Can't hear the birdsong for the tweets?
Long blurb I just wrote about location-based social networking. If you have time, read it and share your thoughts! I want to know if I am crazy.
A lot of us naturalist types are a bit afraid of technology. In the last 20,000 years humans have come up with a lot of clever technological devices. Our love of toolmaking has propelled us from nomads living off the land to a highly advanced technological species capable of leaving the very planet we live on. This has come at tremendous cost in a variety of ways - pollution of air and water, extinction of species, genocide and mass oppression of whole societies... the list goes on. Furthermore, it is hard to say if as a species we are happier and more prosperous now than we were 200 centuries ago. We have made progress on this in the last century or so, but most of that is still recovery from the feudal agriculture and sweatshop industry of the years before.
So I just wanted to get that out there. Whether or not you agree with the above paragraph, you probably have heard it stated, many times, by a certain subset of the population. The thing is, though, we CAN'T go backwards. There is no ethical way to return to the lifestyle humans had long ago, even if it WAS better. We can go only forwards.
On that note, I want to engage in a dialog about a new aspect of technology that has been drawing a lot of attention lately - location based social networking. Most people who are reading this probably have profiles on facebook or other similar websites and have probably noticed the recent trend of people 'checking in' from their favorite restaurant, either using the new facebook 'places' feature or foursquare, a similar website. The technology is currently being viewed by many as either an irritation, or worse, a dramatic violation of personal privacy. In fact, if used in the wrong ways it IS a dramatic violation of privacy. The latest trend has been for people to completely deactivate this feature from any of their web presences. I think this is a totally logical response. I'd like to propose a different response though, one a bit more radical, but also a heck of a lot more productive if this technology actually takes off.
It's pretty darn obvious what the end goal of most of these location-based websites is. These websites are going to be an INSANELY valuable tool for corporations to create target advertisement. It is a gold mine and people are staking claims on the digital terrain, claims that may last for many years. I think this is inevitable - but I don't think it needs to be the only use for this technology. We can stake our own claims too.
I pulled out my Iphone yesterday when I walked into my favorite urban nature parcel (yes I know using an electronic device in the forest is taboo... more about this later). I pulled up the 'places' feature and what did I see? Predictably, I saw several restaurants and bars, a hospital, a coffee shop, even a funeral home. Great. Did I see any mention of the brook 500 feet away, the magnificant cherry grove across the valley, or of the tiny urban seep just uphill from me? Of course not!
But here's the thing... right now, with this technology in its infancy... it is possible to ADD PLACES to this corporate matrix! Why SHOULDN'T a grove by a brook be on this 'electronic layer' covering the globe? I want to say right now that I am not advocating that you place your secret hideaways and "toothbrush places" (places you would only share with a close enough friend to share your toothbrush with) on these maps. We all know, though, that there is nature in the cracks and pockets of our cities, in urban forests, and alongside public trails in heavily-visited national parks that is just MISSED by people. People don't care for what they don't even know about. Wouldn't it be great if these places popped up alongside the nearest Starbucks when someone pulled out their Droid?
A lot of people reading this are probably envisioning a bunch of mopey teenagers stumbling about the forest staring at their phones. I agree that this may happen. But before you get too concerned, re-read the sentence. If this happens, they will be IN THE FOREST. This is possibly one of the most important steps we need to take in the 'developed' world - getting people back outside! Once they are out there, they will see things - phone or no phone. I've been jokingly told that I'll be so busy looking at weather radar maps, I won't notice that it is raining and I am getting wet. There is an element of distraction that needs to be managed here. So, let's address it and learn how to use our new tool...
Humans 20,000 years ago had one main way of 'reading' their landscape. They took in their landscape with all of thear senses, instincts, and spiritual leanings... absorbing and compiling this information in their mind, looking backwards and forwards in time, and creating a synthesis of the place they are in. This is an incredibly powerful skill and one sadly lost to most people in the current day.
