A simple model of experience
February 1, 2006: All experiences can be measured along three scales: Social, Intellectual, and Visceral (or Heart, Head, and Hands if you want something catchy). For example:
Drinking in a bar:
Social: high
Visceral: high
Intellectual: low
Watching a sunset:
Social: depends
Visceral: high
Intellectual: depends
Reading a book:
Social: low (unless read out loud)
Visceral: low
Intellectual: high
Video game:
Social: depends
Visceral: medium
Intellectual: depends
Online community:
Social: high
Visceral: low
Intellectual: varies
Are there other parameters beyond the 3?
This helps explain what's so exciting about location-aware applications: they promise to overlay the intellectual and social strengths of network-mediated interactions with meatspace. Either that or we're all just zoning out looking at tiny mobile screens, wondering how the UI got so f***ed up.