The new enthusiasm
We all do it. We see something newer and immediate add the etiquette “better”. Perhaps it comes from a lifetime of exposure to advertising, but even the “young folk” have the instinct. Could it be genetic, instead of generic?
I spent today in “my old school”, helping to put the computer lab back on the rails. During the summer, a revamp took place; new tables, new hardware. The reaction of the students who were peeking in the doorway at breaktimes would bring warmth to the heart of any advertising counsellor, because the “new is cool” was evident. Great soundtrack for our lives as consumers. All this praise even before they’ve hit ENTER for the first time.
Now, this is a computer lab, where they’ll soon be turning out assignments. Work. Hardship and drudgery. Just the sight of new worktables and monitors that haven’t gathered a layer of school dust was enough to spur the new enthusiasm every educator hopes for; kids who can’t wait to get in there and sit down. Imagine if we offered them something really unique.
I’m a party to the trickery. Although the software will be the same old, same old, the new machines will make it all appear better and faster (for a month at least). By the time the dust settles, and the kids are back in harness, I’ll be long gone. A sort of ghost of times past. The next refurbish is a year away, when we’ll have another flock of young malleable minds.
