The Cyborg: Web Exclusive
Amber Case on Life + Technology…
My college thesis was on cell phones and their technosocial sites of interaction. Basically I went out in public and watched people interacting with their phones. I figured out that cell phones are the new cigarettes. Sometimes you have to take them outside, or if you’re bored and have nothing you may use your phone to keep yourself occupied.
Life is becoming a video game. It’s not that we’re going into these little pods and having fun, or playing games in a dark room. Instead we’re going out into the world and when we check into a venue on Foursquare we get “plus-1” or “plus-5” points; when we get a friend or follower on Twitter we get “plus-1 friend” or “plus-1 follower.” Or we are amping up our “stats” so that we can compare our stats to each other. Kids are getting increasingly excited about stats and we have to keep upgrading our cell phones to deal with this stuff.
People have to maintain two selves now. Not just their regular self where they get up in the morning, put on clothes and deal with life. Sometimes you have to “upgrade” your clothes and look nice. You have to do the same thing online. People have to maintain what they say online, what text represents them. You’re interacting with somebody else’s virtual self before you meet them in real life, often on Facebook. You have to make sure your pictures are up to date or they’re not embarrassing.
Published: August 2010
Amazing way to look at life. " a world that is 30 inches wide and 500 miles deep."
Good point on The New York Times.