The BBC recently wrote an article about the hyperconnected generation, I like the name of this. I like everything with hyper because hyper goes beyond an existing word and there is nothing next to hyper. You can’t say hyperhyper. Hyper is always temporary, until it becomes mainstream. In time it will just be ‘connected’ again.
Every new (micro)generation is more connected than the generation before. We use all kinds of different applications or methods to connect to ‘friends’. (the definition of the word friend needs a serious update within the next years).
Since a few weeks I have a continuously broadband internet connection on my mobile phone. Now the web, my e-mail, IM and more travels with me and is continuously within ‘live’ reach. After these two week I realized the next thing is definitely going to be in the mobile phone. It is so much more than a computer.
Sure the device lacks usability, screen estate and a keyboard. These are just small things compared to the advantages a small connected device has. You can’t design a website on your mobile phone, but you can read one. You can watch video, listen to audio, stream, IM, text and talk. And the most important one; It is always there.
The computer is build around composing things. And this is what it does best. In the same way as television is very good in entertaining in a non-interactive way. You will immerse in a movie or a film without interaction. Just sit and let it happen.
The immersive character of a television is very strong. The immersive character of a computer is within work (Mao would have loved computers). You can completely forget about the things around you when you are composing something. A piece of audio, a design or a text.
The mobile phone also has it immersive key-points. A phone is about communication, about what is happening ‘right here, right now and right there, right now’. This is what makes a phone different from a computer or television. It is always there, ready to communicate with the world. It’s another device that combines earlier media. Like the computer did with television, newspapers, diaries, telephone and radio. The mobile phone takes and disconnects the social functions of a computer from time and place.
Social networks evolve around contacts. It is all about being connected. Livecasting is all about streaming you. Creating your personal Truman Show. The paradigm in this is that we are talking about protecting our privacy on the one end, on the other end we are giving more than ever before. We’ll see how this ends.
Today I finally tried Kyte TV and it is a great piece of software. The mobile client enables you to broadcast and create a program/items on your mobile phone. At the same time you can interact with your viewers.
Now we have to see what great things we can make with this.
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