Smart Mob Be-In's

I agree with Jon Husband that technology alone is not the source of our enlightenment. I think positive change comes from subjective, deeply felt experience. But I think many of these tools have the potential to empower us to touch and feel the world in increasingly new and intimate ways. Sure, they they can just as easily be used to disconnect socially. But being that humans are largely social creatures, internet connectivity brings the world closer toghether than tears it apart, and will inceasingly do so as wiresless computing becomes ubiquitous.

David Weinberger mentioned the echo-chamber effect as a side effect of this connectivity, but this happens anyway among our peers. The internet connects us to more people of like mind, which in turn increases the overall level of intimacy than we would otherwise have.

In some people's eyes the bigger issue is why is the average American (not sure about Canadians), so socially alienated from their physically proximate neighbors? I think it's because our culture has celebrated the individual more than the most previous cultures.

Will these connecting technologies increase the amount of echo-ing at the cost of our already increasingly alienating physically proximate neighborhors? Or does this change is social space from physical proximity to mental/emotional proximity facilitated by the Internet, make our physical locations less relevant, both to ourselves and society as a whole?

I think the Internet, by allowing you to make a greater number of connections, increases the level of intimacy we have with those online buddies, which in turn enhances our sense of individuality. Whereas physical proximate space most often has us in proximity to a random mesh of values, beliefs, and social customs, which increases the pressure for us to adhere to the perceived collective norms.

Coming soon are location-based services, bringing more of physical space into cyberspace. Combine this with p2p social networking software and you could seriously increase the level of intimacy and connectivity possible with like-minded people who are close to you physically.

Posted by paul at February 26, 2004 12:39 AM | TrackBack