Urban nomads - a new social class, which lives in a parallel world

After the popular post "JAJAJA generation: how to live and work with them?"Reminded us one more article written in 2008 about another pretty interesting social phenomenon -" Nomad ". Given that we are always a little lag behind the West, this topic is now just a very, very urgent. Perhaps someone will know to describe the style of life of these people yourself?

So, who is, after all, are these "nomads" and how they work or live?

The rapid development of technology makes a man free. Some people in order to learn, it is not necessary to go to university - there plenty of online courses, Too, can work remotely and with family, friends and employers to maintain constant contact on the same Skype or other messengers (but Do not forget). Office - a place where it is possible to charge the laptop battery, tablet or smartphone and the ability to connect to the web. A house - this is where you cozy, fun, convenient and cheap.

People who adhere to this way of life, to anything not tied. They do not look "First Channel" and not "carried" to the standard advertising. They live with their world with a well-tuned communications. But only with those who they are interested and congenial.

So who are they and how to live, make friends and work with them? Article on The Economist 2008 is very relevant and have our spaces, as this way of life is becoming a massive indeed.

In the cafe "Nomad» (Nomad Café) in Oakland, California, Tia Katrina Kanlas, a law student at the nearby University of Berkeley, puts his dual US next to his mobile phone and the iPod, opens his laptop and connected to Wi-Fi to connect to their studies on the legal assessment of sexual orientation. She is here - a regular customer and carries a cash. In the statement to its credit card read "Nomad, Nomad, Nomad, Nomad ..." And that's it, she thought. Permanently connected to the network, it constantly communicates with the help of texts, photos, videos, or voice to your friends and family and at the same job done. She just wanders around town and often stops at the places where are served the same nomads, as she was.

His idea was to provide something like the bars for the same "techno-Bedouin", as he himself.

Christopher Waters, the owner, opened the Nomad Café in 2003, when the hotspots with Wi-Fi have been all over the city. His idea was to provide something like the bars for the same "techno-Bedouin", as he himself. Since Bedouins, whether Arabian deserts or American suburbs, by their nature are still tribal, social creatures. And he realized that a good oasis just a decent Wi-Fi is not enough. They should become the new - or very old - a place to gather. At first he thought to give his cafe Gypsy Spirit Mission, which also reflects the theme of mobility, but decided to stop at a simple - Nomad.

As a concept, the vision and purpose of modern nomadic lifestyle had a mixed blessing premature debut. In 1960-70, Herbert Marshall McLuhan, the most powerful terrorist mass media and communications, described the nomads, moving around at high speed, using all means of the road and all that, but complete rejection of their homes. In 1980, Jacques Attali, French economist who was an adviser to President François Mitterrand at the time, I used the term "nomads" to predict the age when the rich and the elite will travel the world in search of fun and opportunities, and poor, but just not tied to residence workers will migrate in search of a place Unknown. In 1990 Hemlock Makimoto and David Manners co-wrote the first book with "digital nomads" in the title, adding the embarrassing possibility of the latest gadgets to your vidéniyu.

But in all these descriptions of a new nomadism as a phenomenon, one very important detail has been missed. Mobile lifestyle at the moment is formed all over the world and there is nothing that described in these old books. But you can not blame the authors, because the underlying technology and genuine and daily nomadic life did not exist. Mobile phones already exist and are widely used, but only for voice communication, and connect to the internet then it was devilishly difficult, even with computers. And laptops or personal digital assistants (PDA) to connect to the network required to connect via cable uncomfortable and speed was a snail. checking email and writing new posts to your mobile phone - not to mention the synchronization of multiple gadgets or computers to create a single virtual mailbox for incoming - was something incredible, almost from the field fiction. People took pictures on film. Wi-Fi did not exist. In general, the gadgets were, and there was no communication.

Astronauts and hermit crabs

Without this missing part it was made a few misunderstandings, which at the time of data require correction. First - this is what had to be done with all these gadgets. Since these machines, large and small, were portable, people thought that they were doing mobile and their owners. But it is not so! The proper metaphor for someone who pulls a portable, but cumbersome gadget - it's the astronaut, not a nomad, says Paul Saffo, an expert on future trends in the Valley. The astronauts have to carry everything you need, including oxygen, because they can not rely on the environment, which can not provide them with the relevant conditions. They are defined and limited by their tools and supplies.

