Post by Flash on Sept 23, 2007 15:08:43 GMT -5
Welcome to the 24/7 online world, dudes
Life as we don't know it … the profound effects of the new interconnected world cannot be overstated, Mark Pesce says.
Life as we don't know it … the profound effects of the new interconnected world cannot be overstated, Mark Pesce says.
Photo: Lisa Wiltse
Nick Galvin
September 24, 2007
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
MARK PESCE points his mobile phone at this reporter for a few seconds and then, without breaking the flow of conversation, thumbs a few digits into the device. "Dude, that's on YouTube now. I'll send you the URL," he grins.
That is the sort of connected world that Mr Pesce - a self-confessed geek, writer, educator and futurist - inhabits. It is a world where making a short film of anything that takes your fancy then posting it immediately on the internet is as natural as breathing.
Mr Pesce, 45, who will present some of his ideas at this week's Web Directions conference in Sydney, says the profound effects of living in this new connected world cannot be overstated. From young people who have never known life without mobile phones and computers, to baby boomers who are increasingly climbing on board the connected bandwagon, no one will escape.
"Children are encountering interactive technology basically from the time they open their eyes," he says. "There will never be a moment when they will be out of touch. They don't even notice it. It's like electricity to us; we only notice it when it's not there."
Studies of the way pre-teens use mobile phones show that sending and receiving more than 100 text messages a day between tight-knit groups of four to five people is not uncommon. And it does not matter whether these friends are across town or across the planet. "Being distant and being close physically doesn't matter any more," he says.
"We didn't predict that [behaviour]. The kids just started to do it when we gave them mobiles. It's something that's second nature to them."
About 15 years ago, a British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, observed that the average human can keep a maximum of 150 individuals in a mental "contact list". Mr Pesce says that as email messages arrive, we subconsciously measure the information we receive against this list before sending it on.
"You immediately know when you see something who is going to get a kick out of it, and so you filter what you have against that, then you forward it.
"It's a very simple idea but very profound … because it means each of us are our own newspaper publisher and our own movie distributor. That's the world we are in right now."
Mr Pesce says the significance of this ability to share information goes beyond passing around YouTube clips. He predicts that we will increasingly pool information and knowledge about issues that are important to us, a process he has dubbed "spontaneous self-organisation".
Life as we don't know it … the profound effects of the new interconnected world cannot be overstated, Mark Pesce says.
Life as we don't know it … the profound effects of the new interconnected world cannot be overstated, Mark Pesce says.
Photo: Lisa Wiltse
Nick Galvin
September 24, 2007
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
MARK PESCE points his mobile phone at this reporter for a few seconds and then, without breaking the flow of conversation, thumbs a few digits into the device. "Dude, that's on YouTube now. I'll send you the URL," he grins.
That is the sort of connected world that Mr Pesce - a self-confessed geek, writer, educator and futurist - inhabits. It is a world where making a short film of anything that takes your fancy then posting it immediately on the internet is as natural as breathing.
Mr Pesce, 45, who will present some of his ideas at this week's Web Directions conference in Sydney, says the profound effects of living in this new connected world cannot be overstated. From young people who have never known life without mobile phones and computers, to baby boomers who are increasingly climbing on board the connected bandwagon, no one will escape.
"Children are encountering interactive technology basically from the time they open their eyes," he says. "There will never be a moment when they will be out of touch. They don't even notice it. It's like electricity to us; we only notice it when it's not there."
Studies of the way pre-teens use mobile phones show that sending and receiving more than 100 text messages a day between tight-knit groups of four to five people is not uncommon. And it does not matter whether these friends are across town or across the planet. "Being distant and being close physically doesn't matter any more," he says.
"We didn't predict that [behaviour]. The kids just started to do it when we gave them mobiles. It's something that's second nature to them."
About 15 years ago, a British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, observed that the average human can keep a maximum of 150 individuals in a mental "contact list". Mr Pesce says that as email messages arrive, we subconsciously measure the information we receive against this list before sending it on.
"You immediately know when you see something who is going to get a kick out of it, and so you filter what you have against that, then you forward it.
"It's a very simple idea but very profound … because it means each of us are our own newspaper publisher and our own movie distributor. That's the world we are in right now."
Mr Pesce says the significance of this ability to share information goes beyond passing around YouTube clips. He predicts that we will increasingly pool information and knowledge about issues that are important to us, a process he has dubbed "spontaneous self-organisation".