Connected objects are invading our world, and hundreds of thousands of start-ups are developing the craziest projects; the major groups, although often overtaken by the movement, do not want to be left behind and are investing considerable sums in this area. But what are we really talking about?
I'm not talking about technology here, but rather... semantics: the French talk about "objets connectés" (connected objects), while the Americans refer to the Internet of Things (Internet des Objets) and the trendiest, the IoT (pronounced Aï ô Ti, and not "ail au thé", which is unbearable).
Connected objects imply a dual connection, not only between objects themselves, but also between the same objects and human beings: when we talk about connected objects, we are talking about a fantastic world, but one in which we can find our place and even dominate.
The Internet of Things excludes us from this: objects talk to each other, just as we talk to each other on our Web; in this new space, decisions are made without us even realising it, which can only be a source of great anxiety.
The IoT frees us from this anguish: incomprehensible like any acronym, it turns us into experts; only the real geeks use it, and by pronouncing the three syllables, we enter a closed (but not too closed, and less and less) cenacle.
Three visions of the world and of our destiny... which today completely elude the average citizen: when he's not a fan of technology, he's more than dubious about the subject, as all the surveys show; in fact, he's waiting for manufacturers to have invented concrete, useful uses for him, which is not quite the case yet, apart from a few exceptions such as home care for the elderly and/or remote surveillance of homes.
However, connected objects will very quickly find their way into our homes simply because other objects ... will have disappeared. Take television: we're being sold smart TVs (i.e. connected TVs), but many viewers use them as normal TVs - admittedly, some of the functions are not easy to activate.
However, the omnipresence of connected objects in the world of consumers will certainly profoundly change not only our lifestyles, but also many professions, such as that of market researchers: ethnologists will increasingly take their place alongside psychologists, with non-intrusive observation complementing questioning.
It's up to the institutes, but also the advertisers, to adapt, because the upheavals that lie ahead are likely to be brutal, rather like the mobile phone: in just a few years, consumers who didn't believe in it at all (the studies commissioned by the first operators at the time clearly showed this) turned into gluttonous users.
There is no doubt that tomorrow, the same people who are totally indifferent to the benefits of the IoT today will no longer be able to do without it: the switchover can be extremely rapid.
