Blended Reality

Extracted 10JAN2012 from http://tinyurl.com/7gn8e7p

by Arnab Sen (head of strategic planning at MRM in India)

Social science studies increasingly suggest that the divide between the virtual and real worlds is narrowing. Our experiences of reality may no longer constitute a duality. Nathan Jurgenson of Society Pages, a multi-blog social science forum hosted by the University of Minnesota, rejects the idea of dualism. “No longer can we think of a ‘real’ world opposed to being ‘online,’” he says...

Technology is the process through which human beings and machines interact and, therefore, create culture. This concept is called the Actor Network Theory (ANT). The social theory studies the relationship between material things and immaterial concepts. This is the space in which product, usability, and ideas like brand experience and freedom of choice are located...

In a world where technology intervenes to enhance, or at least to modify our everyday experiences and the physical environment around us, social science studies of technology will be a powerful and invaluable tool to help designers, technologists, marketers, media, lawyers and consumer rights activists alike.