Media and participation, part I

You know, as I get older and I get fitted for my first pair of bifocals (true!), I wonder about stuff like this, where Mom watches video on an iPod while sitting in a theatre. OK, maybe it's beyond the mere size thing (thought size is indeed important). It's about people being able to engage in a shared experience, mediated or otherwise.

This started becoming a long, rambling post, so let's just say for now that for the past two years, at every meeting there are folks typing away on iChat, surfing the web, or otherwise not actually engaging with what goes on in the room. I get the arguments that people learn in their own ways, and our laptops are becoming critical extensions of our thinking facilities, and that sometimes lectures and meetings are unbelievably boring *not the ones I run, though. of course* You visit someone in their office and half the time s/he continues to type away at whatever else they were doing. Is this still considered rude, or has the practice of engaging with your coworker gone the way of Betamax?

Maybe I *am* really the person who wear bifocals. And you durn kids -- get off my lawn!!