Stories
The Tool That Tells the Story
by Barry Chudakov on July 31st, 2012More people around the globe own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush. By the end of 2012 connected devices will outnumber humans on planet earth. It’s is an ideal time to ask: how do these tools change the oldest way we have always communicated—by telling stories? As an introduction to this evolving narration, here is the Preface from my recently published book The Tool That Tells the Story.
Digital Kids
by Barry Chudakov on April 24th, 2010Here is a compelling graphic showing how mobile devices and digital media are changing the ways kids live and learn. As with many aspects of Metalife, these devices and media create opportunities and present potential dangers. We’ll be writing more about both in the near future.
Byte-Size MetaMoments
by Barry Chudakov on December 1st, 2009The following byte-sized MetaMoments were submitted by—and are told in the voices of—students at the University of Minnesota.
Birth of a Metalife
by Barry Chudakov on November 15th, 2009KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate in Minneapolis St. Paul, followed Lynsee Solveig throughout her pregnancy and streamed the labor and delivery live on the moms’ social networking site momslikeme. According to KARE 11:
“Thousands of viewers shared the birth of Lynsee’s child in the wee hours of the morning when Lynsee and her husband Anders welcomed the infant girl into the world at 12:46 a.m. The baby Solveig weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 18 and 3/4 inches long.
Texting Recursion
by Barry Chudakov on November 14th, 2009The Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2009:
A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal’s office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that’s when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student’s fingers moving on his lap.
Official Announcement
by Barry Chudakov on November 5th, 2009Here is the new Metalife of a generation.
Stories
by Barry Chudakov on October 15th, 2009Here you will find a variety of stories about how people’s lives change as they interact with and adapt to various communication tools. Feel free to tell us these stories in the first person; or, if you’re of a more journalistic bent, tell the story of someone you know or may be interested in. Please submit your story to info@metalifestream.com. Just one caveat: The usual rules of journalistic integrity and transparency apply.
MetaMoments
by Barry Chudakov on October 15th, 2009We’re not always aware of it, but each of us has a Metalife of our own. It is likely that you encounter the effects of Metalife many times each day, as you use communication tools or observe others using and adapting to these tools. In this section of Metalifestream we intend to illustrate the myriad ways that the integration of communication tools into the smallest moments of our everyday lives has affected the way we think and act, what we value, how we value it, what we focus on and the duration of that focus. We call these experiences MetaMoments.