Yesterday I saw the future.
Not just once, not twice, but thrice.
Do you remember that scene from Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks past an ad and it recognizes him personally and talks to him directly? What about Johny Mnemonic, where Keanu Reeves surfs the web in a virtual reality environment? In a sense, that’s exactly where we’re headed. And frankly, I can’t wait.
But I can’t go about yelling “This is the future” all willy nilly. Don’t want to be compared to that guy on that corner downtown saying the same thing now do I?
So let’s look at the details of this whole interactive video thingy we have going on here.
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Surprisingly (that’s sarcasm by the way), history shows us that we are, in a greater sense, self-centered. We want happiness for ourselves, we want love, we want life, we want family, we want choice, and we want acknowledgement.
And that’s where interactive video steps in, our want of choice and acknowledgement.
CHOICE
Look throughout history and you’ll realize something, we’re getting more picky by the decade.
When the first car came out (Ford Model T) we weren’t irked by the fact that in only came in one model, and one color (is black a color?) – we were overjoyed to just get rid of our horses. Then something happened, they became available in grey, green, and red. “Wait, you mean I don’t have to get a black one?! I’ll have that green car right there buddy salesman of mine!”
And from that spilt the millions of varieties of cars that we have today.
We’re lovers of choice.
And now it’s being offered to us in the form of videos. “Wait, you mean you mean I don’t have to watch a video that doesn’t take place in some remote town I don’t know?! I can choose where it plays?! Make it play in [Enter first city that pops into your head]!”
And as previously stated, the moment choice is given to us in a specific area we never quiet go back to having no options.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This is the part where the whole psychological know-how comes into play. Some psychologists say that this whole craze for interactivity can be explained simply through our fear or death and our grasp for life.
Anything that points in our direction and looks straight at us (personalization) in a sense acknowledges that we are here – that we exist. And thus we seek such things. We want to exist after-all.
We want to matter.
And interactive videos let us do just that, they let us matter – they let us live.
If a video can’t progress because it’s waiting for you to decide the direction in which it goes, you matter more to that video than say one which goes ahead and continues until the end whether or not you’re there.
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In a wicked sort of way, big business will actually be instrumental in you having more stuff (stuff = movies, videos, applications) that matters only to you.
Because as more and more things start targeting us as individuals, the more more companies will have to switch to this ‘system’ just to survive. I call it the 3D movie effect. Once you give the masses (that’d be us) something amazing, you’re going to have to continue offering it just to well, get by.
“The problem with being a success is that you have to keep on being a success.” ~ Irving Berlin
This problem that big businesses face, helps you – the individual. For if success continues it changes from being success to being the norm.
See, big businesses are like us (did you shudder too?). They want to live. And they want to be loved. And if they get this through offering you what you love, then so be it. Win-win situations are rare, but I welcome them at every opportunity.
I forsee businesses offering personalization the same way they offered 3D to the world, through something they control (3D = movie theatre, not the interwebs). This way they can allow the rest of the world to serve you ice-cream, but if you want that cherry on top of your ice-cream, then you’ve got to pay for it. Thus fulfilling their want of life (money in = open longer = live longer).
Now imagine the possibilities that personalization offers to businesses. Authentic albums will offer an option where all the songs on the album sing to you personally in order to counter the mass amount of pirated copies. TV shows start offering you control of plot through the remote to combat the videos on the web. (Imagine how weirdly cool it’d be if in the future, while watching The Office, Dwight personally looked at the camera and talked down to you personally? You’d be creeped out but happy right?). And maybe in the future while you’re watching that presidential campaigns you won’t here “I want you”, but instead “I want [insert your name here]”. The possibilities are endless. And to an extent creepy.
In the past our need of choice and acknowledgement could only be given to us by other human beings, ones who knew us well (family and friends), but now technology has allowed EVERYTHING to be personal. And that’s big!
Don’t you get it?! Interactive videos are bringing back the magic of the book to a generation that’s abandoned it! When you read books you interact with them; the story can’t go on until you say so, and it needs your imagination coupled with it’s words to bring it to life. The book is an interactive experience in the sense that it requires as much of you as you need of it. The television on the other hand in a one-sided deal, it gives you everything; all you’ve got to do is sit back and enjoy passively. Interactive videos might finally bring back the joy of taking part in the entertainment back to a generation that’s barely known it. And that’s pure bliss to my ears.
… Yesterday I saw the future; not once, not twice, but thrice.
Okay, okay, enough of my self-imposed rambling. Now that I’ve ranted about where I think the future is headed and what’s steering it there it’s your turn.
What object did you glimpse the future in? What’s the last thing that you last saw that made you stand with your mouth agape in pure astonishment and giddy with excitement? What’s the last thing you saw that made you go “Woah! This is going to be HUGE!”?
photo credit: aussiegall