• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, March 3, 2015

How broad is the definition of a “digital experience” in today’s world?  Will my kids remember how quaint this era of digital is compared to what they’ll see when they’re older?

It would seem almost every experience is, in some way, a digital experience.  I just spent seven days gallivanting around Central Florida’s theme park metropolis, visiting Disney World, Universal Studios, and Hollywood Studios. From the way you interact with each park to the attractions themselves, digital is woven throughout in a way that we only imagined a short 10-20 years ago.  

In the airport, everything is managed via kiosk and your mobile phone.  In the hotels, you have wands, bracelets and magic bands to identify you and charge your rooms. Even your phone can be used as a room key.  You can order movies via your phone, and your car can tell you the direction to get where you want to be.  In a crowd of thousands, I could literally get everything I needed and have tons of fun without speaking to anyone.  This creates more opportunities to focus on your family if you use it right.

This is, of course, simply a microcosm for what our entire lives look like.  Your mobile phone is the hub and access point for everything from your job to your connected home.  The TV is simply one of many portals for content.  Even my oldest son, who is in kindergarten and will grow up in a world radically different than the one I grew up in, has some of his homework assigned via our iPad. It’s all connected -- literally -- but does it make things easier?

You can argue there are still some “analog” experiences, but you can also provide examples of how every experience has at least a little digital in it.  Between 1994 and 2014, we saw more technology advancements than probably any other period in history, including the Industrial Revolution.   I recall back in 1995 we were so excited about the Internet that we regularly cut out print ads where we saw a URL included and we posted them on the wall.  At that time, when maybe 1-2 ads per magazine had a URL.  Now you would be hard-pressed to find a magazine that had one to two ads without a URL somewhere.

My kids are going to be traveling to space the way I travel to New York by the time they reach 50.  They are going to ride all-electric cars that will drive themselves past traffic snags and get them where they need to go, on time.   They’ll read their books on their phones, which will of course fold up like paper via flexible, digital screens.  They’ll get all of the essential services delivered directly to their house, and restocking the fridge will be automated.  They’ll only have to go to Safeway when they want to peruse some new products. 

Of course, they’ll have drones to do their beck and call, picking up anything else they need so they can spend time with their kids and help them to become wonderful young adults, like we’re trying to do today for them.

I wonder what kinds of memories my boys will have of these family trips that were so simple in their digitization.  Will they look back and fondly recall the lines at Disney World, before every spot was lined up for them with Magic Bands?  Will they remember holding my hand while we walked around and had a conversation about all the fun things we wanted to do while standing in line?

I remember some of those things when I was a kid.  I hope my boys do, too.   The digital world, if wielded properly, becomes a powerful tool enabling you to focus more on your interpersonal and family relationships.  Don’t ever forget that the technology is there for you to use, not the other way around.