Pando, GigaOM, BI, TechCrunch, Verge, D, someone, anyone, please steal this idea…

We need to cover The Normals beyond the occasional (and anecdotal) “These Five 11 Year Olds Love Instagram” posts. An ongoing series where a tech blog or YouTube channel talks with people outside of our demographic about how tech is changing their lives. You know, let’s see the iPhone home screen of a 42 year old nurse in Dallas. Or how a family of four in Charleston incorporates tech into their lives.

Early adopter used to narrowly suggest someone who had the disposable income and interest to jump on new tech trends — starts in the metropolitan areas and CS departments, then spreads. But did Pinterest, Farmville, textPlus breakthrough in Palo Alto? Nope, it was the normals, the teens, the middle class. The people who weren’t at TechCrunch Disrupt, who aren’t tracking their Klout scores. At Google we do lots of user research with these segments (and I’m sure other large tech co’s have similar programs) and I can tell you, the insights are fascinating.

I’d watch these videos, read these articles, etc. Would you? My journalist friends, what do you think?

update: @nichcarlson from Business Insider pointed me to their “man on the street” style feature: http://www.businessinsider.com/category/man-on-the-street