Rohde: Empowered by technology - 24h lifeline

On the one hand technology helps to empower you. We did worldwide research on cool technology and what makes technology cool, and the basic answer was: empower me. Empower me to live my life with less stress, empower me to live my life more adequately, empower me to live my life with more fun and empower me to live my life with a stronger personal touch. That's basically how technology can enrich your life by empowering you. That fits into that leading trend called empowerment. So that's a very broad answer. If you go to mobile phones, which was booming in the 90s. Then the mobile phone companies became arrogant and now they're down the drain, or now they have difficulties. They're not cutting edge any more.What came out from a lot of research we did on mobile phones is that for young people it's not a thing to phone with. It's not an instrumental, technical thing to phone with. For them it's a 24 hours support-line by my friends. I want to exchange life's little fuckups 24 hours a day with my friends. That's their ultimate soft spot behind the mobile phone. Of course a mobile phone is about phoning. Actually it's far more about text messaging. That's true, but for them, if you really go into the pulsating soft spot of mobile phones, it's a 24 hour support-line by my friends, which totally fits within that generation S.E.A.R.C.H.'s complexes, because generation S.E.A.R.C.H. is more searching. Then you need your friends more than before.