regular basis, if ever. The loss of a machine is still a major source of anxiety for most people, and rightfully so.
Cloud computing eliminates these risks by moving everything to a server-based storage platform, where it resides until you are ready to access it using any internet-enabled computer or mobile device. Even if your machine is lost or destroyed your information remains safely elsewhere, ready to be accessed from any machine whenever you need it.
This model, however, has implications far and above simple peace of mind. Shared resources means shared costs, making access to more types of information, products, services and software more readily available to anyone with internet access. Want to use Photoshop, but can't afford the cost and hassle of buying and installing it? Someday soon you'll be able to simply buy time to access the full software suite online through your internet connection. This is already happening at a consumer level where web-based applications such as Google Docs and Evernote (to name two of probably thousands) allow users to securely create and manage their documents and information from any device.
In addition, the cloud model allows for collaboration amongst peers regardless of physical location, allowing people from anywhere on the planet to work together. No longer will companies be forced by the constraints of geography to choose their staff from a limited local candidate pool, but will instead be able to assemble a dream team of talented people who are best-qualified to do the work. Someday in the near future whole companies may exist only in The Cloud, with staff being chosen not by proximity to an office, but purely based on their merits and ability to contribute to the team, no matter where they are, who they are or even what language they speak.
On a more personal level, mobile devices with access to The Cloud will provide an opportunity for people to break free of the restrictions of geography and their belongings and to have seamless access to their lives from anywhere in the world. Look around your home. How much stuff do you have sitting on shelves or in boxes? What's in your basement? And your attic? If you're like a lot of people you probably have a storage unit rented somewhere too where you keep a few boxes of stuff that was taking up too much space at home. Of that stuff, how much would you miss if it disappeared? And of what remains, what can be digitized and pushed into The Cloud? Those boxes of documents? Photos? Books? All of it can be easily digitized and stored in The Cloud and accessed remotely from almost anywhere in the world.
The recent release of the iPad has been heralded by most experts and consumers alike as a game-changing development, both in terms of technology and in the way it helps us interact with information. I have been using mine for about six weeks now and will go a step further and say that the iPad is nothing short of life changing. It is hard to imagine that this will not be the new standard for mobile computing. It is small, light and powerful, but big enough to make reading and browsing the web comfortable, and there are thousands of apps available for whatever your needs may be, many of them free of charge. What is most astounding, however, is that this is the first iteration of the device. Imagine that the first car to ever roll off the assembly line was a Ferrari. That is the iPad. If you don't have one yet, buy one today. By the way, I am typing this sentence on my iPad while sitting in traffic in Saigon on my way to a meeting. Enough said.
But like anything else, the iPad has its detractors who complain that it doesn't (yet) do everything their laptop does. So what? The first automobile didn't replace the horse overnight either, but we all know who eventually came out on top of that contest. And we've all heard from those who complain that technology is making us less social, as people spend more and more time on their mobile devices. What they don't get is that the person who is face down in their iPhone is probably not being anti-social at all they are probably being very social with many people at the same time. Instead of pouting about being ignored on the subway, maybe the whiners should Google how to become less boring and predictable.
New technologies will always encounter bumps on the road to acceptance, but in the end the result of all of this is more freedom and more options for everyone, which is arguably always a good thing. By un-tethering ourselves completely from the constraints of hardware we allow ourselves the luxury of choosing which things we want to make a part of our lives and which things to ignore. Life is no longer a set menu proposition. Now you can order a la carte, or just have a glass of water and read a book.
In his 1931 book The Epic of America, the American writer and historian James Adams coined the term "American Dream", which he described as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. [] It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
If Adams were alive today he would likely be very pleased to see how far the internet and technology in general have helped to advance the dreams of not only Americans, but people from all nationalities and backgrounds. This is the new dream; a place where anyone can share information, exchange ideas and become more than what they were born into. And we're really just getting started. We can speculate all day long about where technology will go next and what new devices, apps and services may become available in the future, but what is certain is that, more and more, people are doing the things we need and want to do the way we want to do them, not the way we have to. Technology not only allows us to be more productive, but it has the potential to liberate us from the constraints of geography as well as from the self-imposed confinement that comes with being burdened by our stuff, allowing each of us to pursue our own happiness in whatever form it might take.
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