Personal Space

Good piece by John Naughton in this weekend's Observer. He contrasts the invasion of public space with private worlds (people listening to iPods, speaking on mobile phones) with the very different world of Edwardian Britain revealed by the current BBC2 programme, "The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon". The black and white footage, among many other things, shows repeated and intense sociability in the street, the park, the football ground. Naughton (and I agree with this) fingers the culprit for decreased social interaction between strangers..."As the Walkman de nos jours, theiPod is simply continuing what Sony started. But not even Sony could have single-handedly destroyed the notion of social space. The coup de grace was administered by another piece of technology: the mobile phone." I think this might be going a bit far: after all we do still see people interacting in the park when their dogs meet, on trains when they catch each others eye or share a newspaper, outside galleries enquiring opening times. But the trend is very hard to deny and it is the future effect that requires present vigilance. As he says "we haven't really begin to explore the social significance of mobile telephony..." Exactly, which is why the Distraction Culture conversation is an important one.

Comments

[Andrew Curry]

The coup de grace to social space was administered not by the iPod or the Walkman but by another piece of technology - the automobile. As anyone who has tried to have a conversation with a child on a busy street - or any conversation with anyone - knows only too well. It was, if I recall correctly, the 'elephant in the room' in John Naughton's article. I'm usually sympathetic to his worldview, but close reading of his article suggests that he was probably behind the wheel of a car when he came across the iPodder who prompted his line of inquiry.

[RamonGustav]

I think you are not quite right and you should still studying the matter.

[Buy_Viagra]

I think you are not quite right and you should still studying the matter.

[Antivirus_man]

You write well will be waiting for your new publications.