Those born between 1980 and 2000 are known as the millennial generation. This is the first generational cohort for whom various digital technologies have been a persistent cultural presence. Below is the typical daily media diary of a Millennial.
The NY Times, January 23, 2006
O.C.D. - Online Compulsive Disorder
Mr. Lax, a 44-year-old venture capitalist, is sitting in a conference for telecommunications executives at a hotel near Los Angeles, but he is not all here. Out of one ear, he listens to a live presentation about cable television technology; simultaneously, he surfs the Net on a laptop with a wireless connection, while occasionally checking his mobile device — part phone, part pager and part Internet gadget — for e-mail.
Some people who are persistently wired say it is not uncommon for them to be sitting in a meeting and using a hand-held device to exchange instant messages surreptitiously — with someone in the same meeting. Others may be sitting at a desk and engaging in conversation on two phones, one at each ear. At social events, or in the grandstand at their children's soccer games, they read news feeds on mobile devices instead of chatting with actual human beings.
These speed demons say they will fall behind if they disconnect, but they also acknowledge feeling something much more powerful: they are compulsively drawn to the constant stimulation provided by incoming data. Call it O.C.D. — online compulsive disorder.
The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive? The NY Times, July 6, 2003
Constant Availability
The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests. The study, which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone or pager throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and home life -- and, in turn, less satisfaction with their family life. Spillover essentially means that the line between work and home begins to blur. Work life may invade home life -- when a parent is taking job-related calls at home, for instance -- or household issues may start to take up work time.
Cell phones tied to family tension Reuters, January 5, 2006
Digital Identity Not Unique
Edward Allen's reaction to being on the government's "no-fly" list should have been the tip-off that he is no terrorist. "I don't want to be on the list. I want to fly and see my grandma," the 4-year-old boy said, according to his mother. Sijollie Allen and her son had trouble boarding planes last month because someone with the same name as Edward is on a government terrorist watch list. Continental spokesman Dave Messing said Thursday that the airline would not discuss its security policies. Other people with common names who have encountered "no-fly" list problems at airports include Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and actor David Nelson from "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., has said he had to make several calls to federal officials before his name was separated from the one on the list.
4-Year-Old Boy on Government 'No-Fly' List Associated Press, January 5, 2006
Digital Identity Confused
In the early 1990's, someone ran amok, using Mr. Lorenzo's identity. It was used to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent credit card debt. It was given to the police after various traffic violations. And a man even used the name Raymond Lorenzo when he was arrested and indicted in 1991 in Suffolk County, N.Y., for, among other things, burglary, forgery and criminal possession of a weapon.
That impostor, Peter Perro (the boyfriend of Mr. Lorenzo's ex-wife, it turned out), was additionally charged with criminal impersonation after Mr. Lorenzo filed a police report and fingerprints revealed the ruse. Mr. Perro was convicted on weapons and burglary charges in addition to criminal mischief.
But deep inside the state's Criminal Record Information Management System, it appears that a simple clerical error -
"Lorenzo, Raymond" is listed as the felon, using the alias "Perro, Peter" - a perfect reversal of the facts.
The precise details are still being sorted out, but it seems clear that over the next 15 years, that digital nugget - like so much else in this age of consumer recordkeeping - was bought, sold, copied, stored, transmitted and appended to a digital dossier that, along with the erroneous debts and driving records, has haunted Mr. Lorenzo at every turn.
Waking Up to Recurring ID Nightmares January 9, 2006
Anonymous Digital Identity
Increasingly, consumers appear to be downloading free anonymity software like Tor, which makes it harder to trace visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms back to their authors. Sales are also up at companies like Anonymizer.com, which among other things sells software that protects anonymity. A few reasons exist for the surge, which is hard to measure - it is nearly impossible to track how many people have made themselves invisible online. People who want to continue to swap music via the Internet but fear lawsuits brought by the recording industry want to hide their identity. Some people wish to describe personal experiences that could land them in jail. And some Web authors share their thoughts about repressive regimes and face government reprisal if they are caught.
Privacy for People Who Don't Show Their Navels The NY Times, January 25, 2006
Babies (i.e., New identities) Have Websites
Luke Seeley, 22 months, has two Web sites of his own, including lukeseeley.com, a domain his father purchased soon after an ultrasound showed that his first child was a boy, four months before the baby was born. Carter and Luke are pioneers in the latest technobaby twist to hit the Web, as parents snap up Web sites and e-mail addresses in the names of the next generation, long before their children can read, eat solid food or, in some cases, have even left the womb.
"It's like owning a piece of real estate online for him," said Mr. Seeley, 34, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and specializes in Internet sales for an advertising firm. "By the time he's a teenager and he's really into the Internet, who knows what's going to be left in terms of domains?"
Web Sites for the Brave New Electronic B@by The NY Times, January 15, 2006
Constant Distraction
Humans specialize in distraction, especially when the task at hand requires intellectual heavy lifting. All the usual "Is it lunchtime yet?" inner voices, and external interruptions like incoming phone calls, are alive and well.
