Living with Gadgets

Living with Gadgets: What’s Inside Your Bag?

Nowadays, our urban lifestyle is closely associated with the need for gadgets with good internet connection. Gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks enable virtual connections that allow information exchange from physically separated areas. This issue eventually raises a question on the geography of our living space and whether it could be extended beyond its physical location.
 
This paper addresses this issue by identifying how we see our living space differently: as a mixture of physical and virtual spaces. Also, the roles of gadgets as essential elements of space redefined the notion of our living space. We discussed the interaction between people and their gadgets, considering the different types of gadgets and their role in everyday life, the connections between gadgets, and how they eventually affect our living space. Hence, twelve interviews were conducted to uncover these insights. The illustrations demonstrate our findings on the ideas of connectivity.

Based on the interviews, we identified three lifestyle ideas that fit the new concept of connectivity. First, the living space is not only about how the gadgets exist in physical space, but also about how the networking is formed. The importance of networking also depends on the gadget personalisation. Second, the supporting gadget defines the space of connectivity, which plays a vital role in helping us connect with a more extensive network system. The third one is the negotiation between physical space and connectivity, which may affect the productivity of our living space.
 
Our world may have been shifting into a mix of physical and virtual space, where networks become the new boundaries of living space. Daily activities might be fragmented into several physical spaces but still connected virtually. Ultimately, we suggest that the new space arrangement supports people’s dynamic activities and creates a virtual network between physical spaces. The connectivity between the virtual and physical spaces produced by gadgets becomes a significant factor in this new arrangement.

Wahid, A. R., Atmodiwirjo, P., & Paramita, K. D. (2013). Living with gadgets: What’s inside your bag? HABITechno International Seminar 2013.