Sammi
In 2025, digital technology has entered into an Orwellian world with two great powers battling for our love and devotion. These powers are Frutopia (formerly apple computers) and Humanoidia (once known as Facebook). It’s a battle of hardware versus software (Microsoft stopped trading in anything technology related back in 2019, after Bill Gates philanthropy efforts discovered the cure for all known illness – which is nice, but does make it rather more difficult to explain away a hangover when invited out for Sunday lunch with the family).
All of our thoughts and feelings are automatically detected by our hand held devices by the amount of perspiration levels we emit, like those archaic lie detector test. Status updates automatically let all you friends and family know your every mood – and all your friends can press the hug/scold/giggle button. Shopping is being delivered to your front door before you have even finished thinking “Ohhh I quite fancy macaroni cheese tonight” and Saturday afternoons are spent wandering around the empty high street stores which were turned into participatory art instillations after becoming obsolete.
But don’t fret, there is no need for a Winston Smith style moment of rebellion, the great Wikileaks trial of 2012-2017 (the longest and most expensive court case ever known) means you are more than welcome to scream out loud “ya know what I miss those cute little aliens on android phones – fruit’s rubbish” or update your status to “Joe is ignoring you all today, no matter what his sweat say’s: even you mum”. You are also allowed to sneak into the attic and gather a book made of paper, fabric and needle or pencils and sketchbook and a old music device called a walkman and turn on, tune in and drop out.
Sarah
Before I drain my mug of tea and peer into its murky depths to help make my 2025 digital predictions (this is a loose leaf tea free zone, so I have to make do) I think it’s a worthwhile exercise to go back in time by 14 (well, ok, 17) years…
In 1994, a PC connected to (gasp) the internet was installed my school. Accessible only to the keenest beans who were on the right side of the librarian, it was kept locked away in a glass room like some kind of secular holy grail.
In between lessons, we would linger like Victorian street urchins outside a bakery, waiting for the librarian to take pity on us and let just one of us in so that we could get our mitts on our heart’s desire: the opportunity to get online, plagiarise someone else’s work, and pass it off as our own, thus reducing time required for homework.
For me at that time, the digital world represented a way of connecting with the world and dipping my teenage toes into a wealth of new and incredible information.
I could never have imagined then, how digital would become so fundamental to how I function and earn my crust in 2011. So, what might 2025 bring? I am no digital soothsayer, but here goes:
1. Self cleaning keyboard. Never again would I have to spend 2 hours cleaning soup from my keyboard with the aid of only cotton buds and elbow grease.
2. Digi-pathic communications. Actually let’s do away with keyboards altogether and use the power of brainwaves to guide our technology. Possibly not so good if your mind tends to wander…
3. Cloud based hosting will become the norm for the average Joe (or Joleen) so that music, applications, files, pictures and the rest can be accessed from anywhere. Goodbye external hard drives, hello flexibility.
4. Proper books will still exist in my house in 2025.
5. I will feel like a digital dinosaur, not being one of these lucky digital natives who will be running the world by then, probably from their bedrooms.
