15-20 Minute Paper
D. Lloyd Gray
Digital Futures Graduate Diploma Student
OCAD University
Biography
Lloyd Gray studied Industrial Design at Humber College and has worked in Digital Media production since 1995. His interest in Human Computer Interaction has led to extensive personal research in Interaction Design and how we learn to use interaction devices.
Abstract
From personal emails to mySpace, to Facebook, to Twitter, to World of Warcraft, to Netflix, to Pinterest, we are faced with a continual stream of devices and software services that ask for our attention. You would think that with all of these options, we would be unable (or unwilling) to add any more. This has not, however, stopped the hardware industry from producing new tools to engage with media, or the content industry from producing new things for us to do.
How much media should we allow ourselves to consume? There is a maximum saturation point: the point at which every waking moment is spent in front of a screen. The Content Delivery complex shows no interest in stopping before that point is reached.
More to the point, how much media is it economically feasible to consume? The ecosystem that supports constant engagement doesn’t seem sustainable. Facebook isn’t really free; someone has to pay for those giant server farms. The changes in the media marketplace are creating financial havoc for newspapers, book publishers, and the music industry. The cost and value of digital ad impressions is falling. Mobile application prices and “free” services like Google Office have changed how we view software costs. Facebook has lost half of its stock value. Yet every city, province, and state has a digital tech incubator churning out still more social apps.