I am always talking to my family while at school, mostly a few times each day. My mom always asks, “What did you learn today?” IST is a class that is sometimes a struggle to explain to my family because my grandparents and, partially, my mom are clueless when it comes to technology. Some of the hardest concepts for them to understand are the Internet of Things and Virtual Reality, so I was impressed and surprised when the new Progressive Insurance commercial, “Future Son” came on the television and my family pointed out that this is what I was learning about in IST.
This commercial shows a boy entering his kitchen and telling the various appliances to perform jobs that are not typical of the appliances, like ordering the ice maker to find him a dog sitter, and having the trash can turn on the television. He starts out just staring down at his phone, but eventually ends up in VR googles and gloves. The boy’s father and Flo are sitting at a table watching the scene play out. He questions what has happened to his son and Flo answers that this is how people live now, ultimately letting the viewers know that they can now quote their insurance on any device. The commercial ends with the father and Flo doubting that the son will “be fine.” I believe this ending is intended to be funny, but there is a deeper meaning to the adults’ doubt.
This commercial is obviously aimed toward the older generations, including my family members. The older generation is scared of this transition into new types of technology, such as the VR headsets and IoT. They have doubts about whether it can work, or if it will be safe in our society. Too much technology is a bad thing for these generations, and they are not completely wrong. I agree that all of the technology that the boy is using in the commercial is a little ridiculous (Who needs an ice maker that can find you a dog sitter?!). However, I believe as long as these advances into the new technological era are thought out clearly and beneficial to our world then there should be no doubts that arise, whether they be from my family, friends, or Flo.
Check out the commercial!
I think that the idea of the future of technology can be entertaining and interesting but also scary. I am sure that past generations would have never imagined the world that we live in today to be so dependent on technology. I think that this commercial was a dramatization of the future of technology. I think that it is crazy that using devices like an Echo, for example, allows people to demand a device to perform action that used to be easily performed by humans. There was a time where people would never imagine using their voice to command a device to order things online. This reminds me of one of the ted talks that we watched in class about the future of the IoT. The internet of things can be very scary if it becomes the new normal. As mentioned above this can be even more scary for older generations who have a hard time adjusting to the ever changing world of techonolgy. I think that the world is starting to become so dependent on technology that people cannot ignore it and just have to learn new ways.
I totally agree about what you said about how older generations have concerns about new technology. I know that some of my family members have voiced concern about the direction that technology is heading. I also think that there are more people in our generation that are apprehensive about the direction of technology than we think. My personal stance is that as long as these technological advances don’t take over the simplest task that a human can do on their own, then I am excited for where technology is going!
The world is ever changing and the use of VR is an amzing ability as it can adapt skills like hand eye co-ordination to a video game instead of just physical sports. An excellent use of VR will be in the medical industry. It may come to a surprise to some that this is already happening, but VR can be used for surgeons to practice harder/rare procedures without having someones life in their hands before they ae ready. This should and can be done for other job scenarios like fighter jets. They already have simulation rooms but what if they could do a 4D room and completely immerse themselves into the simulation.
The advancements being made with VR is incredible and we are a few more years away from VR headsets being cheap for everyone being able to use it. But this could be very valuable for some professions.
I have attached a clip from the new hulu series called The Good Doctor and an article donw by Forbes.
Refrences : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbPRDw5dOFI
https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2017/09/28/how-vr-saves-lives-in-the-or/#1ed83b673099