According to the Pew Internet & American Life Tech User Quiz I am a “Roving Node.” According to Horrigan (2009), Roving Nodes use “ICTs as a way to do their jobs, connect with family and friends, and generally be more productive in their lives.” I believe this is a very accurate description of me. I am constantly receiving and sending text messages, mainly to my family and friends. My siblings and I live in many different areas of the country. We are a very connected, though, and spend a lot of time during the week texting, emailing, calling one another and even Face Timing. I value my phone as a tool to help me stay in touch with my family. In addition to using my iPhone and internet access to communicate with my family, I also rely heavily on my phone to help me manage my life. I am an avid user of productivity applications, such as iCal, Notes and Reminders. My phone is my electronic day planner, only its better because it makes noises when I need to remember to do something. Another accurate description of me from Horrigan (2009) is that Roving Nodes “consume a lot of digital content for the purpose of passing it along to others.” This is extremely true of myself. I don’t have a Facebook page, I don’t blog and I’ve only ever created a website as part of a school project. I am uncomfortable putting too much information onto the internet. I do, however, pass along interesting articles that I stumble across on the internet. I also do quite a bit of online shopping, which is a characteristic of the Roving Node. Overall, I feel that the quiz was a truthful description of myself.
6 thoughts on “The Roving Node”
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It seems like you are a very organized person, and rely heavily on technology for your organization. Do you think that if you did not have your iphone you would be as organized? I know I would go crazy if I lost my phone, however I do not necessarily depend on it so much for managing my life. It would be something I would be interested to try, and maybe that would make things easier to manage for me.
Wow! That’s pretty cool that you received such a definitive results. It is also impressive that you have control to resist the social media networks. At times I don’t say much on my Facebook, and other days I am updating several times a day. I need to go on a social media diet, but I will always be an internet user several times in a day weather its email or entertainment purposes. I also use Gmail Calendar and My fitness pal applications. You are really in control of your digital exposure.
I think a lot of people that do have social network profiles have similar concerns with you about privacy. I think many feel pressure to do it, but don’t utilize the platforms over privacy concerns or simply lack of interest. I would be interested to see if those same individuals utilize their mobile devices for connectedness and organization at the same levels you do. With Facebook becoming so ubiquitous with “life updates”, even some family members don’t feel the need to call or text with big news if they have updated their Facebook profile with the news. Even and someone on Facebook with regularity, I’ve been in social situations where someone expected me to know something “because it was on Facebook”, despite them not telling me themselves. Has this happened to you as someone off that particular network?
There have definitely been some instances where I was left out of the loop because I don’t have Facebook. For instance, my oldest sister recently bought a house and, although I knew she had bought it because she had group texted my family, I had to wait until my mom emailed me pictures from Facebook to actually see it! Generally, though, my family and friends rely more on email and text message to spread news instead of Facebook. Honestly, it is rare for me to miss out on anything because I don’t have Facebook. I used to worry about that, but its never been a problem!
I think it’s awesome that you actually use your technology to the best of its benefits to be more productive. Though I have tried, I have never quite adopted a strong organizational system using my technology. I did face some hesitancy on the survey about whether or not I used a PDA. The image that popped in my head was the old school gray block. There are so many apps we use for pleasure, entertainment, communication, information, and social sharing that it’s hard to think of a smartphone as just a PDA. I wonder how many people consider their smartphone a personal digital assistant, because it certainly can be.
I think that smart phones and tablets have made organization a lot simpler with the ability to share notes and ideas thought various platforms with apps like dropbox or evernote.