I just began instant messaging and texting last year. Aware of my new undertakings, Shawn–the publisher of this site–welcomed me to the year 2000.
So I’m not an early adopter. I can deal with it. What I find interesting is people who resist altogether the watershed changes underway in technology and communications.
USA Today lables these unique creatures “tech-nos.”
Some tech-no’s shun e-mail. Others don’t use the Web or don’t even have a computer. Many avoid cellphones. In a few rare cases, people say no to just about all of it.
Even tech-loving teens and twentysomethings are starting to think twice. They might use the Internet (93% of American teens ages 12 to 17 do, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project), but a few are turning away from the same social networking sites with which their peers are obsessed.
By choice, Shane Bugeja, 16, of Columbus, Ohio, doesn’t have a Facebook or MySpace page. “I don’t find it interesting — having someone reading about you, and you don’t know them,” he says.
“It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected,” Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. “There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge.”
On the one hand we have teens who resist the hype as rebels are wont to do. On the other, we have old-schoolers (not quite Luddites) who enjoy the nuance and connection a real conversation offers. I can relate to both positions. You?
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