I am an active member of Delicious, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Without realizing it, I have spent a lot of time on these. And I have also left digital traces everywhere in the form of links, photos and discussions. Every now and then I still browse through my online past. To quickly find something that I once entrusted to the digital canvas.
Earlier this week I was made aware of an initiative by Intel: The Museum of Me . By linking your Facebook account to this website, a museum is created around your digital memories. You walk from room to room. You see avatars, photos and videos passing by. All this accompanied by a light music.
I was actually touched. And I don't really know why. I think it's about the connections I've built over time. People I've met online (and in some cases offline). And that creates a bond. An emotional bond. And I didn't expect that. That my digital life is so intertwined with my physical existence. That the zeros and ones are so deeply embedded in my skin.
Technology gets under our skin
Marshall McLuhan said in the electronic age: “All media are nepal phone number list extensions of some human faculty. Mental or physical. The wheel is an extension of the foot. Book is an extension of the eye. Clothing is an extension of the skin. Electric circuitry is an extension of the central nervous system. The extension of anyone's sense, displaces the other senses and alters the way we think. The way we see the world and ourselves. When these changes are made, people change.”
Technology is an extension of man. Technology is also increasingly getting under the skin. Literally and figuratively. Literally in the form of all kinds of hardware. Sensors that measure and monitor the condition of your body. Figuratively in the sense that information gains access to your brain.
Technology (read: book, radio, television) was, according to McLuhan, an enhancement of the senses. The medium of the internet adds something extra to this: information not only enhances your senses, it also enhances your psyche, your brain. The physical and digital worlds are coming ever closer together. They are merging into each other, as it were. My digital memory palace is an excellent example of this.