45°

Techwit By Jason Ohler

That's how most of us came to the Internet party - terrified, confused and not sure why we were there. It was a lot like being born. Or going to a family reunion: Everyone expected you to show up even though you never received a formal invitation, certainly had no hand in planning any of it and no matter how fast you sprinted to get there, someone always nagged you for being late.

The problem with sprinting to the Internet party is that it keeps receding into the near future as gazillions of buckets of new information hit the World Wide Web every day. Change is coming at us so fast that we live life, as McLuhan pointed out, looking in the rearview mirror to discover where we've just been rather than looking down the road to see where we'd like to be. Just another good reason not to drink and drive, especially on the Information Highway.

Which brings me full circle to the fashion-conscious power-shopping teenager. It's really not much easier for her. She can't plan to be cool. After all, who knows what bandwagon Madison Avenue will roll through her psyche next? Like computer models, clothes styles change so fast that all she can do is react. And, like the technology planner, she too can find what she needs online. "Softwear" shopping I call it. In fact, online she can - to use another thoroughly modern word - "prosume" (produce + consume = prosume). That is, she can order clothes to her own unique specifications, much the way computer shoppers custom design computer systems online that get delivered to their door.

So, if the online world allows her to shop anywhere, compare prices instantly, find products that aren't stocked in local stores, and get just the length, color, style and shock value she wants, then why does she need to go to the mall at all? Simple: Because that's where her friends are. After all, how else would she know what they're wearing?

Jason Ohler is professor of educational technology at the University of Alaska Southeast and can be reached at jason@jasonohler.com. © 2002 Jason Ohler.