One of the joys of writing on and analysing trends IT industry trends is the never ending source of buzzwords and phrases that vendors invent.
Today is a good day with a release from security software vendor AVG coining the term ‘Digital Vagrant’.
Underlying the idea of digital vagrancy is an abandoned underclass who, overwhelmed by technology, are ignored and neglected in a connected society. As the AVG media release describes;
Users who are left behind to wander around in an online world that largely ignores them are nothing more than the digital equivalent of vagrants – people who are left to cope in a world that has become too overwhelming.
‘Digital Vagrant’ joins other wonderful ‘digital’ labels; digital immigrant, digital native and digital sharecropper come to mind.
It’s tempting to think that digital vagrancy is what eventually happens to poor exploited digital sharecroppers – those who’ve donated their free labour to help the likes of Mia Freedman, Chris Anderson and Ariana Huffington to build their media empires.
Should that be the case, there’s going to be many digital vagrants.
On more serious note, AVG does have a point in that both individuals and businesses that scorn technology risk being left behind in society that’s becoming increasingly connected.
Society and business are going through a change similar to that of a century ago where the motor car, trucks and tractors radically changed industries and the economy.
Those farmers and businesspeople who stuck with horse drawn equipment slowly became irrelevant and went broke.
A similar process is happening now as a new wave of technology is changing business and society.
The question for all of us is do we want to be left behind in a connected society?
Beggar image courtesy of apujol through sxc.hu