Later on, at least 4,000 years ago, people made a leap forward in sharing landscapes with others. People started making maps. Certainly humans made mental maps since before they were even humans, but the act of recording a map and physically handing it to another person was an amazing leap forward in sharing data about locations. Mapmaking ushered in a profound change in how a landscape was viewed. No doubt this was disconcerting. No doubt some elders warned that staring at maps all the time would lead to missing important details. No doubt they were at least partially right. I have heard many stories of hikers with their nose in a map walking off a cliff, stumbling into a raging river, or failing to recognize the approach of a blizzard. Maps even constitute a loss of privacy - now people can find where you live! Using a map is clearly no substitute for reading the landscape. That being said, no one in their right mind today is going to say that having a map with you is going to ruin your outdoor experience. In fact, it is foolhardy to venture into unfamiliar territory WITHOUT one.
I think, assuming we continue progressing as a species, people will look back at this new locational technology much the same way we look at the discovery of maps. I honestly think this has the potential to change the way people look at landscapes as profoundly as the appearance of maps did. At its root, this technology is INFORMATION - like a book or a map. Having and sharing information about a place is not a bad thing. It can be an immensely powerful tool in understanding and learning to love our urban, rural, and wild landscapes. It certainly has the potential to be more than a virtual billboard factory. The best part is that WE get to choose what it is. Those of us who have access to this technology NOW will determine its future.
That being said, if you come across a cathedral-like hemlock grove, a cushion of understory moss, a babbling brook, and a chorus of chickadee calls, turn off your damn phone. Spend a few minutes, maybe an hour or longer, sitting alone in the forest absorbing everything it has to tell you. Then, pull out your weathered old topographic map and look at how this grove relates to the landscape around it. THEN and only then, pull out your handheld GPS-enabled phone and get an instant look at the geology maps, watershed information, vegetation identification guides, cultural history, and art and writing of others who have found this place as well. That stuff will all be right there on the next generation's Iphone, because WE are going to PUT it there.
Am I crazy? Or does this all make sense?
A lot of us naturalist types are a bit afraid of technology. In the last 20,000 years humans have come up with a lot of clever technological devices. Our love of toolmaking has propelled us from nomads living off the land to a highly advanced technological species capable of leaving the very planet we live on. This has come at tremendous cost in a variety of ways - pollution of air and water, extinction of species, genocide and mass oppression of whole societies... the list goes on. Furthermore, it is hard to say if as a species we are happier and more prosperous now than we were 200 centuries ago. We have made progress on this in the last century or so, but most of that is still recovery from the feudal agriculture and sweatshop industry of the years before.
So I just wanted to get that out there. Whether or not you agree with the above paragraph, you probably have heard it stated, many times, by a certain subset of the population. The thing is, though, we CAN'T go backwards. There is no ethical way to return to the lifestyle humans had long ago, even if it WAS better. We can go only forwards.
On that note, I want to engage in a dialog about a new aspect of technology that has been drawing a lot of attention lately - location based social networking. Most people who are reading this probably have profiles on facebook or other similar websites and have probably noticed the recent trend of people 'checking in' from their favorite restaurant, either using the new facebook 'places' feature or foursquare, a similar website. The technology is currently being viewed by many as either an irritation, or worse, a dramatic violation of personal privacy. In fact, if used in the wrong ways it IS a dramatic violation of privacy. The latest trend has been for people to completely deactivate this feature from any of their web presences. I think this is a totally logical response. I'd like to propose a different response though, one a bit more radical, but also a heck of a lot more productive if this technology actually takes off.
It's pretty darn obvious what the end goal of most of these location-based websites is. These websites are going to be an INSANELY valuable tool for corporations to create target advertisement. It is a gold mine and people are staking claims on the digital terrain, claims that may last for many years. I think this is inevitable - but I don't think it needs to be the only use for this technology. We can stake our own claims too.
