There are multiple
possible perspectives on the technology/urbanism interaction. The Aporetic offers the thought that bland and
featureless public places are the result of cell phone proliferation. Prior to cell phones, when we wanted to meet
a friend in a public place, we needed clear and distinctive locations. The Aporetic’s example is the eagle in the
Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia.
But with
cell phones available to help us with last-minute course corrections toward
meeting points, he argues that we no longer need distinctive meeting places,
which leads to bland, innocuous public places such as Dulles International
Airport near Washington, D.C.
Alan Jacobs
of Atlantic Cities, among others, poked the
obvious hole in The Aporetic’s hypothesis, which is that Dulles existed long
before cell phones were common. The
Aporetic tried to cover the logical gap by arguing that recent Dulles remodels
have increased the blandness of the place, which illustrates the impact of cell
phones. But the cause and effect of his
hypothesis remain dubious.
Having
rebutted The Aporetic, Jacobs then took his own wrong turn, arguing that cell
phones have proliferated because public places are bland, resulting in a need
for cell phones to help us navigate and to meet friends.
That hypothesis
seems equally flawed. I suggest that
there is no cause and effect between cell phones and public places.
Instead, cell
phones have become omnipresent because they provide a constant connection to
interesting stuff happening in the on-line world, which is both exciting and
addictive.
And public
places have become bland and uninteresting because we took a flawed turn into
modern architecture (per Tom Wolfe and James Howard Kunstler), because we
refocused our world around the needs of the automobile (Jane Jacobs and others), or because of both.
We needn’t
blame bad public places on cell phones or vice versa. They both happened for understandable and
unrelated reasons.
Besides, the key question isn’t how did we get here, but where do we go from here? Is it possible to build public places that create interactions between people when many folks have noses buried in cell phones?
To begin to answer
that question, it’s important to note that cell phones offer both benefits and
detriments in the creation of effective public places.
Cell phones
can encourage people to venture outside the front door, which is the first step
toward successful urbanism. Much like a
high school party where you only wanted to attend if you were sure that friends
would also be there, cell phones can provide a social safety net, giving
courage to a phone user to venture into a new or unfamiliar setting. Even if there is no one to talk with, a cell
phone owner can sit on a bench and play with his phone, pretending not to feel
awkward.
So the
challenge isn’t to bring people into the public realm. It’s to get them to set the phones aside and to
engage in face-to-face communication once they’ve arrived. Cari Nierenberg, writing in Health Today, presents current research showing
that it only takes the presence of a cell phone on a table to reduce the
quality of human interaction.
(Admission: I often have my cell phone on the table when dining with my
wife, although I often forget that it’s there.
Nonetheless, it seems to be an oops.)
It’s too
easy to say that we should educate people to put their cell phones away when
they have a chance to interact with real people. I doubt the ability of education to match the
increasing seductiveness of cell phones.
Instead, it
is on the urban planners, landscape architects, and the managers of public
places to create places and events that triumph over the cell phone at least
some of the time. Not every battle will
be won, but victories are possible.
A few weeks
ago, I visited a waterfront park that included swings for two with a view over
a lovely estuary. All the swings were
occupied and no cell phones were in sight.
Over the summer, I often went to a public market where conversations
were going on all around me and there were no cell phones to be seen. It’s not easy, but the cell phone can be
beaten back into its holder. It’ll be a
continuing challenge to find and to build upon those victories.
To end on a
note that reads like it’s from The Onion, John Metcalfe of Atlantic Cities reports on a vest being developed
by researchers at MIT. The vest would
constantly monitor your Facebook account, inflating to provide a simulated
“hug” whenever someone likes something you’ve posted on Facebook.
Recognizing
the need for more human interaction, someone thought that a good idea would be
to simulate human interaction based on input from the internet. At least some of us have truly become lost in
our electronics and seem to have forgotten what real human interaction should
be.
One wonders
how these researchers interact at their holiday party. Perhaps they show Yuletide affection by
liking each other from their cell phones.
The cell phones that are on top of the table.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment