Chapter on Grey Ecology written with Claire Lobet Maris in the Onlife Manifesto Springer 2014. We discuss a social history of attention and challenge the economic metaphors of attention and a resource.
Transforming the home
In my book “L’intimite’ au travail” Fyp Editions 2011, I discussed of the effect that written digital communication is having on the workplace. I showed how the extensive amount of private exchanges by SMS, email, IM and more recently social networking, is allowing people to stay in touch with loved ones throughout the day. This … Continue reading
Introduction : subverting the relationship between individuals and institutions
In the last 10 years one billion people have gleefully adopted the possibility to stay in continuous contact with the people they love. Their days are now dotted with small interactions with family, partners and friends. Research has repeatedly shown that up to 80% of the exchanges of any one person, regardless of the channel … Continue reading
Keeping close to the core
A good proportion of adults in Europe, are using at least 4 channels of communication a day, fix and mobile phone, SMS, and email. With all these channels, devices, services, a user contacts on average the same 5 to 10 people 80% of the time. The concentration of exchanges on very few partners is rarely reported by … Continue reading
Wasting time
The Economist 29th October 2009, reported a study by Morse http://www.morse.com/press_20.htm claiming that in the UK 40 minutes per week are lost by employees on Twitter, Facebook and other social media at that this is costing UK businesses 1.38bilion in lost productivity. Morse has put some figures to the argument that I have been reading in at least 50% … Continue reading
Managing Separation Anxiety through communication
The strengthening and tightening of connection with very close contacts seems to have a very significant emotional value. There are a number of different disciplines that can be called upon to help us understand this social phenomenon. Social scientists are using concepts from sociological, economic, and ethnographic perspectives to understand the social mechanisms that are being brought … Continue reading
The democratisation of intimacy
Workplace, school, battlefield, foreign country, were until recently all settings in which people were removed for short or long periods of time from their closest ties, family or friends. Clocking in, meant leaving behind the family and its concerns, emigrating meant saying goodbye maybe for years to children or parents, going on a mission meant … Continue reading
The advantages of asynchronous channels
Synchronous communication, such as a voice call, has a very strong prerequisite: that both interlocutors are available at the same time for the conversation. Available, willing and ready to dedicate the necessary amount of attention required for the conversation. When people are face to face it is easy for both interlocutors to see and understand … Continue reading
Why private communication from the office upsets colleagues
Private mobile phones are increasingly being discussed in workplaces as a threat to security to health and safety, and a major productivity issue. While recognised as an important element of workers’ right to being accessible in case of emergencies, the phones are seen as major sources of disruption and misbehaviour. Regulation of use of communication devices … Continue reading
When voice is preferred to text (rarely)
Although text seems to be preferred in most interactions essentially because of its asynchronous nature, there are topics and discussions that can only be done orally and synchronously. When there is a complex issue, a certain level of disagreement or ambiguity, when the interlocutors don’t really understand each other, voice calls are by far preferred … Continue reading
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