Tag: internet

Being weird and a phone booth in the desert

Posted on by philipdodson

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Today I listened to the latest episode on my favourite podcast 99% Invisible hosted by Roman Mars. The episode was titled ‘Mojave Phone Booth’.

It was the story of guy called Godfrey Daniels who on the way back from a trip read about this phone booth in the middle of nowhere in the desert. This was late 90’s so long before the connected world of smartphones.

So fascinated, he began dialling the number every day to see if anyone would answer as he was not sure he even believed it existed. Well after a month someone answered and indeed verified that it was a real phone booth in the middle of the Mojave desert.

Godfrey eventually found the location and set off to visit the phone booth, which was down some dusty track off the main road.

This was the late 90’s and the internet was starting to catch on and he created a website for the phone booth. To his complete surprise it became a hit and soon not only were people phoning the number from all over the world but visiting it too.

In fact, the number of visitors leads to the phone booth eventually being removed in 2000.

The point of this is. In the world of mass everything, it is often, even more so than in the late 90’s, the weird that attracts people.

A computer engineer can make a phone booth in the middle of the desert a global attraction. He had to be determined and follow his passion for discovering it and then tell others. That is what we have to do with our weird ideas, be determined to succeed and with passion, share them with the world.

Now with the over-saturation of the internet with mass, the only way to stand out and be different is to bring your unique and weird ideas to life.

Mass is not only dull but it’s melting away.

2 channels on your TV

Posted on by philipdodson

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Last night we all went out to eat in Bali at a local restaurant, after dinner, I was chatting with the owner of the place. Like all the people I have met in Bali, they are very friendly and seem to be happy people.

We were stood in front of this old TV, it looked similar to the ones from my childhood, and I remarked that when I was little (the 1970’s!!! omg), that there were only 2 channels on the TV. The man laughed and remarked ‘now there are 100’s’.

I used to have a subscription to SKY, which had 100’s of channels. I cancelled that subscription a few years back, as I realised I had become a slave to TV. I was exchanging my real life for a soulless experience.

Apparently we watch on average 4 hours a day of TV!!! That is just over a full 24 hour day a week. When we had just 2 channels, I probably watched an hour or so a day. The rest of the time as a child I played and used my imagination.

The next challenge is that having stopped watching TV, perhaps an hour a week now, I have like many replaced it with the internet, ironic as I am typing a blog that I will publish on the internet for others to read.

It is now time to start replacing time spent looking at the internet, with real life. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and what it could do. I am also aware of the fact that we kid ourselves that we have changed when we have replaced one soulless experience with another.

If we only had a few things to look at on the internet, like the 2 TV channels of 1970s Britain, think just how much more we could do in life. Just think of all that imagination we would have to use.

Imagination is what brought the human race to where we are, let’s hope the 100’s of channels and billions of web pages do not kill imagination for good.