Death Announced from The Start

The QR Code: Chronicle of A Death Announced from The Start

The QR code is an abbreviation of " Quick Response " and it is in a way the heir of the bar codes that you can find on clothing or on the products that one obtains in store. The principle is simple, to create engagement or even augmented reality (with “memory” QR codes that are sometimes found on the gravestones of cemeteries), this small piece of code allows a user with a smartphone and a suitable application to read an address which, generally, leads to a website, a text, an email, an sms, a phone number or a contact card for example. In communication, we experienced a large visible wave of QR codes in all ways. To the point that some still display it on the ass of their professional touring van. But is it not already a dead tool due to lack of use in everyday life? Does the QR code still have a future in the new technology sector? Explanations.

• Diversity of uses and confusion
• Specificity as an El Dorado

The Diversity of Destinations Creates Confusion

Falling on a QR Code is a bit like falling on a hair in the soup. We do not know what we will be able to do with it especially since, to use the example of the van, other information is generally much more explicit such as the name of the company or the number of phones.

And then, even if we say that we are going to scan this small square (or any other form for that matter), we do not know what we are going to come across. And in this regard, the promises are sometimes hyper-disappointing as the result. For example, using a QR Code to invite customers and consumers to go to a Facebook page is really not very engaging. With a little thought, the simple “find us on Facebook” (Everyone is there on this social platform or almost) should be more than enough. Facebook does not have the reputation of having a phenomenal search engine like that of a Google or equivalent, but that is enough to find a page…

Put in all sauces, the QR is like a vaguely Geek media which, in terms of communication, marks a real lack of originality.

The Specific Use Can Save The QR Code but ...

I mentioned the gravestones of cemeteries and it is clear that here, in a particular use and in an environment where technology can slip into mobility more easily than by car, behind a truck, the QR Code can create a link between missing persons, their history and those who care about them. But we are in every way on a specific use which could completely share the idea that technology provides qualitative information.

however, in view of the lack of interest in other circumstances, few people, including and especially among young people, put on their smartphone a QRCode reading application. You have to have the reflex to draw your phone and be equipped for it. What really makes an inescapable use of the little brother of the bar code is the involvement of the giants (in particular the GAFA) in its use. Neither Google, Facebook, Amazon, nor Microsoft have made the decision to bet sustainably on what could possibly be in the history of technology a legend that will disappear one day.