Digital Sprocket

We are still in the very earliest stages of building digital environments, and we have little idea of what their long-term implications will be. Just as moving our activities from the field into buildings, so too will these new structures radically alter how we live and work. One change that is already upon us is an increased ability or need to multitask.

The other day, my wife was knitting. This in itself does not appear to be technology intensive activity, but she was sitting in front of her laptop as she whiled away the afternoon. Why was her laptop important? She was watching an instructional video by knitting legend Elizabeth Zimmermann while she worked. In fact she was following instructions in the video. Of course the knitting took longer than the instructions, so she would pause Mrs. Zimmermann, and switch over to an episode of “Private Practice” until she competed a section of the garment, and went back for more instructions. While switching between video sources, she would pause just long enough to check and possibly respond to emails. Let’s not forget about Facebook. She had to update her status and see what her friends were up to at the same time.

What’s amazing, is not how many things she was doing all at once, but rather how normal it all is. At work, we think nothing of checking the weather forecast between responding to our boss’s email and writing important documentation. As portable networked devices become ubiquitous, this will only accelerate. While waiting in line a Starbucks you’ll check sports scores while writing the next great American novel. At the same time your calendar reminds you of an old friend’s impending birthday.

Will this technology make our world better? It depends on how we employ them. Walls and roofs meant that we could continue to work even in bad weather, and provided a safe place to recover from illness, and store food. At the same time, walls can be built to control our movement, fracture societies, and limit our opportunities. We have it in us to determine the future of our newly constructed environments. But we must take control of them with knowledge and intention and wisdom.