The New York Times > Week in Review > Cellular Sociology: I Want to Be Alone. Please Call Me.

The New York Times > Week in Review > Cellular Sociology: I Want to Be Alone. Please Call Me. This article touches on several themes - the public vs. private spaces colliding in using cell phones in public spaces, the social desire to be included and the reaction of hurt exclusion when someone around you is on the phone, the ridiculous instances of behavior, like the one described in the article (hard to believe that one actually). The article doesn't really come out and say it, but it descirbes the growing pains of the developing social norms around new social technologies that have invaded spaces previously relegated to boredom, relative quiet and meeting strangers. It is curious whether similar events have happened or still happen in Europe or in Asia, where cellphone adoption has happened earlier and more fully.

The New York Times > Technology > Patents: Tuning In to Television, Two Ways

The New York Times > Technology > Patents: Tuning In to Television, Two Ways - a brand new way to make TV-watching and interactive activity, brought to you by AOL. What is very interesting about this article, I found, is not the new idea to let people see what their friends are watching and chat about it (great idea, not new), but a statement about why WebTV and AOLTV didn't exactly meet the gargantuan demand they were supposed to. The article argues that the new approach - integrating interactive features with existing practices of TV watching may fare better than the previous attempt that was essentially "trying to change people's television viewing habits". This statement is near revelatory - a little beacon that says - by simply introducing "cool" technology you can't change the way people do things or create new activities for them unless these activities fit into existing practies and somehow augment or empower them.

Orkut Newsletter

So I received a newsletter from Orkut today. A little report that told me who I was friends with, how many friends and acquaintenances I had, just a social check up. It then went on to let me know who I might want to meet that are my friends of friends... people, who are, presumably somehow similar to me. My own reaction to this surprised me. I was upset, almost offended at this intrusion into my little social structure. Its almost as if I can communicate it, but I do NOT want someone else telling me who I should me. Someone (or something to be exact really) who has absolutely no idea about the social dynamics of my social network. It made me reel... My gut reaction was to cancel my orkut account right now, along with my gmail account, and everything else related to google. It was one of the more intense "icky" reactions I've had in ages. Interesting.

I emailed the originator of the email - admin@orkut.com with a curt little message asking them to never ever send me anything like this ever again and letting them know that this was rather upsetting and almost offensive. I wonder if they will respond. hmmm

The New York Times > Washington > Program Would Ease Security a Bit for Frequent Fliers

The New York Times > Washington > Program Would Ease Security a Bit for Frequent Fliers. A BIT is sort of an understatement here. In effect, the government is trying to pass CAPPs as a bonus program for trusted passengers where they will get no more out of it than an occasional saving of less than 10 minutes of their time (extended over a lots of flying episodes, this really doesn't amount to a whole lot). It is amusing that they are trying to pass it off as a benefit, when it is really a hassle and a way to get people to regard possession of these cards as a "privelege". This is really a low-brow move to avoid the panicking of the privacy groups (note all the "asking permission" language) and to slide this under the radar. Icky... but probably effective...

Friends, Friends With Benefits and the Benefits of the Local Mall

The Friends, Friends With Benefits and the Benefits of the Local Mall: "Many teenagers spend a lot of time hanging out in mixed-gender groups (at the mall, at one another's houses), and when they can't hang out in person, they hang out online, asking the questions they might not dare to in real life. "
While danah was fascinated with the part of this article that focused on teenage girls calling the shots in an interaction with the opposite sex, I was more attracted to the line quoted above.

While I won't argue whether females calling the shots is a change (I don't believe it is), the fact that teenagers are hanging out more in gender-mixed groups IS a change. Most of the teen-sociology and psych literature has talked about the prevalence of same sex relationships and how important these were. However, the advent of the Internet has changed something interesting. Not only do teens hang out more with opposite sex, they also talk more frankly about topics they used to only whisper in corners about. It could be they use the IM medium as a way to get pass the discomfort of frank topics. A similar thing is happening in Europe with SMS... now THIS is a very interesting development :).