WHERE IS THE CULTURE GOING AND WHO WILL WE BE WHEN IT GETS THERE?

By David Harris

Though I have adopted assorted electronic gadgets over the years as digital technology became essential for doing commerce, my citizenship in the culture the internet and broadband revolutions have generated is naturalized at best.   I am several gadgets behind the curve and only marginally literate at the ones I do have.  Nonetheless, I am convinced that all of us need to participate in the reconciliation of this technology with our ongoing humanity—who we will be is up for grabs—so the other evening I set out to explore the subject.

The birthday party was almost all twenty-somethings.  It was in a bar, where five tables had been strung together end to end, and I was sitting where I could see the whole crowd.  Everyone had their smart phones open on the table in front of them and several had laptops in readiness nearby.  For two hours they talked with great animation and volume, regularly sent and received text messages as the conversation continued unabated, fielded incoming phone calls, checked e-mails, took pictures, posted them on the internet, ordered more drinks, texted friends at the other end of the table, worked their way through dozens of Facebook walls, and sang Happy Birthday when the time came.  After a while, I turned on my five year old cell phone just to feel a little less self conscious. [Read more…]