The iZone

Interesting and profound thought in the Chronicle's recent 40 years after Kent State story.  Taking about how campus has changed wi th more meetings for clases, more sports and Title IX driven teams, there is a lack of time to sit and plot - not time for The Brain to declare to Pinky that tonight, we do what we do every night, try to take over the world.

In seriousness, the time sinks that are college sports - off to practice - or the more vocational of our curricula - got a study session tonight - or the increased social aspects - another meeting to attend - runs smack into the even greater impact of the 24/7 culture and Moore's Law (as it speaks of students arriving with "more low-priced electronic gadgetry than a family SUV can haul to campus").

The key quote:
"Forty years ago, one hall phone for a dozen rooms and a television lounge shared by students in the dorm necessitated the negotiated use of social space and fostered a common sense of American life.  Now, students are plugged into their own isolating iSpace, Facebook, Twitter, and the Internet may create community of a sort, but those communities are fragmented and isolated from one another."

The author, Jerry Lembcke, continues that groups like SDS find themselves undermined by the new paradigms of study.  A junior year study abroad program at the moment one might have gone to Port Huron instead; seniors obsessing over GREs and final years internships.

Great read, but I was most taken by the "iSpace" quip. Look, at the signposts up ahead, you've now crossed over, into the iZone.