I found a brief but interesting interlude in "The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism." Under the subject heading "Wireless Portability," the authors quote Randall as saying "Communication will be everywhere, but because it is independent of place, it will be situated nowhere."
Wired magazine (and other techno-fetishists) like to paint this ultra-portability of communications technology as a stirring advance for always-on, networked humanity. Baudry took a more critical look at the cinematic apparatus, as I think we should at iPhones and wired cellphones and so on. I've noticed the creeping appearance of an extra organism in my own body: Google Text.
It's hard to go a few days now without resorting to it--for directions, for weather, for most any sort of information. I think it's important to remember that social networks aren't just about communication between people, they are also about communication within ourselves. Will internet-enabled phones and other biotechnology devices be assimilated as one more part of our body or another entity in conversation with us? Will they introduce a new sort of device bias into our lives?
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