Infinite corridor – a social pipe?
I made an observation today. While walking in the infinite corridor at MIT, I meet a lot of people that I don’t usually see. Many of these are people that I have just met once, briefly, but remember talking to. This is probably why my subconscious has been directing me to walk down to 77 Mass Ave and take the infinite corridor on my way to the Media Lab than taking Vassar and Main.
The infinite corridor (MIT virtual tour link) as a social pipe through which one goes in and comes out? Analogous in a very primitive way to speed-dating, though socialising doesn’t necessarily imply dating. Most of the time(90%) I just say Hi and we walk on, but the acquaintance is refreshed.
Update: I mentioned this to one of my mentors, and he pointed me to this paper on Familiar Strangers by Intel research.
Familiar strangers are those whom we see on a regular basis, but are not acquainted with. If we do not see them at the expected time, we realise we are missing them from the picture. This is a pretty good attempt at defining it. I however, did not understand the objective behind the different experiments carried out by the Intel research folks, and what exactly the purpose of the wireless device was.
Digressing a bit, I find myself worrying about how today’s ‘inventors’ are trying to embed devices into every aspect of our lives. What purpose many of them serve is not easily obvious to me. A hairclip, or a button, or a nail on the wall are all different kinds of devices to me. A good device serves a useful purpose and doesn’t usually intrude into our lives.
Comunication devices have this capability of making you accessible at different times of the day to different people depending on whom you give your phone number or instant messenging ID. While on one hand, this makes it easier for you to connect and interact with different people, it also makes you accessible when you wouldn’t necessarily want to be. On IM, for instance, as long as you are online and visible, you are just a click away from anyone on your buddy list.
So eventually I am forced to think about when should I log into messenger, because it exposes my presence. When should I turn my cellphone off, or keep it on silent? When should I open my laptop because a whole bunch of email messages are sitting out there waiting for me.
These is the price I pay everyday for being able to communicate easily and instantly. My presence is not limited by the walls of the room I am in. I am exposed. Almost feels like the celebrity who can’t get away from the public glare because people recognize her everywhere.
Are we all celebrities of sorts in Cyberspace? At least in the worrying about your exposure to others part?
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