How has communications technology changed stuff?

[small_world]

I was just thinking of the new video thing on FB, and how now, people are in contact with others, almost all of the time. The phone has so quickly become an 'everything machine' and it's possibly one of the biggest changes ever. Especially[nb]But especially Bart[/nb] when combined with the internet.
There has been loads of talk recently about increasing reliance on mobile phones and the internet. The drop in attention span and how people no longer store memories in the same way.

When I go out with friends their mobile phones are a constant attention drain. They'll be checking for updates on sites, and staying in touch with people who hadn't even bothered to go out.
I never take my good phone out for this reason (as well as the fact that I always lose my phone when I do). It's incredibly hard to have any kind of in depth conversation with someone who is distracted in that kind of way. And who is so used to 'liking' the most mundane of statements.
Some of my friends no longer form their own opinions on things. Only going with the view of those they've subscribed to. And it's no good thing.

I don't want to stray too far into this area, but I do believe we are only a few tech generations away from having some kind of brain linked communications technology. All it would take is some kind of thought recognition to operate a hone before we have a technology very close to mind reading. And the way Facebook and other huge comm's giants treat privacy, this is a huge concern.
Then there's the Matrix-like mega brain. Where you could know almost everything by interacting directly with the combined knowledge of the internet (we're all doomed).

That's all in the future. But even now, everyday things have been altered significantly over the last few years by the progress of communications technology. Plots of books and films are restricted, with many having to be set in the past to allow for certain plot devices. Something like E.T couldn't be set in the present day, the little fella would be a YouTube hit in hours, and the rest of the film would just be a Jerry Springer show, featuring red-necks who'd fucked an alien.

The internet is undoubtedly a great thing. But I do worry about where it's all heading.

There was something else I wanted to throw in but it's gone now. I'll Google it later.

But yeah, there's a similar thread about this kind of thing. But I wanted to get a few more things that you feel have been impact upon by the advent of the 'everything machine'. A 'list thread' if you will.

EDITZ>>>
Balls, I meant to put this in the Tech thread. But it was locked when I started it and so tried to mess with the address bar thing. That didn't work. So if wanted, bump this over.

[BlodwynPig]

tl;dr

[Blumf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1xFLrPuPq0

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

I think it tends to be vastly over-estimated just how effected by the internet people now are. Yes, almost everyone I know (irl!) has facebook, but their average update is roughly once every 3 months - hardly an addiction. My youngest friend (20) who I did actually once assume was addicted to the internet, recently lost his broadband, and in the wake of the upset, managed to find some sort of inner reserve of determination to do without it completely. I can only think of one friend who has a genuine addiction to the internet, but I think that mostly stems from the fact that he's so bored from never having a job. Most people I know would be fine internet-free. I think if mine ever went down, or the national grid collapsed or something, id simply revert to doing what I was before - reading books, exercising, and meeting friends occasionally down the pub.

[Famous Mortimer]

Yet smart folk didn't see it coming. I was reading a book by James Gleick called "Faster" (I think, shit, I just realised I don't remember the title) which is about society speeding up in all sorts of ways. He wrote it in 1999 and thought wristwatches would be the new everything machines.

But yes, there'd be many fewer opportunities to read I Can Haz Cheezburger in bed without it.

[SetToStun]

I was reading a book by James Gleick called "Faster" (I think, shit, I just realised I don't remember the title)

Yep: "Faster - the accelleration of just about everything". Brilliant book, that. As you say, he wasn't able to accurately predict the specific devices that would come to the fore by now, but he's spot on about the trends and where we're all going.

[Famous Mortimer]

Yep: "Faster - the accelleration of just about everything". Brilliant book, that. As you say, he wasn't able to accurately predict the specific devices that would come to the fore by now, but he's spot on about the trends and where we're all going.

Oh aye, he's great and the book's worth reading as it's full of plenty of interesting stuff.

[easytarget]

I never take my good phone out for this reason

Get you, with your multiple phones :)

facebook updates have made it really hard for me to send emails to friends who I don't see very much: Hey I saw this band/watched this film/went to this place/etc. - oh, yeah, already I mentioned that on facebook...
Similarly they've killed small talk with friends I do see regularly, we already know "what you did last weekend."

[Saucer51]

I do wonder if things carry on the way they are, if our accepted written language will evolve and change much quicker than it traditionally has. Will text spelling one day be an accepted kind of formal English?

[Ginyard]

It will be reduced to the most economical of sentences. Eventually there will be just one word that says everything we need to say. Films will be a series of shots so snappy and quick that we can process the entire thing in 10 seconds. Books will be summarised in a picture and music will have long since died. We'll be bored so quickly we wont be able to function after that so will hang ourselves at birth.

You heard it here first, folks.

[Neomod]

Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it.
You Maniacs! You reduced it to nothing! Rr, dam U! God dam u all 2 hell!

[small_world]

I do wonder if things carry on the way they are, if our accepted written language will evolve and change much quicker than it traditionally has. Will text spelling one day be an accepted kind of formal English?

I've think it'll be the opposite.
Mobiles now, like androids and iphones, use predictive text. So you'll enter a few letters and it'll choose the word.
I don't know what effect that'll have in the long term, but I've noticed a huge improvement in spelling from my friends.

This kind of thing thought is a weird sides effective.

[The Boston Crab]

I think this new era of predictive keyboards will result in more smileys with noses.

This is a real shame as I much prefer :) to :-)