Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[robert AT designhammer.com]

Hey Tom,

I've noticed this for quite some time. The more "time saving" technology I
have in my life the less free time I have ;-)

When I was a cabinetmaker living in NYC it seemed I had a ton of times on my
hands to explore all of my various interests and a lot of time for quiet
reflection. There were actually different parts of the day back then,
morning, the work day, evening and night time.

Now usually the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at
night before bed is a computer, and all through the day there is the
computer or the Handspring or the cellphone. If one of these goes down or
has problems its panic time.

On the flip side of that most of what I have in my life these days was
directly brought about by my involvement with the Internet and computers. I
met my wife through the Lynda Weinmann listserv. I now live in North
Carolina because of that. I found my 1969 MG and my 2000 Ford Ranger though
searches on the web. I can now work at home. The ways technology has shaped
my life in just the past six years is profound.

So its a mixed bag at best. My wife and I have found that we need to make a
serious effort to find the quiet times for ourselves. We spend weekends
camping, canoeing and kayaking. Just two days at a time away from all of
these technological wonders can do wonders for clearing out our heads. Oh
yeah we found our canoe and camper on line..........

I hope this made some sense, I couldn't really concentrate on what I was
writing as I'm doing a million things at the moment ;-)

Robert Weeks

Partner:Technology
DesignHammer Media Group, LLC
919-419-0969 - phone
919-219-5269 - mobile
http://www.designhammer.com








On 2/6/01 6:13 PM, "Thomas A. Beckett" <thomas AT tbeckett.com> wrote:

> Some of y'all may have read the op/ed piece in the New York Times a
> couple weeks ago about the social psychological effects of living in a
> wired world.  The catchphrase that seems to have captured the zeigeist
> is the concept of "continuous partial attention."  Basically, we are so
> pervasively connected to various communication devices that we spread
> our attention among several inputs at once and give our concentration to
> nothing (and no body).
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/30/opinion/30FRIE.html
> 
> I find this happening to me, certainly.  It is in the same category as
> channel surfing and web surfing.  Seems like it has been a long time
> since I've spent as much as half a day curled up with a good book, or
> writing, etc.  
> 
> Does this affect your life?
> 
> TaB
> 
> Some excerpts:  
> 
> Then there was the panel about the 21st-century corporation, during
> which participants described this age of digital Darwinism in chilling
> terms: The key to winning in business today is adapt or die, get wired
> or
> get killed, work 24 hours a day from everywhere or be left behind.
> Finally, during the question time, Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony
> America, stood up and said: "Doesn't anyone here think this sounds like
> a
> vision of hell? While we are all competing or dying, when will there be
> time for sex or music or books? Stop the world, I want to get off."
> 
> My favorite, though, was that we now live in an age of what a Microsoft
> researcher, Linda Stone, called continuous partial attention. I love
> that
> phrase. It means that while you are answering your e-mail and talking to
> your kid, your cell phone rings and you have a conversation. You are
> now involved in a continuous flow of interactions in which you can only
> partially concentrate on each.
> 
> The problem is that human beings simply are not designed to be like
> computer servers. For one thing, they are designed to sleep eight hours
> a
> night. So there is a big misfit brewing here. I still can't program my
> VCR;
> how am I going to program my toaster? As Jeff Garten, dean of the Yale
> School of Management and author of a smart new book that deals with
> some of these themes, "The Mind of the CEO," said: "Maybe it's not time
> for us to adapt or die, but for the technology to adapt or die."
> 
> ---
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