I have been writing, speaking and investing in the role of technology as a catalyst for behavioral change for almost three decades now. My earliest thinking was significantly influenced by my late father, a founding member of the computer industry in South Africa, who spent his life telling me that the only thing I count count on, besides death and taxes, was change. It was the writer Alvin Toffler, in particular through his book Future Shock, and then Power Shift, who got my mind thinking on information and change.

I give thanks to Simon Bailey, who did the original research into SPIN Selling in Rotheram England, who saw potential in my dreams, and to Huthwaite International who worked with me in the 90's to explore how face to face persuasive behavioral models might apply to Internet communications. What I call digital persuasion today.

I have had the privilege to be intimately involved in three generations of personal computing; the stand alone personal computer; the networked personal computer; and the Internet. And just as predicted by Alvin Toffler, the rate of change has accelerated and we are once again unconsciously ignoring this.

The Internet of things has arrived, and it will not be long before nothing is NOT connected. At the same time we have a generation of young people who think that a meaningful relationship (connection) is to text, tweet, play farm-ville, own a body in second life, and say "lol" frequently.

There are two articles which compliment this introduction to energy attitude. The first speaks to changing our attitude to energy saving, and the second to growing our awareness of energy, in particular to energy waste.

I do encourage readers in our community to read these articles. Attitude is defined as how we think about a topic, while awareness is defined as having knowledge or consciousness of a topic. They are distinctly different, in fact it is possible to have an excellent attitude to energy, but a completely wrong awareness or knowledge of energy.

The million dollar question though is this; how have these three generations of technology changed our attitude to energy, and our awareness of energy? Looking forwards; how will this new generation of connected things change us again. I have deep reservations, for despite the potential of these information technologies to educate us, it seems that the technologies are actually enabling us to become progressively more selfish and disconnected from each other. If our attitude continues to slide in this way, rather than learning new good conduct we are going to learn new bad behaviors.

I can easily imagine a situation where we all correctly think (attitude) that there is a serious energy crisis, but have no useful knowledge (awareness) of what need be done about it. Investigative journalism is at an all time low, while media marketing and hype is at an all time high. As a well known author said a few years ago "we have lost the ability to read" - and because we do not read, we are easily deceived by what sounds good, or even worse, just looks good.

On a lighter note, as I encourage you to reflect on your energy attitude, and your energy awareness, I was reading a posting on a friends web site Tired of Feeling Guilty in which she comments "As a mother of two, I have guilt that keeps me up pretty much every night of my life for things I could have done or said better, a class I should have them enrolled in, or a million other things I feel I should be doing that I’m not.

On top of that, the pressure to reduce my carbon footprint with each action of the day is just too much for me lately. The truth is that I’m tired of feeling guilty about what I’m not doing. So today, I’m going to give myself a little pat on the back for the things that I am doing to try to make a difference – no matter how pitifully small they may seem to those who do so much more than me."

How good to be reminded of this, life is a process of progress rather than perfection. I encourage you to give yourself a "break" for the things that you have not done. We cannot change what is behind us, but it is not helping when you allow it to be a burden to what lies ahead.

The smart grid is on its way at last. There are now a number of exciting technologies that will help us monitor and manage energy consumption. But better than this, there are now products, like smart thermostats, that can automatically act on the data being received. If we focus on these products, and please avoid any talk of power factor correction (it is a scam for almost all consumers) you will SAVE energy.

To all the home energy monitors out there, please remain persistent, what you are doing does matter!

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