In NBN’s connected-Australia, according to the recent report - Towards a Super Connected Australia - by respected demographer, Bernard Salt, the expected level of “super-connectiveness” will help deliver we Aussies the lifestyle we have always wanted – “better connectivity to close the digital divide, enhanced personal relationships and to facilitate the pursuit of new leisure interests.”
Salt says the current “most connected” generation – or what he calls GenNBN - will turn the old idea of an ‘eight-hour working day’ on its head with leisure, rest and social interaction time more important than ever before.
Salt predicts that the GenNBN generation will “work when, how and from where they want”, with technology dominating their lives over the coming years.
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And, according to Salt, in a world of leisure the new nbn technology will most likely fulfill the role of the enabler, in that it will support the communications necessary “to retain and enhance our connections with our family and friends.”
Salt says Australians have already seen the traditional work-rest-play model change with new developments in technology.
He says when it comes to play, the Australian interest in sport has now expanded from conventional to alternative, often embracing extreme or lifestyle sports such as skateboarding and kitesurfing.
“With access to more on-demand content we will watch the programs we want, when we want, which may lead to the growth in micro and niche sports such as curling and sumo wrestling”.
When looking at Aussies and their work, Salt has this to say: “Whereas in the 20th century Australian workers organised their suburban lives around workplaces in the 21st Century, and especially after 2020 and the roll out of the nbn network, it may be possible for workers to organise their work around their lives and their lifestyles”.
“In some respects this is the Australian dream. While everyone will still have to work in the future, the workers of the future will have greater control over how and when they work,” Salt says.
According to Salt, in the new world of even greater connectivity than we already have, “work will be fitted into times and locations that suit the individual rather than lifestyle being fitted into and around commitments to work”.
“That is the promise of high-speed broadband and this is an aspiration that fits comfortably with the Australian penchant for lifestyle.”
See here how the Australian daily time budget has shifted from 1950 compared to predictions of how we will allocate time in 2020: