Reading Number 1

Response

After reading Laurel's piece on what a website is, I couldn't help but focus on the question Tim Lee asked related to world access to the internet. It seems as though people feel less connected even with the web at our fingertips. Maybe the rest of the world doesn't want to be connected to the web. I wouldn't call it ignorance, but sometimes ignorance is bliss and not being hit with notifications every other minute means a happier life. Since almost any political (infrastructural) problem feels wicked, what does this mean for individuals who will become almost a generation technologically behind? What's the backlash?

On a happier note, I like the multiple layers and metaphors Laurel used to illustrate what a website is. For something so dynamic and physically hard to visualize because it's not an object we can touch, she was able to make what feels robotic (with AI) more natural. I'm not sure if that's something that scares me, but I wonder how much control we as designers/humans really have. Yes, we are architects in some way, but if most things will eventually revolve around technology, I can only imagine how much faster the world will change. At the end of the day, our sites are still connected to a service which we pay, and someone owns that server.