A newly recognized program, called Foursquare, is sweeping through urban landscapes across the U.S.  It operates off of a “suggestion” system which users may easily contribute to or evaluate to find out what’s happening.  The “stream” of updates looks a lot like twitter’s premier prototype, wherein one may tag another person by using the symbol @ and designating a place or user.  What sets this program apart from twitter, however, are the audience and context.  This service is aimed at the urban clubbers and “hipsters,” as it is effective in only about thirty cities across the U.S.  While many tourists visit the sprawling metropolitan environments and write many, easily-accessed reviews of the places they visit, the Foursquare service offers real-time commentary and promotes unbiased reviews.  Many of the users live in or near the areas they write about and have valuable insight for those who do not.  The users literally interact with their computers, phones, or PDA’s like they would another human, typing or texting what they think about a restaurant, library, or club.  As Brenda Laurel says in The Six Causal Elements, people feel more and more like their computers are more a person than not.  While we do not often think of the situation like this, we do often think and communicate to the computer, effectively integrating them and humanizing them.  To me, this is a scary thought, and I try to avoid this whenever possible.  I am not afraid of the new, but I have plenty of evidence to prove computers aren’t necessarily inherent in modern innovation; merely useful.  We should realize this before things get out of hand.

“Far be it from me to be prepared” I thought during this past weekend at home.  I had planned out every minute of my time there and had a great few days.  Strangely, though, I did not feel as if I were on a break–fall break was not exactly a break.  This got me thinking about our perception of words, “break” in particular.  We learn each word in the language (to some extent) by definition and by context.  For this reason “break,” here, is a time in which one relaxes and enjoys oneself.  I was not so apt to adopt the first section.  I will admit I had a great time with family an friends, however the schedule I made only worried me more and more as my weekend went on.  I would constantly be thinking of the “next event” so that the one I would be living wouldn’t get the attention it deserved.  I was already well enough into the schedule when I realized this, therefore I couldn’t quite change it.  For this reason, I will do the quintessentially spontaneous thing next time; “wing it.”  I want my days spent with family and friends to have a little more meaning than what is written in an agenda.  Similarly, this is what I want from my classes; specifically this one.  I, for the longest time, felt as if these blogs, tweets, and delicious bookmarks were just assignments though now I am more able to see the purpose.