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Commentary from a tech writer. Workers tethered to their mobile devices and computers, and
Working 9 to 9: “A new report from OfficeTeam says advances in
technology, particularly in the mobile variety, will result in more Americans
working longer hours. Links are live. KwC Random
Access Wired New World By Robert MacMillan, washingtonpost.com
Staff Writer, Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 9:44 AM Ballard's story,
written sometime in the mid-1960s, commented on the human consequences of the
proliferation of consumer products designed after World War II -- fatigue,
stress and alienation. Today's supposed labor-saving devices -- the wireless
phone, the handheld organizer, the laptop, the GPS locator -- serve valid
purposes. But as often as not, they also are tools that force us into an
endless cycle of work. USA Today and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer examined this theme in articles published during the
past week. What made the pieces more interesting than other
technology-meets-life stories were characters who fiercely defended their
hectic lifestyles instead of saying, "I know I need to slow down." The Post-Intelligencer profiled Doyle Albee, an account
director at public relations firm Metzger Associates in Boulder, Colo.:
"Far from thinking a BlackBerry or a cell phone can be a distraction,
Albee said the devices allow him to stay connected and to focus on a client
during a meeting. At meetings, for example, Albee discreetly checks the e-mail
on his cell phone every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure no emergency is awaiting
him. That, in turn, eases lingering anxieties and allows Albee to be 'more
involved in the moment.'" Sure beats all that
Buddhist meditation, no? Albee also told the
P-I about the time that his seventh-grade daughter sent him a text message
saying she forgot her lunch money. Albee was able to drive to school and deliver
the money in time for lunch. It seems funny that he couldn't wire the money to
her with his Blackberry, but here's betting that will be possible within in a
year or two. The stars of USA Today's story say that they wouldn't be able to lead
their full lives if it weren't for the Internet: "James Cudney manages
three kids, frequent business trips and up to 15 homeland defense programs for
a technology company. His wife, Elaine, works full-time at a top accounting
firm and is active in a business club. He's a Cub Scout leader; she's the Scout
pack treasurer. They go to church, attend community events and rarely miss
school functions. ... 'But I would not be able to be involved if it wasn't for
the Internet,' says James Cudney, 41. 'I wouldn't have been able to be the
Cubmaster of Pack 152 without e-mail. I don't have time to do traditional phone
trees and calendars by hand.'" Technology, the paper
suggests, might be repaving the road to civic engagement as more people
discover that e-mail, Blackberries and other means of constant communication
are filling in potholes such as 18-hour-a-day jobs and other professional
commitments. Some experts say these disembodied communications are replacing
old-timey Elk and Kiwanis clubs, Moose lodges, Rotaries and other artifacts of
social involvement. It's a trend, USA Today said, that grew with public
gathering sites like MeetUp.com and MoveOn.org. Technology is
especially driving a renaissance in public involvement among community
associations, schools, churches and seniors' groups. Here's one example from
USA Today: "Jeff and Susan Sanders' Atlanta-area company, AtHomeNet, creates Web sites for homeowners'
associations across the country. They started in 1998 and have 2,500
associations as clients. Their reach: more than 650,000 homes. 'It's a nice way
for people to get a feel for their neighbors,' Susan Sanders says. 'People
create little e-mail lists and get updates.' When a major ice storm hit Pocono
Pines, Pa., owners of vacation homes there who are scattered through the
Northeast got instant damage reports and photos of their properties via their
developments' Web sites. They also could check on retirees who live there
year-round to make sure they were OK." It sounds good, but
the big question is when will the backlash begin? Remember back around the time
that Schor's book came out? It's when nightly news reports were full of
human-interest stores about Wall Street yuppies and other refugees of the
caffeine and coke era who cashed in their cozy city digs for polished wood and
chipped paint in country farmhouses. The people featured in those stories often
said they felt like something was missing, and they had to "go back"
to find it. I expect the same thing to happen among the ultra-wired of the
current generation. Sooner or later, some of them will find that they prefer to
eat a blackberry instead of typing on one. Backlash Achieved Seattle is starting to experience some
problems with the wireless Internet access -- or WiFi -- world. Even as the city ranks No. 1
in a new report on "unwired"
cities, resistance to
the always-wired trend is increasing in the ranks of one of its other homegrown
industries: "At least one Capitol Hill coffee shop, frustrated by
laptop-lugging table hogs, decided to shut it off on the weekends, and others
have limited the hours Wi-Fi is available. Most, however, spend too much time
thinking about how to bring more people in to cut off the flow," the Post-Intelligencer
reported. The paper said it's
not just about people spending too little money and eating too much wireless
time, it's about a cold roomful of silent people ignoring one
another in favor of their online lives. Here's more about the radical move by Jen
Strongin, co-owner of Victrola Coffee & Art: "Strongin never expected
that the move, designed to allow more people to cycle through her shop, would
spur such intensely polarized reactions, spread through an article written by
local wireless expert Glenn Fleishman. 'We never advertised it and never wanted
to be an Internet cafe,' Strongin said. 'I am not trying to force people to
talk to each other, but now the place feels more lively on the weekends, more
like a cafe and less like a library.'" The article also
includes a little wishful thinking from reporter Kristen Millares Bolt:
"If Wi-Fi customers treat their cafes well by buddying up at tables and
plunking down some cash every 45 minutes, then those cafes will continue to
cough up the money every month to keep their wireless up and running. But if
more weekend Web monkeys keep clogging up Seattle's favorite cafes with nary a
thought to the owner's bottom line, they might see the coffee hot spots cool
down. Shoot, people might even start buying the paper again." Confessions of a Dangerous List
The
Christian Science Monitor today ran an article on the "43 Things" Web site, another online agora for
people to share something besides their deepest, darkest secrets -- their to-do
lists. Some of the items up there now? "Pass the CPA exam,"
"Live in another country," "Be Jewish," "Love without
fear" and "spend an entire day watching the extended version of all
three Lord of the Rings movies back-to-back-to-back." The Monitor says
people from more than 2,500 cities have posted such lists. Among the most
popular goals: Stop procrastinating at 1,705 members. Switching to the Firefox browser ranks as the top most-achieved
goal. Who knew? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700498.html |
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