Photo by James Piecowye

By Haeley Ahn

On January 19th, Andrew Thomas spoke on the theme of Mystery. Thomas is known as a ‘Digital Jedi’ and his job is to help businesses utilize technology to its full potential.

Thomas began his presentation by observing that, because technological developments occur so rapidly in today’s world, many people view digital media as a cloud of mystery. He noted that before, new products used to come with a handbook or an instruction manual, but these days, apps are released with no such specific guidelines. However, Thomas encourages people to explore the mystery of technology instead of walking away from it.

He then gave an example of an interesting app from China: WeChat. WeChat is a combination of everything people need on their phones — instant messaging, a search engine, reservation services, and more. Facebook is moving towards developing such an all-encompassing application for the Western World, which proves that technology is never stagnant.

Thomas suggested that in general, people seem to fear technology mostly because of its jargons, such as the many digital acronyms. However, specifically for people in Dubai, he thinks that the lack of regular exposure to new technology intensifies the feeling of mystery surrounding new developments.

For example, recently in the United States, Amazon opened its first “Amazon Go,” a technology-based superstore with no checkout lines. The New York Times also began to offer VR services for its news articles. Thomas concluded that if people in Dubai were exposed to services like these, they would be able to approach technology much easily.