ColdFusion Muse

TC Lifestyle - Your Treo or Your Life

TC Lifestyle Explained

Before you read this you should know that in this post I wax philosophical about society at large. There's nothing technically astute here. This post is a follow up to my rant on why you should give your relatives a break. In that post I mentioned that there is an emerging lifestyle with technology at the center. This may be just a morphing of an old lifestyle, but it bears fleshing out. So if you are a brave soul, read on.

In the last century inventions like electricity and the automobile enabled people to do more with their time. Such inventions were a means to greater productivity. Largely due to the light bulb, there was more time for leisure and work in the average day. This was the standard view of the purpose of technology - to save time and energy. Today, the "Technology Centered" (TC) viewpoint no longer sees technology as simply "productivity enhancers" or "time saving devices". It's no longer just an "means to an end". Instead, a TC'er uses technology as a connection point to community and even family.

I suppose the telephone can lay claim to being a harbinger of this new found way of living. With the telephone people learned to "stay in touch". It was a vehicle for connecting to family and friends in a way that was previously unthinkable - to actually hear the human voice. That idea is extended on the Internet. As a sort of community neural pathway the Internet provides connection points that go beyond voice. For example, with the advent of email people began to write again. Not the carefully crafted and designed letters of our grandparents, where exactly the "right tone" was set (or attempted). Email and text allowed people to begin to write in the same style that they talk.

To put it another way, email became an extension of language and thought in a way that made a familiar and comfortable connection. - a less shielded and in many ways more vulnerable mode of communication than letter writing. Why? Because of expediency and ease. Sending 10 emails is as easy as 1 letter. No trip to the post office, no stamp - just a send button. It "feels" like a conversation - whereas letters often feel like a serial monologue. Something else often missed is the inclusion of the conversation in the response. Usually, when you reply to an email the previous text (the text sent to you) is in the email you are sending - so a running thread, a dialogue, is being forwarded back and forth, and with the rise of instant messaging and portable devices the level of dialogue has increased (sort of).

Because of this new level of "connectedness", a TC'er sees himself or herself as a part of a connected community. Non-TC'ers don't understand this in any appreciable sense. It's hard to visualize community without physical presence. To them, community is church, civic engagement, friends and family get togethers and the like. To be in a community where you rarely see each other is odd - even wrong. TC'ers however see themselves as connected to the whole world at large. They have friends of similar interest that they have never met - maybe never even heard their voice. For example, when the Tsunami hit, I was amazed at the "community" response of the developers I know. Money, time, and resources where devoted to non-profit organizations like Doctors Without Borders. When 1 developer mentioned a need, 3 or 4 others chimed in to help. So here we have a community rallying together for a common cause, but none of them really know each other. In fact, they were spread all over the globe. Amazing. It illustrates the incredible power of this feeling of "connectedness". It is, however, a pretty idyllic view of the TC lifestyle. What's the downside.

Urgency Crowds out Significance

I love that line in "The Incredibles" where Helen (Elastigirl) is chiding Bob (Mr. Incredible) for coming home with rubble on his clothes (he'd been doing hero work on the sly). She says "I know you miss the old days Bob, but this [the family] is what's happening now... and you are missing this." Her point was that we can get wrapped up in what is bothering or nagging at us and miss truly important things around us. In my life I've renamed PDA's. I call them PLDs - Pesky Little Devices. How many times have you been talking directly to someone face to face when their phone rings and they turn away from you to answer it? I've done it myself. The problem with being surrounded by connection points is they take as well as give. There are so many connection points in our lives it's like a momma sow with ten teats and 12 piglets.

If you allow it, your life will be filled with the yammering of electronic toddlers, all demanding your attention. You have to be able to ignore the cell phone, and the IM alert and the PC and the PDA. You have to be able to turn them off and go for a walk, watch your kids play ball without interruption, cook a meal instead of eating out, do a crossword puzzle or play yahtzee with your wife or husband. I give you permission to rule over your PLDs. At least until the PDA rights activists come and take me away. For my part, I own a cell phone, but not a PDA. I have enough noise in my life as it is.

The White Noise Effect

I believe in connection - in communication. I believe that you should love your family and friends - that you should try and elevate them above yourself. So I'm in favor of more connection points. I love being able to drop my Wife an email during the day and I know she appreciates it. I like checking in on my Mom without having to call her. But communication is only 1 part of healthy relationships and a happy life. You must also have contemplation. If your connection points are all electronic and you give them the attention they demand, you will find that the level of actual communication is going down. How is that possible? It's the white noise effect. More time is being put into talking than into contemplating. Most of the time, talking means you are not listening - and listening is a lost art.

Case in point - I said that IM and chat have "sort of" increased the level of dialogue. It's true that people can now "chat" from virtually anywhere. Is this an enhancement? In my view, no. People in chat rooms are less likely to reveal themselves and more likely to "front". More to the point, "chat" or "IM" should be called "chit chat" or "IM bored". Like a Radio Disk Jockey afraid of dead air, people feel the necessity to fill up the screen with random thoughts and meaningless phrases. There is little communication occurring, but a great deal of noise. It's rather like trying to meet someone in a bar - lots of flash, but little substance.

Society's Crossroads

So here we are. We have more ways to communicate with each other than ever before, yet we constantly find ways to feel alone. We halt our conversations with the person standing in front of us to answer our urgent cell phone. We spend endless hours tap-tap-tapping away at our computer keyboard firing small talk into the white noise of chat and IM, while we ignore our children and spouses. We live our lives in "Quiet Desperation" [Thoreau]. We walk around with Ipods in our ears ignoring the sea of humanity around us... it's needs and it joys. Let's wake up!! Let's smell the roses. Let's love each other. Let's forgive each other and get to know each other and root for each other. Let's not let another decade go by before we as a society finally recognize the things that are really important. That's my take for today.