Digital Transformation: Dr. Julie Albright tells CAPRE audience 70% of Younger Employees Prefer to Avoid the Office

SEATTLE, WA -- Dr. Julie Albright is a Digital Sociologist who teaches at the University of Southern California as well as a Board Member of Infrastructure Masons. She specializes in digital culture and communications, and has been fascinated by and working on the changing needs of the workforce in the face of digital transformation for many years. That’s why CAPRE invited her to provide the opening keynote address at our recent Great Northwest Cloud Summit in Seattle, “The Paradox of Connection: Coming Untethered in a Hyper-Connected World.” The presentation, like any academic session, honed in on patterns and trends, but ultimately considered the impact that those developments have on individuals and human relationships, particularly in the workforce. “I’ve been thinking about what we’re building as an industry, and how it changes society, and I’ve noticed that there’s this paradox of connection,” began Albright. “I’ve started seeing many studies out there from various fields on this. From communications to neuropsychology to communications to sociology. And I am seeing some patterns arise. I like to say that it reminds me of a double helix, how it intertwines. Behavior now shapes technology, and technology now shapes behavior. This has become the new sociotechnical DNA of society, leading to new behaviors, new social forms.” Albright then honed in on a key thesis to her recent research – communications technologies have changed our relationship to both time and place. To illustrate that point, Albright took…