Quote:
|
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
20 years is short and will not change the habits of generations and generations.
|
I don't think this is going to be much of a sticking point. I think those habits are already fading fast.
I mean it's not like the only discussion venues going are still the general store porch or the barber shop -- MobileRead itself is an example of people letting go of physical locations to continue traditional social activities -- and it's nowhere near as big as say, myspace for instance.
It has its advantages, allowing folks from literally all over the world to participate, but it does remove a lot of the 'humanity' from the interaction, and I'm not sure that's always a good thing. I think a lot of society's problems are exacerbated by increased anonymity. Cities allow people to be unknown in a way that is impossible in a small town, so some will do things that they'd never do if they were in an area where they were known. On the web, a person can be anybody he claims to be, and it's not only complicated to find the truth of who someone is, most folks don't even bother to try.
But back to the actual point, I think society has already gone a fair way down the road to giving up traditional location based activities in favor of virtual locations. So in 20 years, when I'm 55, my parents are in their 80's, and today's teeny-bopper myspace denizens are in
their 30's, I just don't think that those habits of generations will be all that strong a bond.
