Secrets of the City

Yeah, it looks interesting. I’d give him a dollar for a printable version.

Definitely an interesting concept.

But it leaves me wondering:

Can we call someone who, while admittedly is gaining more knowledge more quickly and more efficiently than ever before possible, and who is communicating that knowledge, and discussing it and sharing it and expanding upon it with others in the on-line world, but who is doing it all in a chair in front of a screen in a quiet room alone, truly a “participant”?

I understand his concept of the interactivity and practical utility of the connection compared to what it was in its first ten years, and appreciate that it is a wonderful tool if made a part of a complete person, but his thesis seems to make it much more than just a tool. The guy he uses as his opening example seems romanticized to some extent, in that he does all of these neat techie things and still gets out and has a life with real people in his face. I’ve maybe seen too many people who end up hunched in front of screens 24/7, who proudly tell me of all the people they now “know”, but, man, they’re all getting real pale and round and isolated.

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Josiah doesn’t seem to have any real friends and I’m not sure who he would call if he needed a jump start for his car.

I didn’t really see any mention of him leaving the house either other than needing wireless access whereever he goes.

The best way to kill a phenomenon is by giving it a name and definition.

Thanks for posting this Matt and for all of you who read it. Thought I’d add some comments to your comments:

Rex: purposely didn’t deliver a printed version since the premise of the report is participation and I wanted it to be geared for easy updating as well since this whole are is moving pretty fast.

bobby_b: Josiah in some ways is a composite (though he’s a real guy) and is NOT in any way someone who sits in front of his screen. He really uses all this stuff as a way to augment his social interactions. There is no question that this whole concept is accelerating and you’ll read alot more about this in mainstream media going forward.

Mpls Simpleton: he’s a great guy with an actual amazing number of friends. He’s a college student and is “in the game” in a big way active in lots of areas. Yeah…he’s a bit of an overachiever and atypical technically (especially for Minnesota). I’d encourage you to stop by any Dunn Bros in Minneapolis and simply ask people about themselves, their friends, and others that use mobile phones, wireless laptops, and other means to stay connected with others. Are any of them fat, smelly dweebs without friends just sitting in front of a computer? Nope.

champs: I’m out at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco right now and in this group I feel like I’m late to the party (regarding this phenomena). “Mass collaboration”, “culture of participation” are just a couple of the names and there are definitions explaining what’s happening with a connected world and the people participating in it.

Thanks for reading — Steve

just goes to show that you can’t beet Borsch.

And then there’s the

I temporarily lift my self-imposed excommunication from MNSpeak to compliment g rote on a particularly inspired, if groan-worthy, pun.

Well done, sir.

Dizzy, thanks for not adding sour cream to my beet borsch joke.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has a lot of interesting free reports on this topic that are worth reading. The studies show that online interaction actually does strengthen face-to-face social ties. It also has a large influence on many major life decisions and makes it easier for people to seek advice.

I think we need to stick to basics.

The internet is for porn.

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It’s for porn: and borscht!

This is web 2.0 people. That means it’s porn 2.0! (hold the borscht!)

Damn! Now Avenue Q is stuck in my head.

Okay, I finally read it all!