is my life going digital?

i got to realise i haven't blog for more than a year, and just happen so i feel like blogging today..

well, my title is definitely nothing new to us today but it's coming to mind everyday recently.. for sure i'm not a digital mastermind and my thoughts on digital is basically what i've heard of and read about as i'm lucky enough to learn and pick up alot along my work and my everyday conversation in my life..

it kind of started when a buddy at pub pops up to me (half drunk), saying "freddie, yunno wut.. u seem different to me.. (burpp) u're not kind of like us ard u.. i juz can't really tell but i feel it since knowing u & seeing d way u carry urself.." (thanks for the compliments though i know he's quite drunk)

and we continue to talk for almost an hour of what i want to do in life, and why should i wait? (common drunkards conversation anyway) long story short, what in me is just that i've never given up my dream of building my restaurant empire, and i'm impressed with how the world has gone on digital.. below are some reasons why..

first of all, i couldn't agree more to people telling me, digital is not a stand alone thingy that will make all the difference, be it your business or how people perceive about you.. 

in business, for sure the same old say.. you need an integrated plan to just make everything in sense, and digital is a new platform for you to reach to the right audience with the right needs that arouse upon the time being.. that can bring you to the level that conventional may not give the reach.. 

and to the example of how digital has changed people as individual, someone can just be "somebody" overnight that everyone's crazy about.. but you'll still need to "engage your audience" in your everyday life that people around you continue loving you, for a long long time..

second thing that, i seriously couldn't imagine how fast digital has evolved throughout the years, from just intranet to internet, to chat tools, forum, then the rise of social media network.. "communication" has gone through evolution in crazy speed but really impressive..

and again, digital is not itself "something new" anyway if you try to find the connection.. it's just "another platform" to communicate among people..

"long long time ago..", people started to feel boring and they needed to communicate apart from fancying own self, so they started to "speak", later it evolved to "language".. 

then talking to person next to you and within community seemed to have limitation, so they thought of writing, where words were invented and later allowed them to write letters and share it with people miles away..

and so forth, telephone, TV, radio, newspaper, walkman, MP3, mobile phone, what so ever until today - digital, smartphone, social network & etc.. they all linked back to basic human needs, to just want to communicate, want some lifestyle, share your thoughts, and not being boring..        

back to my conversation with my buddy, he could understand why restaurant business (since human's nature - love foods) but he was wondering why digital and he asked doubtfully: "are you even IT savvy?"

well frankly speaking, i'm not at all.. i can't even figure out why when an "error" pops up, nor i can fix a standard hardware to my laptop..

but the thing is, digital is not just about IT engineering, it's a form of "art & lifestyle" to me, where i even told people around me, digital is not really "new news" but it definitely is a new form of "art", "trend" that evolves our lifestyle in a different way.. 

so, i'm not looking into being a networking technician or java script developer.. what i aspire to be is "digital architect", where i plan, design and build a structure for how my restaurant empire should achieve much more than what it's built for ultimately, with digital platform being part of the integrated supports..

and i truly believe, digital platform has much more to offer for food & beverage industry in the coming years, it's gonna change our decisions, behavior, habits and also the ambient or the whole physical scene of dining lifestyle.. just think of how foursquare, tumblr, fb places have already partly affected your choices in different ways.. what's more to come, hopefully not just "color" app, google "+1", and i can't even tell those exciting ones that will be coming to digital scene..  

to this stage, common question that comes to mind: "is it quantifiable or measurable?"

honestly, there will never be a "perfect tracking" that tells you: "fred, you're 100% sure in the right path and that will make you 90% probability generating 60% profits.." damn it! sounds really irritating and alot of times, killed not just digital platform evolution, we seem to not learn from the past that these "business sense" killed alot of other media's true potential..

well, i'm not saying it's not important or we should not go for business sense.. but at times, i really feel like we're being hold back too much by "corporate mindset" and care too much about "self fulfilling achievements".. reason being, our "still kind of fresh" media platform - digital, is just like any conventional media in the past, will have unexpected influence & reach to people out there even before it can be "tracked properly"..

just imagine, if we do not overcome this "mindset barrier" to certain extend, in layman term.. if our ancestor has decided to measure how will "speaking" benefit our life to which level of achievement.. and in the event if they failed to "quantify" the "returns", we might have all as well still remained dumb until today..

all above being said, doesn't mean that i believe digital will overtake everything in life.. for a very simple reason.. we're just human being, we need our "senses" in life to be completely a human.. you will still need love, care, touch/interaction between you and your family, love ones, and buddies.. 

even if the day we've come to life as in "Matrix World", where digital itself is our world, where we can only "imagine", "believe" and "imitate" life being, you do see that keanu reeves still hugs and kisses his gf in the "matrix world" right? 

before i end my long blogging, back to my blog's title: "is my life going digital?"

i personally think, yes, for sure now digital is already partly affecting my everyday life..

then to the question: "how much will digital change our life in the future?"

honestly, i can't tell because i'm not a prophet, the only thing i can tell is we're today at the sweet spot of evolving into digital world.. let's live it through and enjoy it.. we'll find it out together how digital will change us.. =)

by, Fred