An extract from an essay I wrote ‘On Becoming a Mobilist‘ some time back. Hey, I still think that I invented that word, but I’m not going to argue:
Neil Postman relates the powerful idea that technological change tends to become mythic. We get used to technologies in ways that we fail to remember their invention and origins, as though they had always existed. This can be profoundly demonstrated by asking the question: “When was the alphabet invented?” This question surprises us, as if, as Postman says, we are asking when the clouds and sky were invented.
The same is true now for the Web. I recall training some recent graduates who found it hard to imagine what doing a degree was like before the Web existed. Library anyone? Of course, the same is now true of mobile phones. I still remember back in the early 90s how nearly everyone I asked about owning a mobile thought that it was crazy. Phones on our desk, street corners - who needs a mobile?
I am now wondering if anyone will remember life before Twitter?
Technorati Tags: Mobilist, Neil Postman, alphabet, Twitter
2 responses so far ↓
1 vd // Mar 15, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Phones on our desk, street corners - who needs a mobile?
It’s all about privacy and ownership. Everyone wants to have something bigger/better/larger/smaller/etc than the other, which brings the privacy along.
Nowadays where assisting the opposite, just like that phones in the desk and on every corner, twitter is exposing our life like that old phones. That’s a change or will history (privacy) repeat itself (in a few years) ?
2 Paul G // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:31 am
I think that Twitter has that ‘constantly in touch’ feel that mobile has, which is why it’s so popular. If ever there as a new way of communicating that’s designed-for-mobile, then this has to be it. I think we are yet to see it reach its potential. There are probably many similar modes of communication that are going to make ‘mobile data’ as compelling as ‘mobile telephony’.
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