Demos: Disgrace Is the Color of Red

Behind the scenes, there's been some significant discussion about what we're doing with elevennames, if none of us post and are overworked. I gave up on posting, angrily, a while back, and return now, for no other reason than it settles my mind and gives my mind something else to focus on than my papers.

There's news in the world, but I presume that you might like to know Nine Inch Nails released their new (non-instrumental) disc, the Slip for free, and you can download it, with a registration, here. More whenever we get around to it.

Eleven Names is dead! Long live Eleven Names!

Between Facebook’s new chat application (which you can’t opt out of) and the power outage on campus Thursday, a lightbulb turned on in my head. The big social question of our lives is how not how can we be more accessible, but how can we protect the few points in our lives where we are not accessible?

Consider, briefly, that airlines are thinking about allowing cell phone calls on flights. Can you imagine a multi-hour flight next to a businessperson or vapid human who needs to be speaking and in communication, and you can’t get away from it for another two hours? Or if it’s more than one person?

When the power went out during my Philosophy class (we were watching a movie), I exhaled. Suddenly, the reality of being in a basement in Montgomery, and having the comfort in seeing people’s faces in less detail, shrouded in shadows sunk in. There was a comfort in not having the lights on, and feeling just that much cooler, temperature wise.

For a couple moments, it felt like being in Plato’s cave. As the Germs might say, what we do is secret, and it was that remoteness and isolation, if only for 30 minutes, tops, made my day. (I suspect the classes in Alden were significantly less pleased.) Because the power was off, suddenly, the ability for people to contact me just got axed. I don’t think I brought my cell phone with me, so for those couple moments, I, truly, was unavailable. You couldn’t call, email, Facebook poke, IM (instant message), or text me and expect a response.

For that moment in our lives, nearly everything with a microchip was of no avail to me.

We (as a society) are quite attached to our electronics. This isn’t to say it’s bad, or wrong, but it’s happening. We vote with each new phone we purchase, with the video-feature, with every use of the mobile web feature, with every qwerty keyboard installed on that phone. With every new instant chat widget in an email client, social networking scheme and every single twitter update, we condone and support this hyper-connected behavior.

This is what we are becoming. At almost every point in my day, I am accessible. If I am not checking my multiple email accounts, updating blogs or chatting over IM I can also pick up my phone. I mention this to say I’m a part of it too. Do you want this lifestyle? Are we aware, that as a generation, we are making the decision to become connected and accessible at almost every point in our days and lives?

The answer is no. And, I presume, because I don’t see a discussion about it, that’s the problem. That’s what struck me and made me so angry about Facebook’s chat feature. There isn’t now, a way to simply update Facebook without being accessible.

I see a presumption that there that more accessibility is better and desired, and that’s what annoys me. It’s not true, and I think we’re losing something.

Quite what it is, I can’t put my finger on it, but I know, that as I have my IM client engaged, two email accounts open and my phone by my side, I won’t be anywhere close.