In all of these cases, the medium — a blog, Twitter, the Kindle, even the Internet itself — isn’t the important thing. It’s just a way of connecting people with things that matter to them, and with other people who matter to them. That is the real power, regardless of the medium.

- Om Malik, Why the Medium Is Not the Message 

(via courtenaybird)

Social connection is a fundamental part of the human operating

johntropea:

Looking more deeply at the invisible forces that link one human being to another helps us see something even more profound: our brains and bodies are designed to function in aggregates, not in isolation. That is the essence of an obligatory gregarious species. The attempt to function in denial of our need for others…violates our design specifications. The effects on health are warning signs, similar to the “Check Engine” light that comes on in today’s cars with their comptuerised sensors. But social connection is not just a lubricant that like motor oil, prevents overheating and wear. Social connection is a fundamental part of the human operating and organising system itself.

- Alan Moore via

Related

The limbic brain needs to be in active relationship with others to be happy

Touch, Trust, Oxytocin, Cortisol

Sharing social experience is key to better teams and awareness

Existential cowboys or interconnectedness

(Source: smlxtralarge.com)

Infotechia: ITU: Mobile Subscriptions Outnumber Toilets Worldwide

infotechiahhh:

cell phones

According to this article:

More people in developing countries around the world have cell phone subscriptions than toilets, according to the International Telecommunication Union. The ITU said cell subscriptions totaled 4 billion in developing countries at the end of 2010, while 2.6 billion people lacked “access to toilets or other forms of improved sanitation.”

Being connected is more important than hygiene?

Update:

cascio
@stoweboyd infrastructure that mobile comms depend upon is cheaper to roll out than infrastructure that toilets depend upon.
8/9/11 10:49 AM

Here in the United States we have been debating how many of the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, up against some 100 Al Qaeda operatives and maybe 25,000 Taliban, should be withdrawn, when perhaps we should have been focused on another set of numbers: Cellphone penetration in Afghanistan was at 30 percent in 2009, is now at 50 percent and will be at 70 percent before long, so how do we ensure this dramatic trend empowers in positive rather than negative ways? Texting can be good counterterrorism.

(Oh, and let’s make a call to the Afghan president on one of those mobile phones that goes like this: “Mr Karzai, listen up dude, we’re going to cut the number of troops fast enough so you get the message we’re not bankrolling your fork-tongued ruses any longer.”)

Karzai too will pass. What won’t is that technology and international relations are becoming interchangeable topics. There are many more networks in our future than treaties.

I don’t think the world’s leaders have begun to grasp the implications of unstoppable connectivity. Some people are calling this the Age of Behavior: What I do affects what you do, more directly than ever before.

- Roger Cohen, Positive Disruption

I can’t find a citation of “The Age Of Behavior” anywhere, so Cohen must have heard it in private conversation. However, it sounds like he just means connectivity. I am pushing for the full vision of a liquid world: mobile, social, connected and webbed.

(via underpaidgenius)

It’s Not About Making Things Easier, It’s About Connection

The authors of this AdAge piece start with the wrong premise — that people are buying more media gadgets to make their lives ‘easier’, whatever that is supposed to mean — and then they wind up scratching their heads when it turns out to not be the case.

Bob Shullman and Stephen Kraus, Affluency: E-readers, Tablets Prove Taxing for Affluent | Ad Age Stat - Advertising Age

When we asked Affluents in January 2011 how their lives had changed in the previous decade, the top answer — selected by 79% — was that they’d become “technology-infused.” And it is easy to see why. Consider that:

  • Fully 98% of Affluents are online, averaging over 25 hours of internet use a week.
  • Affluents own an average of 3.5 TVs, and three-fourths have at least one high-definition TV.
  • Two-thirds have a digital video recorder, of which 58% report always or frequently fast-forwarding through commercials.

The list of touchpoints we measure — the potential places where the Affluents may consume media and be exposed to advertising — has now risen to 38.

The most dramatic changes have been seen in the adoption of “new” media platforms. Smartphones barely qualify as “new media” any more, having gone decidedly mainstream — 52% of the Affluents own them, rising to 92% if we broaden the scope to those with any kind of wireless or cellular phone.

The newest of the new — tablets and e-readers — are seeing explosive growth among the Affluents (who, of course, are not only enthusiastic about media and technology, but also have the discretionary income to buy such devices). Our monthly Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer survey shows that e-reader ownership doubled between September 2010 and April 2011 from 12% to 23%. Tablet growth has been just as dramatic, and it is poised to continue. Consider that 14% of Affluents now have a tablet, and an additional 15% plan to buy one in the next 12 months. Put another way, nearly one-third of the Affluents may own tablets within the next 12 months.

But technology, seemingly like everything else from the last decade, is viewed by the Affluents as something of a mixed blessing. When we asked how their lives had changed over the past decade, “infused with technology” was the most widely cited answer. But equally telling are the phrases coming next on the list — “more complicated,” “more stressful” and “focused on finding ways to do more with less.” In contrast, fewer than half said their lives had become “more fun” or “easier.”

Duh.

Ok, start with a different premise, and everything makes sense. The world is complex and getting more so. People believe that they benefit from floating in the liquid media stream exactly where the flow is fastest. This requires more devices — to remain connected in more contexts, like in the train or in line at the Starbucks — and more time spent scanning and connecting.

Therefore, people wind up investing more time to liquid media, but not because it’s fun: it is a requirement of being connected in a connected world.