I love technology
Photo by M Guy
…but not really. I met one of the people who taught me photography the other evening (and, by the way, another person who taught me photography is really quite well known now – see his work here). We were talking about digital photography and how it killed the high street camera shop and development labs. That got us talking about the other career killers out there in terms of technology: affordable computing, desktop publishing, WYSIWYG editors, digital printers, blogs. All things I’ve made use of and made money out of, but all of which (apart from the first, maybe) have devalued my expertise in the fields I trained in – print design, web design, photography.
All of which makes technology a bitter-sweet thing for me.
I don’t want to make this post an ‘adapt-or-die’ message but at the same time we all have to think about what technologies are on the horizon now that will people will learn and then say ‘Why should I pay you to do that? I can do it myself.’ Is there still an argument for being an expert in things or is it best to flit from one next-big-thing to the other in the hope of hitting a goldmine (however temporary)?
It’s been useful to think in terms of what new technology I can look at that will help me stay ahead of the game and how I can sell myself in a world where everyone’s suddenly an expert.
It’s a tough one. Could throw all my effort into learning FMBL (Facebook markup language), and iphone App development. But it is wearisome to have to constantly learn. I guess keeping close contact with your customers and listening to them is the only real guage of whether its’ worth learning.
I’m not sure the ability to do something by ourselves necessarily makes us expert at it though. Sure there’s a lot more we can do ourselves thanks to easily accessible technology, but I often feel more like a jack of many trades, master of none, than anything else.
If I needed something done properly though I’d call in an actual expert. If you needed wedding photos for example would you call on a friend who has ok photographic ability, or would you hire a professional for such an occasion?
(By the way your friend’s pinhole photography is great
What I was trying to get across is that new technology makes people THINK they are experts at things. This is what costs us money in our industry as it either means the work we do is devalued as people don’t see any value in the learning process or is taken away completely by people not doing it properly!
I think there’s definitely still space for the expert, though as seen by examples of the newspaper industry today, it’s vital to look at new business models and new ways of selling services. As I heard someone describe this at a conference yesterday, the old models are being broken before new ones are being made to replace them. It’s fine that a small B&B will design their own adverts to keep the costs down, but larger companies will always pay an expert.
It’s a myth that web 2.0 and digital photography etc have ushered in a new democracy. It has provided more access for people to get thier views heard and that is great. It has also impact on the governments and the police. New technologies haven’t forced a new democracy, just a new form of advocacy.
And likewise, these new technologies haven’t created a new wave of experts, just a more productive generation of amateurs.