It is a nice story, but that is all!

Have been marking exam papers these last few days.  The preferred question chosen by students of this particular exam is that of Michael Porter's model of five forces to gain advantage through the use of information systems and technologies (IS).

Students now write about how IS helps gain competitive advantage.  They know famous examples about companies that reduced costs or increased their intimacy with customers.  All by using IS.  

They also know that social media is really important.  And that it can help companies gain knowledge about customers.

So these are parts of a same story that now has a story beginning in the 1980s and cruising through the 90s and the year 2000 to come today...

It is a nice one, it appeals, it is simple yet powerful.  Like good stories tend to be. 

But it is only a story.  It is one version of reality.  What I call the official version.  

The one that offers hope to students that someday they will get their dream job by carefully aligning their knowledge with what a company needs, and in the process using some technology to help themselves and others. The one saying that if you do what it says in the tin, you will succeed.  

The official version is of course plausible and possible.  

And we all like to believe in cause and effect, as children. If you eat your cereal you will grow strong.  

What the Porter story does not say though is that in reality we do not fully control what happens with technology, we are not the only group of people that contribute to what goes on.  Even if we like to think we do.  There are many forces, many of which are hidden, sudden.  Decisions happen almost by chance.  And so outcomes.

Am personally trying to better understand how as an individual I use this story to convince myself I can be someone and so can my students.  Someone with a purpose in life.  Someone with causes and effects

As if life had only one story to tell.  Or as if our lives depended on it.  

Difficult to write other histories when everyone likes the official version.  

But anyhow, we can produce our own stories.  Mine at the moment is about letting go of causes and effects.

So if you are reading this because you are / were one of my students, friends or relatives let me say this: technology can help, but do not put your life and your mind, even your happiness, to depend on it.  Do what you want with or without IT in the best possible ways. And remember there is always something to learn from success or failure.