Categories: Articles

The Notion Of A Computer Room

How often do you stop, take a breath and think about just how much things have changed in such a short period of time?

Just the other day, someone sent me a link to a new real estate website. In floating through the online properties and creeping through other people’s photos of their homes that are being put up for sale, I noticed a trend that made me pause, laugh and then really think long and hard about just how fast the world is moving. On multiple home listings, people were quick to include descriptive sentences like, "the house is very modern and even features a computer room."

A computer room?

Sure, it could also have been described as a spare bedroom, library, study, home office, etc… but more often than not, the words, "computer room" kept popping up as if by calling a spare room a "computer room" it somehow makes the house seem more modern. Putting the semantics aside, the only thought that crossed my mind was, "isn’t every room a computer room?" It’s not just because laptops and wireless routers are so inexpensive and easy to set-up, it’s a lot deeper than that. Our homes (like our offices) are fully wired. In fact, as more and more devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry take hold, all of us are (or can be) connected all of the time. Not just to one another, but to our business and personal information and – of course – the Internet. It made me pause to think: how many people still go to a physical location to sit down and "surf the Web" in their home versus the amount of people that now have laptops with wireless connections who are online wherever they are?

Things change faster than we think.

We’re knee-deep in this moment. In my book, Six Pixels of Separation, I refer to this moment as "The Great Untethering" where it’s not just about "the year of mobile" or how the "iPhone is going to change the face of mobile phones," it’s about how the Internet and persistent connectivity changes the game – for business, for Marketing, for family life and beyond. It’s like seeing a stock photography image of a wired mouse. In one instance, our brains are thinking, "modern technology," and in another instance we’re thinking either, "what’s with the wire?" or "where’s the touch screen? A mouse is so very 2008."

Isn’t it fascinating to stop and marvel – while we’re all still in the middle of it – at the subtle and dramatic changes that are happening all at once and all around us?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.