Welcome to the always-on world
Agre, P.E.
Spectrum, IEEE
Volume 38, Issue 1, Jan 2001 Page(s):10 - 13
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/6.901159
Summary:With the growth of new information and communications
technologies, each human relationship is becoming a continual presence.
You can exchange a dozen brief cell phone conversations with your spouse
every day. You can keep track of your money through on-line banking.
Your computer-mediated work activities can always be visible to your
co-workers. This is a tremendous shift in human relationships: from
episodic to always-on. The always-on world presents a series of
challenges: interruptions-the ringing cell phone in the theater is just
the start; divided attention-when every relationship is present
everywhere, all the time, it becomes necessary to juggle commitments;
addiction-some people can't stop reading their e-mail;
boundaries-parents often give their children beepers or cell phones to
keep track of them, which is disturbing to many children; other new
technologies-for example, electronic payments-make other kinds of
tracking possible as well. The always-on world is a world of freedom,
but it is also a world of anonymous global forces that ceaselessly
rearrange all relationships to their liking. We don't understand this
world very well, but there will soon be plenty of opportunity to study
it first-hand
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