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Text Haiti

No, this is not another plea for the beleaguered nation (although feel free to help). This is the sea change that will make the wallet you tooled in leather arts & crafts at camp obsolete, once and for all.

Our phones are now truly the exoskeleton that holds up our daily lives. There is now almost zero friction between thought and action when it come to buying things, saying what’s on our minds, helping a good cause, expressing outrage or getting information.

But is that a good thing?

There’s no question that the outpouring for Haiti, in particular to the American Red Cross, has been extraordinary. The American Red Cross could not find the words to describe the outpouring of support. Tens of millions of dollars were raised for the relief effort through text messages in mere days, and it’s still going. Ironically, the ability to “address” a global catastrophe with a few buttons on your phone may actually disconnect us even further from the real toll—the human tragedy and the need to really engage with organizations trying help people—whether in Haiti or in our own communities. The same might be said for watching a star-studded telethon, but I’ll let that go (George Clooney please feel free to call my direct line if you would like to discuss).

I love the ubiquity of all the tools and information available on my iPhone, and how all that stuff supports both work and home life. But I realize that too often I am using the little screen as a shield. It’s almost as if there’s a thought bubble above all our heads: “Standing here in line doesn’t bother me because I am looking at important stuff on my phone.” Sometimes it is important, but what’s lost is the opportunity to look around. What is the right balance between our enabling technologies and enabling anti-social behavior? Are we more connected because we can react quickly to a humanitarian crisis with our smart phones and computers, or do we need to put down the gizmo and actually see the people and places that need our attention? I am challenging my own behavior and we’ll see where it takes me in 2010.