At the turn of the century, some astronauts, true warriors of the road, have become smarter in their approach to their gear, Mr Saffo says. They finished at the intermediate stage, becoming a hermit crabs. This crustacean, which survive, dragging behind a house from shells remaining after other shellfish left her for protection and shelter. In a metaphorical sense, the sheath can be "hand-bag on wheels" filled disks, cables, candles, batteries, document (just in case the drive is suddenly faulty). These hermit crabs strike fear into the hearts of the passengers seated aircraft whenever they climb aboard because of their "shells" always dig into their innocent shin throughout way. They are smaller than the astronauts, and therefore more mobile, but they are still quite heavy, loaded with all the equipment, which is used primarily as a defense against disaster disasters.

Urban nomads appeared only a few years ago (do not forget that the article dates from 2008!). Like their predecessors in the wilderness, they are not guided by the fact that carry with them, and those that have left behind, knowing that the environment will provide it to them again. Thus, the Bedouins do not carry stocks of water, because they know where there are oases. And increasingly, they do not bring with them laptops. Many engineers from Google are traveling with their mobile phones (BlackBerry, iPhone or other smartphones). And if you suddenly have a need for access to a large keyboard, they just find a computer anywhere in the world with access to the network and oktryvayut their documents online.

Another key misunderstanding of modern nomadic lifestyle in the past decade - is confusing nomadism with migration and travel. Since, on telecommunications costs fell, it was very interesting to reread «The death of distance», a book by Francis Keyrnkrossa. And despite the fact that the earlier mobile phones were aimed primarily at executives assumed that the nomadic way of life is closely linked with corporate travel in particular. And indeed, many nomads often fly and that is why airlines such as JetBlue, American Airlines and Continental Airlines introduced on board its aircraft Wi-Fi. But the nomadic life - it does not necessarily travel and on the contrary.

People have always traveled and migrated, and this does not necessarily need to be a nomad. Modern nomadism is significantly different from what it was before, and involves much more than just a trip. Modern nomad with the same success can be a student in Oslo, Tokyo or suburban America. He or she may never leave their city, to sit on the plane or change your address. After all, in fact, how far it moves does not matter. And even if a nomad in fact locked in a rather tight space, in fact, he had a very different relationship to time, to the point and to other people.

"Always-on connection, instead of the movement - that's a critical time." - says Manuel Castells, a sociologist at the Annenberg School, which is part of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

And that is why the new generation of monitors attached to the futurists and gadget geeks in the study of the effects of this technology. In particular, social scientists trying to figure out how mobile communications alter the interaction between people.

Anthropologists and psychologists study how mobile and virtual interaction seasons or challenge Physical chemistry and offline, and whether it makes young people more independent, or vice versa - more dependent. Architects, developers and city planners change their vision of buildings and cities in order to adapt them to the habits of the nomads who live there. Activists are trying to move the tools used by nomads in their work to improve the world, even if they are worried about the same instruments in the hands of criminals. Linguists record how communication affects the nomadic language and way of thinking.

Beyond technology?

This special report is rather focused on the fact that we will soon, most likely, will not investigate themselves mobile technologies or business models and their implications. The quality of Wi-Fi-networks and cellular communication is getting better and better, "hot spots" are growing around the world, like mushrooms after rain. And a new generation of wireless technology is ready to take its place. And regulators have realized that now radio waves are one of the most important assets of the company.

Technology also does not stand still, and mobile gadgets are developing faster and faster with each new generation, facilitating the work of the network and becoming more functional and less overall.

And all this together is a historic merger of two technologies that have already proven their right to revolutionary. The mobile phone has changed the world, becoming widespread, in both rich and poor countries. Free and universal access to the internet, rather, for the more affluent countries, but nevertheless, it is has already changed the way people listen to music, shop, working with banks, read the news and communicate.

And the residents of countries such as South Korea or Japan, all this is no longer surprising.

Five of the ten best-selling books written in Japan in 2007, were created on mobile phones.

And the main feature of urban nomads that they do not become fixated on the technology (although watch the trends and innovations in this area) - Mrs. Kanlas has no idea of ​​what standard works her wireless router and what protocols to safely open her mail in the Nomad as she sipped her double Americano.