Consider what a screen is and what it takes to run one and you’ll
realize most of us are not ready for the way they’re going to invade
our lives.
When I talk about screens, I’m not just talking about the glass and pixels on
your current monitor.
Screens are on i Phones, electronic billboards and car dashboards. As they
make their way into our lives we need to change them as much as they might
change us.
Youtube says it receives 10 hours of content uploaded every minute. We are
becoming a video saturated society and this amount of content is sure to keep
growing testing the already too narrow band width of the digital infrastructure
in the US.
The technology is here but in the US, the largest consumer of broadband, we’re
not supporting it well.
Bandwidth and South Korea
According to Wired, Seoul South Korea is the “bandwidth capital of the world.”
Wired said that about one half the households in South Korea have broadband
The percentage is much smaller in the United States.
The U.S. infrastructure is lagging.
Research done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development shows that the US is well behind countries like Japan
and Korea in terms of faster connections and broadband penetration.
The US is likely to become a nation of screen breakers not screen watchers if
we cant do more to address connection speed. No one likes to watch stuttering
video.
What is a Screen
Put the connection technology aside.
I think we haven’t thought enough about what a screen is.
We assume that watching a screen has to be a passive experience.
Why?
If we’re becoming a nation of screen watchers why can’t the screens appear
everywhere as I believe they will eventually.
Well be taking them with us. On the train, into the shower, wherever.
And we’ll be reacting to the content they provide.
Active Screen Watching
David Dunkley Gyimah’s vlog butterfly is an example of a more
active screen use, screens are facilitating a discussion.
If we’re becoming a screen society than it is essential that we stop
thinking of screens the way we have for 50 years.
Michael Rosenblum spoke to Radio Free Europe this month where
he described how the web is changing the linear world of broadcasting.
According to Rosenblum broadcasters have lived in a world where they
make the product, i.e. the half hour show, the hour documentary, and
the audience watches.
This model is changing with the web. Audiences can make their own choices
and I think the screens we use need to reflect this more.
Portability and Interactivity
If the web makes possible for people to get the content they want when
they want it then isn’t it reasonable to assume that people might not want
to watch at their desks or in their living rooms.
A fisherman might find the local weather report more useful on the lake
than from his armchair.
Many commuters have more time for a 2 to 3 minute video on thier 40 minute
train ride than they do the rest of their day.
But, most importantly, screens need to begin facilitating interactivity.
They need to be tactile allowing users to navigate links and quickly get at the
information they want.
I know a lot of this is already happening but I just don’t think that we can remind
ourselves enough.
If the content on the web is changing, and if were going to spend more time looking
at screens than we do sleeping, then we need to rethink the way we support and use them.
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