A Mobile Lifestyle

If you eat up social media news by the pound, like I do (it's addicting, really), then you've seen a new pattern in digital computing emerging: cloud computing and mobile services.  Imagine it this way: take away paper bills, paper tickets, and plastic credit/debit/ATM cards, then replace all of those with just one thing -- your nifty little mobile device.  With just a touch on its screen, you are able to access your funds, present your passport, have your airplane ticket scanned at the airport gate or cinema booth, swipe your company ID at your office's entrance, or even buy a burger.  All your pertinent data is in the "cloud" and, if broadband and browsers become faster than the blink of an eye, then mobile computing will not only change the way we access information, but it will also change social media dynamics.

Let's say you're on Facebook and Twitter at the same time (like most people are nowadays), and they're efficiently connected via third-party apps on your mobile device.  A lot of companies already have an online presence in these social networks.  If, for example, I go to the Facebook page of Cebu Pacific Airlines -- which has one of the most popular online services in the Philippines currently (but it really needs a lot more sprucing up) -- there I might find a tab called "Online Booking", which may look and work a lot like their Google Chrome extension app that lets users quickly book a flight without going to the airlines' website.  I could book a flight there and then, if I configured my Facebook application settings to do so, Cebu Pacific Air's app will record my flight details under "Events" in my Facebook Profile page but the info will be limited to only what I'll allow others to see.  It will also publish this recent activity in my friends' News Feed.  If, for example, I allow details like the destination to be published (because it's fun!), then it could probably say "Nix Cue Nicolas booked a flight for Manila to Davao on Cebu Pacific Air."  The app will also detect that I'm logged in to Twitter, so if I've pre-configured it to do so, the app will tweet the same activity on my Twitter feed.

That's just the tip of the iceberg.  Since my itinerary is on Facebook, and Cebu Pacific also is, then I could just access my flight details there when I get to the airport and check-in using that information.  Or, I could also download the data beforehand, present it at the gate via my mobile device (No paper printouts, yay! We save trees in the process).  You know what else could be possible?  Flight bookings usually have a confirmation code.  You could just key that in at the check-in counter and you're all set for boarding!  No need for a printed boarding pass (more trees saved!).  Let's go further and imagine airport gates where the attendants don't ask for a paper passport or printed boarding pass.  You just have the confirmation code on your mobile device read by a digital scanner at the gate, it chirps happily, and then you make your way onto the plane.  Easy, fast, cost-efficient, and simple.

As the cliche goes, the possibilities are endless.  In fact, the technology that can make all this real already exist.  Now, it's just a matter of realigning and upgrading systems, processes, and infrastructure (I'm looking at you, NTC and PH telcos -- keep up!), and gradually doing away with what can already be replaced by mobile and cloud computing.

When I mentioned this to my husband, he asked me, "Does that mean old mobile phone models will finally become obsolete?"  I reply that, eventually, people will have to be "forced" into a lifestyle/culture change and we will have to accept the fact that the world has already arrived at the "next frontier".  We will all promptly upgrade to suitable mobile devices that will make our routines more efficient -- which is good news, right?  Besides, if you really think about it, it's not as if that is not already happening now.  We just get too glassy-eyed at gadget pron to realize what it's actually making us do on a regular basis -- a lifestyle change.  

Just consider what's happened with mobile device technology the last 5 or 6 years.  The iPod came out, then a few crude (but workable) smartphones began joining the fray.  Soon enough, laptops became lighter and more compact.  Web 2.0 started to really get into its groove.  And then, a digital revolution: wireless broadband, VoIP, teleconferencing, Mozilla Firefox, Facebook, Twitter, just to name a few.  These really shook things up.  Not before long, the Google vs Apple scuffle happened and birthed more beautiful things like the Android system and the iPad.  Now there's Kinect, telemedicine, and virtual classrooms.  Seems we are limited only by our imagination, and it's good that humankind is gifted with such a colorful and exciting imagination that keeps pursuing the next answer to "What if we can do this?"  But through all these evolutions, how have we coped?  We just simply changed along with it all.  A lifestyle change, again and again.

I personally look forward, so very much, to the time when almost all plastic and paper products become obsolete.  I say "almost" because I'm still not sure e-books are more delightful than a paperback and, of course, I need some type of sturdy container for my leftovers (but that's not the same as plastic packaging, which is another topic for another blog post).

So here I raise a virtual wine glass to the internet.  On to the next frontier now, shall we?  Let's go!