SXSW: “The Internet Is Over”
This article struck me as fairly interesting and pertinent to our discussions in this class in terms of the convergence of online and “real” worlds..
“The vaguely intimidating twentysomethings who prowl the corridors of the Austin Convention Centre, juggling coffee cups, iPad 2s and the festival’s 330-page schedule of events, are no longer content with transforming that part of your life you spend at your computer, or even on your smartphone. This is not just grandiosity on their part. Rather – and this is a technological point, but also a philosophical one – they herald the final disappearance of the boundary between “life online” and “real life”, between the physical and the virtual. It thus requires only a small (and hopefully permissible) amount of journalistic hyperbole to suggest that the days of “the internet” as an identifiably separate thing may be behind us.”
SXSW 2011: The internet is over (via The Guardian)
His criticisms of Jane McGonigal seem particularly pertinent to our discussion topic for this coming Monday.. (hint hint 😉 )
schuyler
15 Mar 11 at 5:55 pm
This article was pretty interesting, and I definitely agree that the internet as “an identifiably separate thing” is hard to argue against in a lot of cases. I would hesitate, however, to go so far as to think that thinking of the internet as “the internet” is over and done with. In my mind the arguments around usage based billing and data plans for internet on phones keeps “the internet” in plain sight, at least for the time being.
Rob
18 Mar 11 at 12:03 pm
yeah, it’s definitely a “journalism” headline; hyperbole.
usage based billing is a whole ‘nother can of worms.. i like how at&t said that only 2% of their users go over the 150gig cap; yeah, for now – just wait until HD video streaming through Netflix and similar services goes mainstream…
schuyler
20 Mar 11 at 10:27 pm