Projecting your “Likes”

I once met a man who got a big screen TV.  It was oversized given the small dimension of his living room.

Since nearing retirement, he must have figured that it was worth the investment.

He would be projecting himself onto that screen a lot, so might as well “live” large.

A recent study about Facebook‘s Likes shows that on average we like 68 things.

It made up an average viewer’s profile. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/03/11/technology-facebook-likes.html

With a meaningful connection of 120 (Tipping Point), we can multiply to figure out our universe of Likes not to mention friends of friends.

We like something/someone because we project ourselves onto it/him/her, see ourselves in the situation, or find that which resonates and strikes the chords (99% gene pool we inherited and the rest were acquired at an early age).

Our neurons respond uniquely.

Big screen or small screen, we project ourselves onto them (turn off your lap top and you will see yourself reflecting on the screen).

Neil Postman studied the effect of television viewing. He concluded that the sheer amount of viewing itself was the problem.

His study (Amusing ourselves to death) was conducted before the coming of smart phone and mobile gaming.

When Apple radio and Google glasses get wide adoption, we will live in a more individualized society (each man to himself and his screen). It would render office cubicles relics of the past.

For now, at least, we can still strike a conversation even when the big screen is on across the room (or the I-pad on the dinner table).

When the screen is in front of the man (Google glasses), it would be like trying to talk to someone who “thinks different” with his or her Ipod on.

Hello!

I fear the man I met with the big screen will someday find his super-sized TV quite antiquated, and that he would have a hard time getting rid of it. First it’s he who dies with the biggest toy wins. Then, it’s less is more. Can’t they think of some other variables to play with in product design? We the adopters and consumers of technology and gadgetry will always be both victors and victims. In that vein, if you owned a boom box now, just hang on to it, and wait it out. It might turn valuable antique one day if not already.