One man's enthusiasm and another man's inanity
This quarter's issue of IEEE Technology and Society presents the results of a survey of blog entries concerning tablet PCs conducted by Efpraxia D. Zamani and colleagues. Two things about the survey struck me immediately: that "most of the bloggers hold upper level managerial positions", and that nearly all of the material quoted from their blogs seems rather inane. Zamani et al. could almost be writing a parody of Dilbert's Pointy-Haired Boss.
To be fair to upper-level managers, Zamani and colleagues compiled their material in a way that seems likely to select only the most inane stuff: they searched for "blog" and "iPad", and discarded any technical reviews. That is, they sought out casual writing about iPads and explicitly ignored rigourous reviews of the technology. We can still hope that most upper level managers actually have better things to do than write uninsightful observations like "it was ultra-convenient to just flip out the iPad ... without having to whip out a laptop or projector" (p. 76), which I would otherwise expect to find only in mediocre undergraduate essays. What, exactly, is the difference between "flipping out" and "whipping out"?
Whatever the merits of the bloggers' own observations, Zamani and colleagues identify a euphoric attachment to technological devices that seems totally alien to me. There are plenty of devices that I find useful for one purpose or another, and occasionally I might even mention so in conversation or on this blog. But I don't think I'd ever use words like "love", "passion" and "excitement", as Zamani and colleagues do in the last part of their article (p 78). I don't, for example, feel any loss when going for days or even weeks without my phone or computer when camping or travelling. (I do eventually wonder if any of my friends sent me any e-mail, though.)
In part, I guess this reflects my engineering background. For me and other engineers, technological artifacts are simply the end result of sound engineering principles. If we get excited about anything, it's the cleverness and power of the principles themselves. For non-engineers, however, technological artifacts can be magic boxes to be marvelled at in their own right.
Perhaps I'm also just not one to feel attached to non-human objects. Similar enthusiasm about cars and pets, for example, leaves me feeling cold. I do feel sentimental about objects I've owned for a long time, and I hate throwing things out. But I can't imagine myself writing a blog entry praising the guitar I've owned for twenty years (but rarely play), or chronicling the life and times of my once-sturdy pair of cargo pants that were torn beyond repair during a hike last month.
I certainly can't imagine anyone wanting to read such a blog entry. But I guess iPad enthusiasts probably don't find my actual blog very interesting either.
