Monday night I went to New Tech Meetup of Central PA and saw a presentation by Charles Palmer of Harrisburg University on a week long “social media blackout” experiment they recently did.
Interesting Points:
- Only about 15% of the students abstained which I thought was a low number.
- Some students did get the “Facebook twitch” and “cheated” by walking down the street to siphon off hotel wireless.
- Students talked about wanting to “know what’s going on outside the building.”
- Students stayed in the hallways talking to one another, which I guess they don’t need to do if they are on their social media sites (but it seems that these FTF connections are not the ones they are seeking in the earlier comment about knowing what’s going on outside the building.)
What I find interesting from the above comments and observations is seeing how space/place use is connected to social media use. This calls to mind some earlier work on Placemaking Presentation done at Miami IA Summit 2008 that was during the start of the social media explosion.
Does social media technology change how architects construct the spaces we live and work in? Do we need less hallways spaces? Do we need less windows?