A perfect example of convergence was picked up by the ever-dry blog Stuff White People Like (through the Los Angeles Times) concerning the iPhone: The risk for Apple iPhone users: They know too much. We are presented with many examples of how having constant access to so much information is helpful for the user, but probably extremely irritating for anyone around them. While it's arguable what constitues as useful and what constitutes as annoying, the point is that the iPhone gives access to phoning, music, photos, and internet, among others. By having access to the internet, the user has access to so many sources. Not only are Google and Wikipedia ridding the need for a classroom, but now you can carry the world of knowledge in your pocket!
3 comments:
This is quite a conundrum! Yes - the way that technology is used today presents technology savvy people with the opportunity to gain knowledge at the click of a button, but the issue of credibility needs to be a questioned. Does the use of internet based sources give us a false sense of knowledge?
You know, as much as some people may enjoy having everything converge into one object, like the black box fallicy, I don't really enjoy it myself. To some extent I use the little extra services on my phone, but I don't want it to go on the internet or for a camera. I mainly just want it to call people, or text people. Lately I've read some articles about converging a wallet with a cell phone, which seems crazy, but I'm sure there will always be something people converge together.
I think convergence is inevitable, and therefore soemthing that should be accepted and embraced. If one deosn't learn to appreciate the technologies that are driving the convergence of all facets of our culture, they will expend more energy complaining and fighting then they would adapting.
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