I pulled out my Iphone yesterday when I walked into my favorite urban nature parcel (yes I know using an electronic device in the forest is taboo... more about this later). I pulled up the 'places' feature and what did I see? Predictably, I saw several restaurants and bars, a hospital, a coffee shop, even a funeral home. Great. Did I see any mention of the brook 500 feet away, the magnificant cherry grove across the valley, or of the tiny urban seep just uphill from me? Of course not!
But here's the thing... right now, with this technology in its infancy... it is possible to ADD PLACES to this corporate matrix! Why SHOULDN'T a grove by a brook be on this 'electronic layer' covering the globe? I want to say right now that I am not advocating that you place your secret hideaways and "toothbrush places" (places you would only share with a close enough friend to share your toothbrush with) on these maps. We all know, though, that there is nature in the cracks and pockets of our cities, in urban forests, and alongside public trails in heavily-visited national parks that is just MISSED by people. People don't care for what they don't even know about. Wouldn't it be great if these places popped up alongside the nearest Starbucks when someone pulled out their Droid?
A lot of people reading this are probably envisioning a bunch of mopey teenagers stumbling about the forest staring at their phones. I agree that this may happen. But before you get too concerned, re-read the sentence. If this happens, they will be IN THE FOREST. This is possibly one of the most important steps we need to take in the 'developed' world - getting people back outside! Once they are out there, they will see things - phone or no phone. I've been jokingly told that I'll be so busy looking at weather radar maps, I won't notice that it is raining and I am getting wet. There is an element of distraction that needs to be managed here. So, let's address it and learn how to use our new tool...
Humans 20,000 years ago had one main way of 'reading' their landscape. They took in their landscape with all of thear senses, instincts, and spiritual leanings... absorbing and compiling this information in their mind, looking backwards and forwards in time, and creating a synthesis of the place they are in. This is an incredibly powerful skill and one sadly lost to most people in the current day.
Later on, at least 4,000 years ago, people made a leap forward in sharing landscapes with others. People started making maps. Certainly humans made mental maps since before they were even humans, but the act of recording a map and physically handing it to another person was an amazing leap forward in sharing data about locations. Mapmaking ushered in a profound change in how a landscape was viewed. No doubt this was disconcerting. No doubt some elders warned that staring at maps all the time would lead to missing important details. No doubt they were at least partially right. I have heard many stories of hikers with their nose in a map walking off a cliff, stumbling into a raging river, or failing to recognize the approach of a blizzard. Maps even constitute a loss of privacy - now people can find where you live! Using a map is clearly no substitute for reading the landscape. That being said, no one in their right mind today is going to say that having a map with you is going to ruin your outdoor experience. In fact, it is foolhardy to venture into unfamiliar territory WITHOUT one.
I think, assuming we continue progressing as a species, people will look back at this new locational technology much the same way we look at the discovery of maps. I honestly think this has the potential to change the way people look at landscapes as profoundly as the appearance of maps did. At its root, this technology is INFORMATION - like a book or a map. Having and sharing information about a place is not a bad thing. It can be an immensely powerful tool in understanding and learning to love our urban, rural, and wild landscapes. It certainly has the potential to be more than a virtual billboard factory. The best part is that WE get to choose what it is. Those of us who have access to this technology NOW will determine its future.
That being said, if you come across a cathedral-like hemlock grove, a cushion of understory moss, a babbling brook, and a chorus of chickadee calls, turn off your damn phone. Spend a few minutes, maybe an hour or longer, sitting alone in the forest absorbing everything it has to tell you. Then, pull out your weathered old topographic map and look at how this grove relates to the landscape around it. THEN and only then, pull out your handheld GPS-enabled phone and get an instant look at the geology maps, watershed information, vegetation identification guides, cultural history, and art and writing of others who have found this place as well. That stuff will all be right there on the next generation's Iphone, because WE are going to PUT it there.
Am I crazy? Or does this all make sense?