Welcoming the Mobile Era

James Kendrick at ZDNet says the PC is not necessarily dead, but the mobile device is definitely the central figure in consumer technology.
He notes the PC has regained its old image as that thing you use at work. Frankly I’m glad to see it. I’ve often prayed for the mass of consumers to get their own Internet and leave us computer geeks alone. This business of the cellphone as Internet device almost guarantees a divergence between the old Web and new one. It’s not just the difference between sites optimized for mobile devices; mobile devices are quickly getting large enough to display the Web as is. But the very means of linking the cellphone network to the Internet is drawing a lot of attention from the carriers. If we can keep them preoccupied with milking that linkage, they’ll pay less and less attention to the direct connection used by PCs.
Though this hardly characterizes the current state of the industry, it seems to be coming. The recent growth in uptake of tablet devices puts a great deal of focus on consumption-only of the Internet, as opposed to using a device which was primarily designed as much for producing as it is for consuming. People are simply less interested in blogging, but some are still willing to read blogs. They spill more and more of their communication output in highly curtailed Social Networking tidbits. Most of those who no longer read blogs because all their Net time is absorbed in the likes of Facebook are the same folks who wouldn’t read a serious blog in the first place.
It’s rather like the difference between the scholars who huddle in quiet classrooms while the majority of those who would much rather be somewhere else commiserate in massive noisy gaggles all over the campus, anywhere but the classroom. The latter is what populates the likes of Facebook. It’s the place where crowds hang out gossiping or chattering about their favorite TV shows. More power to them, but please let us few have a place to exercise our tastes in other interests.
I realize this will mean a loss of advertising revenue support for the more contemplative interaction with the Net. To some degree, corporate sponsors who gave us free blogging services are already closing things down. For now, many are simply making such services less free. For example, Google is getting pretty pushy about wanting your cellphone number as the price to keep your Blogger account active, or even your Gmail account. It puts more of the expense of operations back onto the user, via the sneaky absorption of your airtime for their convenience, not to mention a further loss of privacy. It’s why I stopped using my account with them.
This other, older Internet is worth what little I have to pay for it. For all the simplicity and convenience of WordPress, I could easily run a blog on my static website account — I did for awhile. If all else fails, I can create one out of simple HTML or even plain text. The real loss would be the extra traffic, the extra attention from other WordPress account holders. It makes me easier to find for folks who actually want such material as I produce.
However, I’m willing to bet the majority of us communicators are likely to develop whatever new habits are necessary to keep alive our intellectual pursuits in the global virtual community. We’ll have to donate a little more of our time to keeping the links amongst ourselves open.
For the most part, the Easy Net consumers will continue drifting off into the mobile device network. Their interaction will become more passive, more about consumption than genuine interaction. It will be little more than a mobile TV without the lock-in scheduling. They can have it.