With every preference you choose on your phone, tablet, or laptop your life becomes a little easier, the world more centered around you. The customized bubble you design supplies you with just the right mix of ideas and entertainment plus access to the actual necessities of life. And since you can stay in your bubble and still Face-time friends and family, why burst it? It’s only isolating if you neglect to think and care about other people around you, and that can easily describe some people completely disconnected from technology. In fact, I would say it happened to people for centuries before we ever had text alerts and social media.
Why some people do not think or care as much about others as well as, others, is huge question for another day. But it seems safe to say that while our technology did not create the condition of uncaring ignorance, it certainly makes it easier for those conditions to form.
By filling your screen with this post I hope you gain some new ways to consider this issue. Participastory strives to inspire more thoughtful interaction and awareness between people. Part of that must include discovering how to integrate technology into life without reducing our humanity (and ideally enhancing it). Screens aren’t going away. Limiting our time in front of them may work for some, but for many it requires too much discipline, or even a different job. So perhaps a good first step for a lot of people to break free of their bubble is just to start looking at other peoples’ screens. They are right there in front of you in check out lines, beside you in meetings, in coffee shops. Why not?
At first glance you might think this was just a dreadfully long set up for a joke. Well, congratulations, you got it! It was a joke, sort of. I write sort of, because consciously deciding to acquaint yourself with another person by reading what’s on her laptop screen might be more efficient and interesting than the initial small talk so many of us engage in. Sure, it currently violates a lot of social norms around privacy. But our norms may change rapidly as technology becomes increasingly woven into our every day life. We already show pictures from our phones to people, and share articles, forward emails. Who is to say if the convenience of technology will make us so lazy that someday we just say, here I don’t know what you’ll like or not so just look through it yourself. Except, we won’t bother to use words, but some sort of hologram-projected emoji of our feelings. But for now, looking at others’ screens seems a violation, so much so that I have adopted the term suggestive of petty retail theft, “screenlifting”.
But as in all interpersonal interactions, if you see someone checking out your screen, or do it to someone else, there is an opportunity to learn more about that person. What could be more anti bubble than exploring other humans? Some of you may decide to engage this person immediately. “What are you looking at?” That’s a defensive, confrontational phrase that has been around a long time. It doesn’t necessarily have to apply to a person looking at another person, but I only recommend it if uttered in a calm, curious manner. In my next post I’ll discuss what you might consider about the screenlifting experience before you act.