When I lived in Korea I noticed something that as a westerner I found annoying. As a church worker living in a small shack behind the Minister’s home, the chapel comprising the entire second floor of the two story structure, I could hear the phone ring. At that time there were no cell phones, only landlines. It was a traditional phone with a traditional loud ring for those of us who are old enough to quickly recollect what a traditional ring sounds like. Did I mention it was loud?
Often the phone rang and rang and rang without ceasing. Why the person would not simply hang up when no one answered is part of the eastern character I am attempting to convey here. The complimentary side of that annoying attribute is explained as follows.
Hearing the phone ringing continuously, bothering me to no end, I often jumped up from what I was doing and ran into the church residence and answered the phone. Of course the person on the other end would be seeking the minister. Instinctively, though I could only imagine no one was home, I would call out for the minister. And this ritual held over and over would end in most all cases the same way. The minister’s head would pop out around the corner from his office and he would calmly respond, “Yea” yes.
Western civilization may attribute its technical dominance of the world to its ability to observe absolutely everything, seeking to understand how it all works. This attribute might have served an undeveloped civilization well. But in this era of information overload does the eastern attribute of simply ignoring what one is not focused on in the moment a superior approach in this modern age?
We are overly consumed with not only information but material, and data devices rule the day. I find it liberating to get out into the forest, leaving the Internet, TV and even my phone behind. I long for the day when you needed to be home to receive a phone call and what was going on in the moment in your own life held prominence without the urge, the temptation to instantly share what one is up to at any specific instance. Always concerned with how we are perceived by others than simply on how we are is not healthy.
But the data craze cannot be ignored. The personal computer empowered small businesses and then radically transformed the home as prices came down and software was designed to meet near every demand of business and fancy. The family room has become a colder more industrial space dominated by the TV, computer desk and gaming systems. The formal space has little to no time to be appreciated. Aesthetics and decorum are ignored.
The tablet is the latest craze. And why will they fail? Because no one really needs a device equivalent in power and function to their laptop, or desktop, to carry around with them. And there is a cheaper alternative that meets the functions people are seeking in a tablet; the e-reader.
Kindle has just come out with their Kindle Fire for $199. It is in color, uses a version of Google’s android and has hundreds of apps to chose from. In short, with access to sites such as Facebook, the ability to game and listen to music along with not only one’s library but to receive subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, what more does one need in a tablet. And the Barnes and Noble Nook Color does much the same thing.
The tablet is folly. Producing a product whose form far exceeds its desired function when a superior product, a product whose form does follow function, already exists. In fact the e-reader was design from bottom up to match the most desired functions of what a tablet should be. The tablet’s starting point was to replace the laptop. You can’t replace a full scale operable keyboard with a touch screen. But many are willing to throw their money away on the latest craze.
The e-reader will not be the end of print. The bookshelf may become the instrument for the return of the formal, the disciplined, the refined in life and home. The quality and topics of ones books displayed to convey a message of, who the person who lives here is; a showcase. Much more traditional, aesthetically attractive than the cold clutter of a compute terminal in ones home. An instrument that will inspire the resident to simply sit down and take some time to read. To read in that quiet isolated realm of one’s own mind; imagination.
In fact with the laptop, the e-reader or tablet for the fool hardy, along with entertainment and gaming systems being confined to rooms designed for their specific function, the home, free of the desktop in all areas including the bedroom, will revert to much more traditional design. The formal spaces returning to importance and focus can only promote civilized relations in a world where relationships are suffering at the hands of materialism.
And of course I cannot ignore the technology that is the greatest transformation of the family space since the development of the television; The flat panel TV. The old boob tube TV no longer dominates the space, protruding into the center of any space it is placed in. And due to the laptop the desktop has come full circle, returning to the domain of business where it is best suited.
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