Musings & Meanderings

Friday afternoon saw trucks and workmen from Bell filling the pit and laying the sod. Despite their previous statement that the sod wouldn’t/couldn’t be laid for 2 weeks after the filling, they finished it all at once.

No, I don’t think someone read my little rant.

A neighbor happens to have a son who is a Bell supervisor in the right division.
He picked up his phone and …voila… job(s) completed and 11 month saga ends.

Sure, technology is grand, but ‘Emily’ or any avatar doesn’t replace humans. It is still people that get things done, and it gets more difficult to make contact with them every day.

…and to meander over into related musings…

I’m finally reading the Tipping Point, and was earlier reading a post by Steve Rubel on RSS.

This linked in to my mulling over the ‘disconnects’ we’ve inadvertently created with technology, in the context of The Law of the Few (connectors, mavens, and salesmen). Being a connector requires knowing other Doers and being recognized as one by them. They’re not recognized or connected with in any new way on the web. Mavens are getting the best of it so far if they can use the web effectively, and salesman, who use any and every media available, have an extra message delivery system in their arsenal.

In the expanded or narrowed environs of a tech powered world, it’s still humans creating parallel networks via electronic means. So whatever your profession or specialty, you can now network with an awesome number of your own kind the world over.

It is fascinating and wonderful to see the increase in territory being built by serious and reasonable individuals on the web.

Electronically generated and maintained relationships, though, barely replace RL ones much more effectively than Emily (your automated phone attendant). The real ‘connects’ and ensuing results are still accomplished the way they always have been. By humans.

Technology’s rapid integration into our day to day lives can be a bonus, as well as occasionally a disproportionate generator of frustration and waste. The basic ways in which people interact haven’t changed, but our day to day access to one another on every level is changing. My parents, and many of my peers, don’t even notice, and most of our adult (non-geek) children use computers simply, as a tool and toy.

My musing today is whether the rapidly increasing disconnects will alter our behavior and relationships in more significant ways.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 10th, 2006 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Rants, Perspective, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.