Ted Johnson, in the September 3-9, 2007 Variety, makes an interesting observation about the moviegoing experience that resonates with some of the on-going discussion about how academic libraries serve their students. Johnson’s article, “Global Warming at the Box Office,” analyzes some of the factors that may have caused a jump in box office this summer after a few tepid years. One of the factors he calls “New Media Fatugue.” He writes:

“Hand-held devices were supposed to revolutionize the business — and they may have — but the novelty has worn thin. This was the summer that the iPhone was introduced, but it didn’t stop moviegoers from seeing ‘Transformers’ just a few days later. Parents have started to encourage their kids to get out of the house and to the multiplex, if only to get them away from the computer. ‘All of the alternative media sources that have been obsessing kids have become more regular,’ says the head of one production shingle. ‘They are spending less time playing around on new media and more time looking for something else.’ A case in point: Amusement park attendance also is up, so kids are anxious to get out of the house. Gas prices would seem to keep more people in their homes, but ‘they’ve gotten used to the sticker shock.’”

Granted, he only uses box office receipts and amusement park attendance as his research, but he raises an interesting question: are we going to see a leveling-off in the use of technology by younger students as new technologies loose their novelty? For those of use who grew up with telephones attached to the wall, the iPhone is a novelty. To kids who grew up with Internet-capable cell phones, the iPhone is a variation on a theme.

The implied argument is nothing new: focus on service and not technology-for-technology-sake. But there’s a danger to spending too much time trying to figure out what “millennials” want or need; we could potentially over-shoot the mark. There could come a time when are students aren’t as obsessed with new devices as we assume they would be. The lesson to be learned is to keep watching the trends and not assume that the fascination with new technology is always increasing.