1999 to 2009: The "i-Devise" & "i-Space" Decade:

I can't believe how much happened in the last decade, it's staggering really: The 90's we're full of rumblings and excitement about the .com possibilities, and that "future's so bright" feeling, combined with the millennium on the horizon, and the economy going strong, that everyone was shooting for the sky. Just when everyone thought it would boom, the .com thing fizzed by the start of the 2000s. 1999 to 09 was where the bubble of fantastical web expectations burst, but the true foundation of Internet and cellular communication really made made it's bones, in realistic leaps and bounds. Add to that; 911, and the wars, scandals... iPod, digital music revolution, the death of c.d.s, rise of myspace, youtube & facebook, Twitter, ...Man, what a decade for sure. 

The "i-Devise":
I got my first laptop and first cell phone in 1999. I remember putting them both in a back pack, strapping it to my back, and thinking "Now I am completely mobile, free to create anywhere". 10 years down the line, I see how that was a noble vision, and certainly part of the ad campaigns - but it didn't explode with possibilities like I thought it would, and the software for recording took a while to get friendly. However, it certainly was a start.
Trailing behind the concept of the iMac (i for Internet) grew a large comet tail of computer "i"device related gadgets: 'i adaptor', 'i table' - everyone started putting "i" in front of every internet gizmo related item they could sell. Macintosh went on to release the iPod and ultimately the iPhone. The iPhone is sort of a period at the end of this decade's mobile tech sentence. The portable computer "i"ndependence, in your hand, seems like where all this has been shooting for since Dick Tracy, but only in this last decade did it really gain traction. There is of course the blackberry's, same thing.
The path is littered with other gateway devices (beepers, palm pilots etc.,) and we have funded & been the Guinea pigs for all their research and development by buying each devise sold to us full of promise, struggle through it's massive manual, finally master it enough to see it's short comings - and then ditch it to try the next new thing full of promise to do "all that and more".
I've been told my 2002 G4 tower is an antique. I still use it. It has become like my attic; loaded with stuff I don't even know is there.
I bought a new power book in 2009 - it'll be my new work horse.

I like my computer,
I'm romantic to my old hand writing journals, and even my old type writer, but I have to say that I prefer to write on my computer for the saving, ease of editing, desktop publishing and printing aspect.
I like my cell phone, and I'm thinking of buying an iphone. however, I did recently go out and buy an old used rotary phone for the house; it rings like a phone should & feels good in my hand.

The "i-Space":
We saw the explosion of Blogs, MySpace, Youtube & Facebook this decade.
The only actual personal paper letters I get these days is from a friend in prison.
Everything else is email.
I remember joining myspace and slowly getting to know it,  and how many people began using the same sort of coded, shortened phrases like; "Glad to see you on here" (which became a welcome phrase, and sort of sounded like someone discovering there is someone else on a semi deserted isle of a limited members club). Then "LOL", "OMG" etc.,.
It seemed like MySpace died almost over night (I'm sure unrelated, but comically right after Rupert Murdoch bought it in 2005!) and Facebook was taking off, and virtually buried myspace. 
I'm on the fence with facebook. I like it to find people and I like as a way of sharing photos. I don't like it as one more thing I have to keep up with. I have (myself, combined with PDP, lost souls & 8fatfat8) 5 email address's, 4 myspace accounts for a few bands, 4 websites and now Facebook to maintain. 10 years ago I did not have a computer or a cell phone.
I include youtube in the "i-space" phenomenon. I find it very useful to find things. The resolution is so poor, I often just use this to see what something is about, if I really like it, I track down the actual footage.



Epilogue of a decade:
It was an extremely Heady decade for me, at times extremely oppressive & at times gritty and vibrant: The Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld elections, The World Trade Center attacks (& the subsequent fear / war mongering), the sobering news on climate change & over fished oceans, the continued explosion of commercialization and advertising popping up everywhere like pop up windows.

All that was by itself a lot, but the PC and Cell phone revolution, everybody participated in that development of all that, and this last decade will be remembered for that.

The computer itself is amazing & oppressive to me at times...
I have a love / hate relationship with it.
When I wake up I turn it on while my tea is brewing, it starts my day.
It tells me what to do.
I have mastered my cell phone: I turn it off when I don't want to deal with it & I text minimally.
I have mastered the T.V.: I do not have cable, I did not go digital; it is only for dvds and vhs viewing. Therfore, I see no commercials anymore, except for on tour in hotel rooms when bored - (and you can't believe how obnoxious those adverts are when you have had a break from them!).
I do not listen to the radio - so there again; no adverts.
I am trying to separate myself from commercialization as much as I can.
Also from electronic distractions like video games (which I never got the hook in my mouth anyways).
But, I have not mastered the computer yet.
It is still a monolith in my front room. It sometimes seems as ominous as the big black slab in the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I know that as soon as I turn it on and open my email and my calendar, my day will be filled with things I need to do, emails to answer, documents to send, bills to pay, correspondence to keep up with - all the random things that my have been in store for me and my natural wonder world of out of doors happenstance have been supplanted with what ever the computer has in store for me. The worst thing is that I am computer trained now. It's hard for me to ignore it. I spend more time in front of my computer than I care to admit to myself.
It is so powerful a tool, it is undeniable, I love writing, recording and keeping up with friends and business with it, but...
I have not mastered the computer yet... it commands too much of my attention, and I can't help but be haunted of how free and 'outside' my life was with out it. To capture that free outside world / spontaneous direction way of living; that is my resolution.

I am excited for this next decade, I feel a fair wind coming... 

FQO dec 30th 2009