In the post-information age, we often have an audience the size of one. Everything is made to order, and information is extremely personalized … In being digital I am me, not a statistical subset … Thinking of the post-information age as infinitesimal demographics or ultra-focused narrowcasting is about as personalized as Burger King’s “Have It Your Way.” True personalization is now upon us. It’s not just a matter of selecting relish over mustard once. The post-information age is about acquaintance over time: machines’ understanding individuals … The post-information age will remove the limitations of geography. Digital living will include less and less dependence upon being in a specific place at a specific time, and the transmission of place itself will start to become possible.
Predictor: Negroponte, Nicholas
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Being Digital,” Nicholas Negroponte writes: ”We are passing into a post-information age … In the information age, mass media got bigger and smaller at the same time. New forms of broadcast like CNN and USA Today reached larger audiences and made broadcasts broader. Niche magazines, videocassette sales, and cable services were examples of narrowcasting, catering to small demographic groups … In the post-information age, we often have an audience the size of one. Everything is made to order, and information is extremely personalized … In being digital I am me, not a statistical subset. Me includes information and events that have no demographic or statistical meaning … Classic demographics do not scale down to the digital individual. Thinking of the post-information age as infinitesimal demographics or ultra-focused narrowcasting is about as personalized as Burger King’s ‘Have It Your Way.’ True personalization is now upon us. It’s not just a matter of selecting relish over mustard once. The post-information age is about acquaintance over time: machines’ understanding individuals … The post-information age will remove the limitations of geography. Digital living will include less and less dependence upon being in a specific place at a specific time, and the transmission of place itself will start to become possible.”
Biography:Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of MIT’s Media Lab and a popular speaker and writer about technologies of the future, wrote one of the 1990s’ best-selling books about the new future of communications, “Being Digital.” (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: February 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Human-Machine Interaction
Name of publication: Being Digital (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 13: The Post-Information Age
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 163-165
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne