Coming to a 3.5-inch screen near you!
The Assembly,Cape Town, five minutes before 1am and The Gaslamp Killer just let his afro loose. We jump to the beat, we laugh, we dance. Two metres away a guy records the entire gig on his iPhone. I stare at him for the longest time before I see another guy doing the same. Both are … Read more
When in Rome…
I’m not a nostalgic, but can you remember a time when people did one thing at a time? When cops actually patrolled the streets? Now they chat to their girlfriends and scan the streets at the same time, kinda. Just looking at these two gents in Rome, it also had me wondering what has happened … Read more
Young Love
I was reminded recently of a time my gran asked me to show her how an ATM worked. Even after countless training sessions showing her where to press what, the interface completely eluded her. She often turned to strangers on the street to help her draw money. Looking at this image I took at a … Read more
You, Me and Facebook
It’s long been said by social media researchers that there are two types of Facebook users. The voyeurs and the narcissists. And I’m sure the cross-breed narcissistic voyeur is also somewhere out there. Sitting in a Barcelona restaurant last weekend I watched this couple eat dinner together, share a laugh over a glass of wine … Read more
Alone Together*
The only person in this cubicle not using a mobile phone traveling between Amsterdam and Rotterdam is the baby. He only has 8 years to wait – this is the average age that kids in the US receive their first mobile phone according to MIT social scientist Sherry Turkle. In a talk at the LSE … Read more
The New Cigarette
During an interview I did last week for my research, someone commented: checking your cellphone while you’re waiting is like the “new cigarette”. I’d never thought of it in this way before, but phones, as time fillers, do save people from feeling completely awkward in public spaces. No more standing outside waiting for our friends … Read more
Next Nature
As our co-evolution with technology continues unabated so our next nature rises up. This new nature is as unpredictable as the first/real nature with all her hurricanes and ash clouds. The only difference is we created it. Alongside things that were “born” will be the things we “made”. Eventually we’ll consider these objects natural too. … Read more
Wanted: 1x Telecocooning Space
Richard Ling might call it “bounded solidarity” but I call it the need for telecocooning space. I’ve lost count how many times I exit the University of Amsterdam’s many libraries to find students awkwardly clutching their mobile phones, talking in hushed tones, trying to create some semblance of privacy outside the doors to the library … Read more
Window Shopping
If we’re not pacing up and down the corridor outside of earshot then we always have to find a window to stare out of aimlessly while we talk on our mobiles…
We haven’t seen each other in years…
The new group hug. There’s so much I (don’t) need to tell you.
