05 October 2008
Diffuse Presence
10/10/08 11:23 Filed in: Pervasiveness
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Instant Messaging... what value does the here and now really have for a new generation? When you can talk with a scattered crowd at the same time you can talk with a friend in a coffee shop, is there any inherent value in actually seeing someone in person?
It’s what I call “Diffuse Presence,” and it came to me when a younger relative was visiting. She was perpetually connected to her friends (thousands of miles away) via her Sidekick, and yet at the same time she was, or at least appeared to be fully engaged with the people whose home she was sharing. There was, I admit, a certain amount of “lag” here in the real-space, a lag that is tolerable electronically but less so online.
It makes me think about relative presence-values, and what conditions need to be made/met in order for a particular presence to have the highest value.
It’s what I call “Diffuse Presence,” and it came to me when a younger relative was visiting. She was perpetually connected to her friends (thousands of miles away) via her Sidekick, and yet at the same time she was, or at least appeared to be fully engaged with the people whose home she was sharing. There was, I admit, a certain amount of “lag” here in the real-space, a lag that is tolerable electronically but less so online.
It makes me think about relative presence-values, and what conditions need to be made/met in order for a particular presence to have the highest value.
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