William Powers, Hamlets Blackberry p. 61
ISBN:9780061687174

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Though digital tools are designed to make the workplace more efficient and workers more productive, the effect is often the opposite. And still businesses and other institutions continue down a slippery slope continually increasing the investment and engagement with the digital age.

Jen Sorensen an observer of our digital landscape captured the absurdity of our compulsion in her “Slowpoke” strip entitled “Small Business Meets the Virtual Vortex.”

Panel 1: A businesswoman is shown taking an order by telephone. “A dozen by noon? You got it!” she says.

The caption: In the beginning, you did your work, and it was good.

Panel 2: “And then you needed a website.” An entrepreneur at her computer screen, proudly launching her business’s NEW online site.

Panel 3: Our hero is adding a blog.

Panel 4: …and joining social networking sites posting short updates about her status throughout the day.

“Be sure not to miss my tweet from 11:27am!”

Panel 5: Confused and staring deep into her screen she wonders. “What do I do for a living?

The book has many practical advantages: compactness, sturdiness, portability, random access, ease of reference, economical, self-contained versatility of use. As medium for information it has transmitted vast amounts of knowledge over the last 500 years, in all cultures, without a power source.

Beyond these attributes the book, as an object, embodies knowledge developed a thousand years before the printing press encompassing the art and craft of paper making, bindings, font design and content.

Ed Morrow, Northshire Bookstore

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Slow to hatch, as durable as a turtle, light and shapeless befits a descendant of the tree.

Closed, the objet d’book resembles a board.

Open, its pale wings brush the fingertips, the spore of fresh ink and pulp excites the nose, the spine lies easily in the hand. A handsome useful object begotten by the passion for the truth.

Ages before the loudspeaker and the camera came this lovely thing, this portable garden, which survives television, computers, censorship, lousy schools, and rotten authors.

Garrison Keilor, We are still Married: Stories & Letters

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I like to compile things in book format. But the accelerated speed of information technology has let to the foundation of more and more information formats. Under these circumstances, it may be time to consider the possibility that books have stepped down from their traditional role as an information medium.

When you think about books as a medium for stocking information, they may be inconvenient. They’re heavy and bulky. They get dirty and fade with time and they contain information that could be contained in a tiny digital memory.

But if we coolly observe the relationship between information and the individual what is important is how deeply that information is appreciated.

As a book designer I want people to enjoy information as letters printed on paper; to hand someone a book as an object with weight; and that after taking it from a bag on the train, or plane, to turn the pages at one’s own pace. And as a book fades with time, it becomes the reflection of it.

Kenya Hara,  Designing Design

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Books are an elegantly collaborative bodying forth of art and wisdom.

Surviving improbably into our electronic era, this fifteenth century technology hasn’t been surpassed.

Andy Laties, Rebel Bookseller

photo credit: John Sutton © 2011

This morning I helped  set up a book fair at a local elementary school and had the chance to speak for a few minutes with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.

After some idle chit-chat I asked how her craft business was doing. She told me that sales on Ebay were flat, but that a few months ago she’d sold an item or two. Those sales were encouraging, but business had tapered off.  I empathized about the state of the economy and the difficulties of marketing and finding customers and so on and so forth.

‘So, do you have a Facebook page? Do you do anything with social media to meet people who might be interested in what you’re selling?” I asked.

“People keep badgering me to be their friends on that thing, but I don’t want to spend five hours a day sitting behind a computer,” she said.

‘Well, what about a smart-phone? That would give you some mobility and you wouldn’t be bound to your home or office,” I said.

She then went on a five-minute rant about computers taking over the world, and people hiding behind cell phones and that if she had a phone –which she doesn’t, her kids would be calling her all the time and who needs that and on and on it went. And no she doesn’t know about Facebook business pages.

‘Does it cost money?  Who has time to learn about all that stuff anyway?” she said.

In thinking about it afterward, I congratulated myself for holding my tongue. I’ve learned from experience that when such firm opinions are expressed, offering a contrary point of view can be perceived as a hostile act. No thanks. Technophobia is nothing to mess with lightly. I’d rather wrestle a wild boar.

While I understood her angst and justified criticism about misuses of technology and the avoidance behavior it allows, her throwing out the baby with the bathwater is all too common.  She wasn’t open to seeing the greater picture; that the tools she held such contempt for could give her access to information and people anywhere, at anytime. And if she knew how to use these tools, she could meet people she would never meet otherwise who want what she has to offer! By learning to use Facebook, and Twitter, and LinkedIn, and a blog,  she could reach a bigger audience than she has yet to realize.

It’s my hope that someday my friend comes around and sees the light. But she’ll have to adjust her attitude a bit and if she wants some help, I’d be more than happy to oblige. We might even open a market for her goods, in Brazil. Now wouldn’t that be exciting!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl2WJdn3qOE

Bebel Gilberto – Samba da Benção

For a long time I’ve been on the fence trying to decide whether or not I should get a smartphone. Depending on the day, my feelings run hot and cold and I’m embarrassed to admit how much literature I’ve collected from different providers. I’ve studied, underlined, and made copious notes in the margins of these pamphlets, and then sent them off to the recycling center. I know smartphones are useful, and I like fiddling around with gadgets as much as anyone, but it’s hard for me to justify the expense for these reasons.

Need: I don’t have to commute or travel on a regular basis and I have internet access from my home and office. If I were away from the office on a more regular basis, a smartphone would answer the need for easy internet access. But I don’t travel regularly, so the need for a phone isn’t critical.

Service Availability: I live and work in a  rural  mountainous area and cell service is not dependable. About a year ago I purchased a pay-as-you-go phone and couldn’t receive a reliable signal. It was a disappointment so I returned the phone. I didn’t feel right paying so much for a service that isn’t universally  available all  the time. I know many aren’t  concerned by this, but for me it didn’t seem like money well spent.

Cost: With no clear  need and spotty service, the idea of spending a lot of money for a phone and data plan, and then be locked in to a  two year commitment, didn’t seem like a worthwhile expense. Without an immediate need, that would make for an expensive paper weight.

I like the concept of uninterrupted access to the communications network, and see the benefits. If any two of the cited issues change, –strong need, great signal availability and more reasonable prices, I’d jump onto the smartphone bandwagon in a heartbeat.

Here’s another thought. A friend of mine recently told me of a daughter’s smartphone saga. The daughter is an interior designer with two small children and a high pressure job in New York. On a flight to South Carolina she lost her phone  and it took a week for the replacement to arrive. Not only was she not concerned about the interruption of service, she so enjoyed the peace and quiet that release from this electronic tether brought her, she wished it had taken two weeks for the replacement device to arrive.

What do you think?

Here are some useful links:
Why buy a smartphone? Click here for another view.
And if you are going to buy, click here for a top ten list.