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VOLKER JÖRN WALPUSKI
TOTAL AVAILABILITY
Ubiguitous computing makes cyber space no longer a different place I physically
have to go to like a desktop computer: Via smart devices (tablets, smart phones,
etc.) cyber space is where I am. By this virtual reality has become a permanent
and simultaneous overlay and the dream of telepathy came true.? And this is
why contrasts like “reality vs. virtuality” or “presence vs. remote” don‘t work
any longer. The boundaries are blurring, and with Goffman? we might call it a
‘total availability’.
Additionally smart devices are converging a multiplicity of functions formerly
fulfilled by different artefacts or persons like calendar, address book, record
collection, map, clock, wallet, photo album, personal trainer, reminder, remote
control, toys or access control. Also they might function as personal protective
equipment by surveying‘ e.g. whereabouts, work schemes and recreation times
or keeping information about hazards ready at hand.
Like this two stress factors are coming together: The permanent availability
(‘no hiding’) together with a manifold of functions (‘everything in one thing’).
This evokes curious phenomena, e.g.:
« The mere presence of smart devices may be distracting? and the quality
of work results is decreasing.
« A ring ton or vibration of incoming messages is perceived many a time
but it proves to be a hallucination.
+ The number of traffic accidents due to cell phone use whilst driving is
increasing.®
¢ Checking messages is the first/last action in bed. This is related to recently
so-called FoMO, the Fear of Missing Out.’
¢ The belief in multitasking capabilities although there is no proof of them.
2 Anthony Townsend, Thinking in telepathic cities, in Nyiri K. (ed.), Integration and ubiquity.
Towards a philosophy of telecommunications convergence, Wien, Passagen, 2008, 63-74.
3 Erving Goffman, Asylums. Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and other Inmates,
Chicago, 1961.
* In Germany not viable due to legal restrictions.
> Bill Thornton — Alyson Faires — Maija Robbins — Eric Rollins, The Mere Presence of a Cell
Phone May be Distracting. Implications for Attention and Task Performance, Social Psychology
2014; Vol. 45 (6) (2014) 479-488, DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000216.
° Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (ed.), Jahresbericht 2011, Flensburg, 2012.
7 Andrew K. Przybylski - Kou Murayama - CodyR. DeHaan - Valerie Gladwell, Motivational,
emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out, Computers in Human Behavior,
29 (4) (2013) 1841-1848.
® Anja Baethge — Thomas Rigotti, Arbeitsunterbrechungen und Multitasking. Ein umfassender
Uberblick zu Theorien und Empirie unter besonderer Beriicksichtigung von Altersdifferenzen,
Dortmund, Bundesanstalt fiir Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, 2010.
* 126 +