A minute later a man and his daughter came to the counter with fabric of their own. I rang the bell again; this time with more gusto. The result was the same leaving Linda to use the only tried and true method of getting help at Wal-Mart. She went hunting for anyone who looked like they worked there. Her expedition was successful and, although the gentleman she brought back with her didn’t look that thrilled to be there, he cut the fabric and we were on our way.

Nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps, but this is Wal-Mart we’re talking about; the company that pioneered computerized inventory control, the company that championed RFID and self-serve check out. Somehow this lo-tech bell seemed totally incongruous. If we were in Target there would, at least have been a call box that announced “Customer assistance needed in the sewing center”.

This is an interesting confluence of old-fashioned and high tech and I would guess that perhaps “the bell” was a local solution as opposed to a corporate solution. I would probably file this under “old habits die hard”.

Sure, I have created this blog (thanks to WordPress) and I can tinker with HTML and CSS, but hacking and programming skills elude me. Is the world of technological innovation is passing me by?

Apparently not. According to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project I’m still ahead of the proverbial curve. According to the report a mere “8% of Americans are deep users of the participatory web and mobile applications”.

I have spent a great deal of time studying online forums and virtual brand communities. As a result I had begun to think that the level of participation on these forums and in these communities was widespread. The Pew survey numbers do not support this.

The Pew report differentiated between what it calls “digital activities”, such as texting, playing video games, listening to music on a device other than a radio, and watching TV on devices other than a television, and the “user-generated content” that I have been discussing. In the general population “digital activities” are much more prevalent than is “content generation”.

Of the 71% of American adults that use the Internet the following activities have been reported:

Digital Activities

Content Generation

John Horrigan at Pew Internet has created a Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. According to the categories he has identified, a majority of the content-generation originates with the 31% of American adult internet users that Horrigan has labelled Elite Tech Users. He further refines the typology by dividing these Elite users into 4 distinct categories:

Interestingly, due to its ‘digital’ nature, text messaging on your mobile phone doesn’t necessarily make you part of the group of elite tech users.

Mobile Centrics, while just as likely as Omnivores to text with their mobile phone (94% and 93% respectively), they are not at all likely to post comments to an online website. (55% of Omnivores exhibit this behavior as opposed to 0% of Mobile Centrics.) Mobile Centrics are also less likely (6% as opposed to 34% for Omnivores) to have a weblog.

So it’s my kids’ use of Facebook, not their proficiency with texting, that puts them in the group of Elite Tech Users. I have a little more difficulty categorizing myself within Horrigan’s typology. Based on my content generation activities , I could be one of Horrigan’s Elite Omnivores, as could my mother. However, neither of us has seen ’28′ in a while and neither of us is particularly proficient with ‘texting’ on our mobile phones.