The New York Times holds a special spot on the menu of my media diet. It occupies the type of media that I read because it is what it is. It has a topology that turns inward on itself but nevertheless reaches out and illuminates Other Things. I enjoy reading the NY Times, and I'm also obliged to read the NYTimes as it is essential to whatever it is that I do. But I never really turn the pages expecting to be Profoundly Enlightened about the new worlds of technology / society where I go spelunking. This past Sunday, September 7, was different.
Mr. Clive Thompson has discovered another country and showed us part of a map. It isn't so much that he discovered that more of us are keeping up with more of us in novel ways. Thousands of people on LiveJournal knew this ages ago. Rather, Mr. Thompson gives us a latitude and longitude, the coordinates of the place. Many years back, William Gibson defined virtual reality as where one is when one is speaking to someone else on the telephone and this is surely the truth. Mr. Thompson gives us ambient awareness, the particular knowing we have of individuals, near and far, we arrive at through the glimpses we receive through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. --Thank you.
I strongly suggest you read the article. It starts off a bit slow, but ride it out.
