[CS-FSLUG] Death of the Net

[Ed Hurst]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:14:02 -0500, Timothy Butler <tbutler at ofb.biz> wrote:

> I think more of a spoke-and-wheel ecosystem, with things like  
> PlayStations/Xboxes drawing in content to the TVs, etc. Smartphones  
> communicating with all of the devices around the house, etc. But, I'm  
> not convinced the PC is dead, for one big reason: readability. One can't  
> write a paper, blog, Facebook entry or anything else nearly as easily  
> with the small screen (or keyboard). In the era of 20-24" screened PC's,  
> I think the brains might go to the phone, but people aren't going to  
> give up the big screens.

Well, those of us who write will certainly keep our computer hardware  
until there's none available. I did say I believe business, academic and  
government use would continue. The primary reason is the slow pace of  
change in those places, where I note there are still 16-bit DOS  
applications running at the core of some operations. What I did not state  
more directly is my suspicion such traditional writing, perhaps "writing"  
itself as we know it, will disappear.

In my days with public education, I found reading already dying. People  
were still as clever and literate as bright minds had always been, but  
written communication was no longer assumed. They didn't think in  
paragraphs, but in terms of scenes, or songs, or other blocks I'm not sure  
I can identify. It was more oral, but not quite in the sense of what we  
had farther in the past. I'm still trying to sort that out in my mind.

So I'll go with Jon's last message on this, in that some people are  
already getting their entire Web experience from handhelds. And I agree it  
would have to become more affordable. However, I suspect that could  
include a degree of people deciding it's worth paying more because of  
social pressures. While I still have neighbors who think Net access itself  
a luxury, not a "must-have," I find even the unpampered youngsters  
consider texting service critical to their existence, at any price.

-- 
Ed Hurst
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