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Shock and Awe When the IT Stops
10/24/2005
If those drivers woke up to the real world and had the mental protection of being safe because they’re viewing their surroundings through a screen, I’ve got to think that they might freak out and experience what the “wearable computing guy” did. But instead of falling down the airplane entryway, they might crash. (Or slow down, pull over, start shaking, and never drive again? Nah.)
The fact is that we all do live our lives through screens. (Maybe I’ll give up dancing around the word and say “windows” from hereon in.) I also recently wrote about the Digital Middletown study which found that its subjects spent 70 percent of their waking hours interacting with media of some sort. And where do we find that media? Through the windows opened up to what is increasingly becoming our realer-than-real digital world.
Don’t for a moment think that I am arguing against screens and digital technology. I love it. I was born for it and am glad I have not missed this part of its evolution. But let’s tally up my day:
· Wake up and immediately start looking out the windows in my bedroom
to check out the weather and the great view;
· Walk to the bathroom, glancing out the windows of my front porch and
living room on the way;
· Do the personal grooming thing, looking out the bathroom window at the
sky and the evergreens to the east of my home;
· Eat breakfast sitting at the counter top and looking out my huge dining
room windows
· While doing, checking email and the Drudge Report on my Microsoft Windows;
· Then I drive or ride to work, watching my surroundings change through
car windows;
· Ride up to the third floor at work in the glass-walled elevator, watching
the world outside as I rise;
· Sit behind my desk, looking out a physical window that I cannot open;
· And spend my workday interacting with the world through my number one
laptop screen, my number two laptop screen, the large flat-screen monitor which
I can hook to either one, and my Treo 650’s tiny little screen;
· Ride home looking out windows;
· Then read several newspapers sitting at the same countertop where I
had breakfast, looking out at my private disc golf course and maintaining constant
Internet connection for email and Web at the same time;
· Repeat, in reverse order, the early morning routine.
Yep. I live my life through screens/windows. The best I feel all day is when I have the daylight time to walk around my course and examine the plants, trim some trees, pick some leaves and flowers.
Yet . . . I love this digital, windowed world. It has become a part of my life, and the shock and awe that I would experience if it all went away would be devastating. I would no longer have access to the stream of information and knowledge that I think is helping me to become a wise, old man.
I hope you did not think I’ve rambled too much. The point I’d like to get to, but don’t have the time for right now, is that those experiences through digital windows, especially, are becoming so necessary to the new generation that we’ve really got to take seriously:
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