I found this week’s reading rather interesting. In the short essay Kate Crawford discusses the issue of constant connection. I personally have thought about the issue of always being connected ever since I owned my first phone and even more now that I now own a blackberry. Crawford talks about the ‘sickening feeling when we have accidentally left our phone behind’ (Crawford 2010, p66). This is a statement I agree with, whenever I leave my phone at home to go for a run or going down to the shops I think about my phone and wonder if I have gotten any text messages, emails or if I have missed a phone call. Though sometimes the constant checking and thinking about my phone annoys me I wouldn’t give it up.
“When (and how) do I make it all go away?” (Crawford, 2010 p66). This question got me thinking about could we go back to a time without constant connectivity and I came to the conclusion we could but we shouldn’t. Technology has made the world we live in so much more productive and efficient. Instant connection has given me the ability to talk to my friends anywhere in the world and I do. However, I do sympathise with the view of the Italian man who has a “implacable hatred for this apparatus (phone)” (Crawford 2010, p67). I appreciate his view that the mobile phone has been the cause for certain antisocial behaviour.
All things considered however, I do think that constant connection is a positive step forward for humanity. The benefits that mobility has given human beings not only in our personal lives but also in business far out ways the negatives it has developed in our society and privacy.
References
Crawford, K., 2010, ‘Noise, Now: Listening to Networks’ in Meanjin Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 64-69
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