User:StaceyHamilton/BlogEntry: 2009 January 23 10:19:50 EST

From sasCommunity

Stacey Hamilton blogs the inauguration (and more!):

Thanks to a much-welcomed snow day at SAS headquarters in Cary, I was able to watch a lot of television coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Although I eventually had to abandon CNN for C-SPAN because the CNN commentators felt the need to constantly tell me what I was seeing (this ain’t radio, folks!), I enjoyed being a part of the festivities from the comfort of my warm, uncrowded home. My nonstop viewing was interrupted only by my husband’s insistence that we watch the Tennessee-Vanderbilt basketball game.

Before I was forced to turn the channel, I watched coverage of the H.O.P.E. Inaugural Youth Ball. As the Obamas danced onstage, I was struck by the view of the crowd, nearly all of whom held their Blackberries or cell phones high in order to photograph the first couple.

After getting past a distant memory of holding a cigarette lighter in the air and begging for “Freebird,” I, like previous posters Stephenie Joyner and Julie Platt, began to muse about how technology has changed in just the last ten to fifteen years. Everyone has a cell phone, and every cell phone has a camera. And even that is pretty low-tech in this day and age. If 1985 Stacey could be transported to 2009, would I even know what is going on in this picture? And I also wonder about the people taking the pictures. Is an event not real unless it is photographed, blogged about, e-mailed, and Tweeted? I am reminded of a recent visit to a fairly upscale restaurant. We were sitting in the bar talking when a group of four businesspeople sat down at the adjacent table. We watched in shock (and a bit of horror) as they never said a word to each other. Immediately their focus was on their Blackberries (or some other text-based phone). What an odd sight that was: in a dimly lit bar, four people were seated together but were a million miles apart, their grim faces illuminated by tiny screens.

I read an interesting Wired article yesterday about a new iPhone app called WhosHere, which “helps you meet people near you with similar interests. . . . Simply fill out your profile and indicate the age and gender of the person you would like to meet. Whether indoors or outside, on a bus, in a car, at home, or in a bar, WhosHere will show you the people closest to you that match that description.” Ironically, I suppose, in some ways the same technology that is segmenting us as individuals and as a society is bringing us together.

Are you the first one to buy a new gadget or do you just have a boring old Motorola cell phone like I do? Does an application like WhosHere frighten or enthrall you? I’d love to hear your thoughts about the role (or non-role) technology plays in your life.