But in the era of e-mail, instant messaging, Googling, e-commerce and iTunes, potential distractions while seated at a computer are not only ever-present but very enticing. Distracting oneself used to consist of sharpening a half-dozen pencils or lighting a cigarette. Today, there is a universe of diversions to buy, hear, watch and forward, which makes focusing on a task all the more challenging.
"It's so hard, because of the incredible possibilities we have that we've never had before, such as the Internet," said John Ratey, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who specializes in attention problems.
You There, at the Computer: Pay Attention The NY Times, February 10, 2005
Digital Art Makes You Smarter
The TV program '24' - During its 44 minutes the episode connects the lives of 21 distinct characters, each with a clearly defined ''story arc,'' as the Hollywood jargon has it: a defined personality with motivations and obstacles and specific relationships with other characters. Nine primary narrative threads wind their way through those 44 minutes, each drawing extensively upon events and information revealed in earlier episodes. Draw a map of all those intersecting plots and personalities, and you get structure that -- where formal complexity is concerned -- more closely resembles ''Middlemarch'' than a hit TV drama of years past like ''Bonanza.''
For decades, we've worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ''masses'' want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want. But as that ''24'' episode suggests, the exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less.
Watching TV Makes You Smarter The NY Times, April 24, 2005
Vicarious Relationships
Men, are you tired of the time, trouble and expense of having a girlfriend? Irritated by the difficulty of finding a new one?
Eberhard Schöneburg, the chief executive of the software maker Artificial Life Inc. of Hong Kong, may have found the answer: a virtual girlfriend named Vivienne who goes wherever you go.
Vivienne likes to be taken to movies and bars. She loves to be given virtual flowers and chocolates, and she can translate six languages if you travel overseas. She never undresses, although she has some skimpy outfits for the gym, and is a tease who draws the line at anything beyond blowing kisses.
Sad, Lonely? For a Good Time, Call Vivienne* The NY Times February 24, 2005
Live Vicariously
He is an ugly mutant, prideful and lewd. The spectacle of his wealth is surpassed by the vulgarity of his tongue. He sexually accosts strangers - be they female, male or neuter - and is renowned for his undying fetish for feet. The deacon does not physically exist, of course. In the year 2003, at the blue-collar end of Madison, Wis., he is a struggling, frustrated 27-year-old computer repairman called Richard L. Stenlund. Most are merely playing a game, reaching for intermitten diversion. But for some players, these virtual worlds known as massively multiplayer games - filled with real friendships, real love affairs, real jealousies, real hatreds, real esteem - are almost as important as that world of bills in the mail, office politics, personal pain and unfulfilled dreams.
Voyager to a Strange Planet The NY Times, June 12, 2003
Sort Through Other Identities Looking For A Particular Identity
Of the 120 men she traded messages with online in her first four months of Internet dating, Kristen Costello, 33, talked to 20 on the telephone at least once and met 11 in person. Of those, Ms. Costello dated four several times before realizing she had not found the one. Ms. Costello, a fourth-grade teacher in Florham Park, N.J., remains convinced that the chances of finding her life partner are better online than off. Online dating, once viewed as a refuge for the socially inept and as a faintly disrespectable way to meet other people, is rapidly becoming a fixture of single life for adults of all ages, backgrounds and interests.
Online Dating Sheds Its Stigma as Losers.com The NY Times, June 29, 2003.
Archive Your Complete Identity
MyLifeBits is a lifetime store of everything. It is the fulfillment of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Memex vision including full-text search, text & audio annotations, and hyperlinks. There are two parts to MyLifeBits: an experiment in lifetime storage, and a software research effort.
The experiment: Gordon Bell has captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally. He is now paperless, and is beginning to capture phone calls, IM transcripts, television, and radio.
MyLifeBits project
The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests. The study, which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone or pager throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and home life -- and, in turn, less satisfaction with their family life. Spillover essentially means that the line between work and home begins to blur. Work life may invade home life -- when a parent is taking job-related calls at home, for instance -- or household issues may start to take up work time.
The TV program '24' - During its 44 minutes the episode connects the lives of 21 distinct characters, each with a clearly defined ''story arc,'' as the Hollywood jargon has it: a defined personality with motivations and obstacles and specific relationships with other characters. Nine primary narrative threads wind their way through those 44 minutes, each drawing extensively upon events and information revealed in earlier episodes. Draw a map of all those intersecting plots and personalities, and you get structure that -- where formal complexity is concerned -- more closely resembles ''Middlemarch'' than a hit TV drama of years past like ''Bonanza.''
For decades, we've worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ''masses'' want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want. But as that ''24'' episode suggests, the exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less.
Watching TV Makes You Smarter The NY Times, April 24, 2005
MyLifeBits is a lifetime store of everything. It is the fulfillment of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Memex vision including full-text search, text & audio annotations, and hyperlinks. There are two parts to MyLifeBits: an experiment in lifetime storage, and a software research effort.
The experiment: Gordon Bell has captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally. He is now paperless, and is beginning to capture phone calls, IM transcripts, television, and radio.