Wednesday, June 15, 2005
They want wireless web--everywhere, for free...
...and to do it through community-building.
"Techno-rebels spread wireless network vision"
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0615/p01s03-ussc.html
The story only hints at the possible negative effects: will people stop interacting with one another in public places? An analogue to the iPod effect--if you, citizen, can customize every moment of your experience (personally selected music, checking one's personal e-mail, chatting with one's incumbent friends), what will inspire a passive person to exit a small box of carefully chosen experiences?
"Techno-rebels spread wireless network vision"
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0615/p01s03-ussc.html
The story only hints at the possible negative effects: will people stop interacting with one another in public places? An analogue to the iPod effect--if you, citizen, can customize every moment of your experience (personally selected music, checking one's personal e-mail, chatting with one's incumbent friends), what will inspire a passive person to exit a small box of carefully chosen experiences?
Comments:
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Interesting. I know I certainly sit in front of the computer a lot. But I also use it to meet up with people and go out.
It does seem that there are increasingly more interactions between people and their gadgets in public. Greater use of cell phones and lap tops, compared to ten years ago, are examples.
Free wireless web everywhere might create fewer chances for interpersonal interaction. One is less likely, I feel, to interrupt another when that person is in the middle of a phone conversation or typing something at a computer.
The modern world and its expanding technological capabilities, in a general sense, seems to promote communities selected by the individual rather than those given at birth, as in more traditional societies. We don't have to stay close to our family when we can safely and more happily exist financially and culturally independent of them, moving to distant cities and choosing jobs and and friends based on our own specific criteria.
Free web everywhere would offer further choices as to how one spends one's time and in a broader sense, how one lives one’s life--something I think most people would like.
So, "What will inspire a passive person to exit a small box of carefully chosen experiences?" Perhaps it will initially be a feeling of boredom with them, that grows into discontent, that grows into a dull nagging pain with one’s present state. At some point, this disquiet will motivate even a passive person to try something new.
I think most people try their best to do and get what they think will make them happy—“what they want.” If they think they will be happier sitting alone in front of a computer screen, or listening to headphones or typing an email, they will probably do that, or try to. Still, there comes a time for most when they want to try something new, even if it’s just a new technology, a new, niftier computer.
I believe most people enjoy the control they possess over own lives, and technology offers a greater sense of control over the environment. It increases a person’s possibilities, not in itself a bad thing.
-Jeffrey
It does seem that there are increasingly more interactions between people and their gadgets in public. Greater use of cell phones and lap tops, compared to ten years ago, are examples.
Free wireless web everywhere might create fewer chances for interpersonal interaction. One is less likely, I feel, to interrupt another when that person is in the middle of a phone conversation or typing something at a computer.
The modern world and its expanding technological capabilities, in a general sense, seems to promote communities selected by the individual rather than those given at birth, as in more traditional societies. We don't have to stay close to our family when we can safely and more happily exist financially and culturally independent of them, moving to distant cities and choosing jobs and and friends based on our own specific criteria.
Free web everywhere would offer further choices as to how one spends one's time and in a broader sense, how one lives one’s life--something I think most people would like.
So, "What will inspire a passive person to exit a small box of carefully chosen experiences?" Perhaps it will initially be a feeling of boredom with them, that grows into discontent, that grows into a dull nagging pain with one’s present state. At some point, this disquiet will motivate even a passive person to try something new.
I think most people try their best to do and get what they think will make them happy—“what they want.” If they think they will be happier sitting alone in front of a computer screen, or listening to headphones or typing an email, they will probably do that, or try to. Still, there comes a time for most when they want to try something new, even if it’s just a new technology, a new, niftier computer.
I believe most people enjoy the control they possess over own lives, and technology offers a greater sense of control over the environment. It increases a person’s possibilities, not in itself a bad thing.
-Jeffrey
# posted by 
: 6/16/2005 12:37:00 AM
: 6/16/2005 12:37:00 AM
http://alternet.org/columnists/story/23251/
a recent article in alternet...more on the policy and liberal rhetoric side things. I always find annalee's commentary so comforting.
L
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a recent article in alternet...more on the policy and liberal rhetoric side things. I always find annalee's commentary so comforting.
L
# posted by : 6/29/2005 10:07:00 PM
: 6/29/2005 10:07:00 PM << Home
