Why & When Technology Gets Replaced
I only realized I had forgotten about my buildings outgoing mailbox because when I created my daily to do list, I had included the task of stopping by the US Post Office located half a mile away, yet while walking through my lobby to drop off a load of laundry, I passed the outgoing mailbox and I experienced a familar 'A-Ha' moment where I relearned ohhh that is how I could solve this problem. This experience stumped me. Did I not know my building had an outgoing mailbox? No, I have owned the same condo for 4 years and had at one time I knew where my mailbox was. Was the outgoing mailbox located in a hard to find part of my building? No, it is located 10 feet from my incoming mailbox which I am accustomed to checking every day. Had my life become so busy that I've squeezed various daily perceptions out of my brain? No, not really as my life doesn't feel more stressed than usual. Was I going crazy? Decidedly no.
Cognitive Load Theory
I believe the reason I forgot about my building's outgoing mailbox is due to the frame of mind I am as I go through my daily tasks and the semantic correlations of how I achieve those daily & weekly tasks. First off, I pay all my bills online. Secondly, I send all my communication to friends and family from either my computer or my mobile smart phone. Lastly, the previous 10 pieces of outgoing mail I've sent I went to the Post Office or FedEx as each parcel had special conditions (larger than an envelop, a heavy object, or something that needed to arrive overnight). The parcels of mail I needed to send today were of normal size, but due to my 10 previous outgoing mail transactions taking me to a physical post office located elsewhere, my brain had organized (for efficiencies sake) ==> outgoing mail happens at the post office ==> today I need to go to the post office.
Cognitive load research has found that we have a limited capacity of working memory for normal daily tasks and information, specifically "seven elements, called chunks, regardless whether the elements were digits, letters, words, or other units." While cognitive load theory deals more with short term memory of information intake for interfaces and transaction, there must be similarities that carry over into long term memory and learned procedures. This is where and when technology gets replaced. When I was an 8 year old child I was taught how to compose and send letters in the mail, it was one of those protocols of becoming an adult that once learned felt like I had a new magical power. Since I've evolved to living a highly digital life and learned a whole boat of newer and more efficient methods of sending and receiving communications.
I had a similar experience a few months ago when my fingers accidentally hit the keyboard shortcut "Command + P" or "Print" and this foreign dialogue box popped up at the top of my browser window.... whoa... printing... I also realized I had not needed to physically print anything for almost a year and most likely less than 10 printed articles in the last 4 years since I started making my living doing exclusively web design / development.
Adoption
It seems that older technology is not replaced by newer technology because the newer tech is a better or more efficient method of doing a given task, but rather the adoption rate/timeline is more aligned with mystical forces closer to the realm of system sciences.
The car was around long before everyone eschewed their horses and buggies for the more efficient means of transportation. In order for cars to become widely adopted- reliable and affordable fuel distribution channels had to be created; manufacturing protocols had to be standardized and optimized bring the cost down; perhaps most importantly the value difference had to be proven socially by more adventurous & well to do individuals who then.
Computer databases and spreadsheets have been around for decades, yet some people (my mother included) still uses lined paper notebooks to keep track of her businesses products and cash flow. Why? The barrier to entry for purchasing new hardware and software and then learning how to use it is too steep for people such as my mother. However, my step mother migrated her business to digital inventory and online sales a decade ago, but she has a more technically inclined mind than my biological mother.
Web based forms for data intake has also been around for decades and most people use both daily. However, the IRS still requires me to fill out a web form in order to a paper 1099 form can be mailed to me, which I have to fill out with a pen, which I then mail to people I contract, which they then have to have their tax accountant properly parse and organize, which then gets mailed back to the IRS. The gods of efficiency are screaming "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Yet, the IRS (who is in the business of making money from peoples money), is still anchored to this archaic and difficult process that must cost considerably more than a fully digital system would cost to operate & maintain.
I find it hard to believe that in this day and age when a 21 year old is technically capable of building a $50 BIL company from his college dorm room that 600+ MIL use daily, it is impossible to think that doing ones taxes couldn't be redone as streamlined and beautiful web application. Given the progress of companies like Mint, that organize all of one's financial data into one streamlined portal, perhaps ones taxes could be done automatically, considering the right web application was built that allowed citizens to "setup" their accounts in the right way. Why hasn't this happened? Because doing ones taxes is a horrid experience and people aren't inspired by horrid experiences.
I theorize that the reason I forgot about the outgoing mailbox in my building is directly proportional to the same force that governs the difficulty of sending my sub-contractor a 1099 form, which ironically was one of the three envelops I sent from my mailbox.
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