On nomads
This morning I grabbed the laptop and walked a few minutes to a local café. One strawberry smoothie and a free wi-fi connection later, I was working. I’d already planned to write about the Economist’s recent special report on “the new nomadism,” but it’s even more appropriate after spending the morning living it. (OK, I’m actually writing this blog post from home, but I’m still on wireless on a laptop. 
The general premise of the Economist articles wasn’t new to me (or to anyone who’s read Smart Mobs or is generally familiar with internet culture). Nevertheless, it was a fascinating speculation on how this new way of working — and living – will impact many aspects of society. The fact that office space may move away from the “cubicle farm” into a more fluid setup with shifting walls and multi-use spaces was fascinating.
It was also interesting to read about the increased importance of “third spaces” – spaces that are neither workplaces nor homes – in this nomadism. Cafes such as the one I was working in are a prime example of these third spaces, and part of their resurgence is due to the number of people who are working there. But do these workers change the dynamics of the interactions there? Are these spaces less social now? And the related question, are we losing the “weak” social ties that keep society functioning by tying otherwise unrelated groups together?
You know, I’m not very social in cafes unless I’m with someone, anyway. Maybe these standards about what third spaces are for, etc., were biased toward extroverts (and American culture is very biased toward extroverts in general, at least in my introverted opinion). Still, the woman at the table behind me at the café was using her laptop and on her cell phone at the same time for much of the time I was there. I was at least noting the people coming and going, even if I didn’t talk to them. I don’t know if my cell-phone-yapping neighbor was.
And “weak” ties may be moving online as well. There’s some number of my Twitter followers who I will never meet, but I still learn from their posts and links. No doubt people with hundreds of Facebook or MySpace friends experience the same thing.
So will society degenerate into a bunch of in-groups sending each other arcanely mis-spelled text messages? Somehow I suspect that new norms will develop as the “nomadic” lifestyle becomes more mainstream and the millenials grow up. But if you want to see what questions experts are asking now, these articles are worth perusing.
If you read the articles, what did you think?