A really great article I found while doing some research about how the next generation of consumers will evolve as we adapt to more transient lifestyles and the presence of traditional boundaries diminish in a world of digital connectivity.
Home is where the heart is - your true home is with the person or place that you love most.
In today’s fast-paced world of twitterisms and nomadic lifestyles, will this romantic sentiment still hold true?
In his book The Global Soul (ISBN: 9780679776116), writer Pico Iyer coined the term "Nowherians" to describe people whose lives are spread across countries and who develop an ambiguous sense of belonging to everywhere and nowhere.
This observation resonates with the new digital world that we live in today, where our sense of place, of being and belonging have become more complex and fragmented.
In response to new technological experiences that enable us to be on-the-go constantly, our lives have also become more portable and transient. The traditional boundaries of where we live and where we work are also quickly disintegrating.
So what is our new perception of "home"?
Has our notion of home diminished as a physical entity and become instead a temporal state of being, allowing us to move from one lifestyle domain to another? Is the physical space less important than where our favourite digital content resides? Is home also where we work? And is where we work considered home?
In her aptly titled book, Home Is Where the Heart Is, British designer Ilse Crawford takes a philosophical perspective on bringing the human element back into our homes.
On the basis that "the more virtual our world becomes, the more we need the physical", Crawford opines about a need for the functionality of technology combined with a sense of humanity.
This juxtaposition of values and sensibility will provide an interesting premise for our discussion on the new perception of home – one that will continue to transition and transcend according to new cultural behaviours and experiences that are becoming more mobile and fluid.
