Learnlets

Secondary

Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Intimacy & Immediacy

20 October 2011 by Clark 6 Comments

I’ve been wrestling with the difference between the smartphone (or PDA, aka the ‘pod’) versus a tablet (aka the ‘pad’), and it occurred to me that one way to think about it might be to distinguish between ‘intimacy’ and ‘immediacy’.

Laptops versus mobile devicesBy  immediacy, I’m talking about how you use the devices.  As Palm  documented  a long time ago, you use laptops only a few times per day, but for long periods of time.  Whereas you use mobile devices many times a day for quick access.  Tablets are actually more used like laptops in this respect.  You don’t tend to whip your tablet out, answer a quick question, and put it away.  The size tends to make it awkward to whip in and out, and instead is more amenable to using for a period of time.  Of course, smaller tablets may bridge the gap.

By intimacy, I mean the relationship to the device.  As Judy Brown defines a mobile device, it’s small enough to fit in your pocket, has a battery to last all day, and you really know it.  I’m particularly picking up on the latter, and moreover, that you can customize it. David Pogue has opined that it’s not really the smartphone that matters, but rather the ‘app phone’, and I think it’s important that you can optimize the device by loading it with capabilities that accessorize  your brain.  Though you can add ringtones, and even some apps (via, for instance, Brew), it’s much harder to augment your capabilities without a rich market of differentiated programs.

There’s more.  For one, the smaller screen means you have the device closer.  Laptops are inherently at arms length (or at least forearm’s length), to effectively use a keyboard. The smaller screen of a mobile device invites it closer, as does the small keyboard, using thumbs instead of the whole hand. A touchscreen  interface also invites a different relationship.

Characterizing laptop, tablet, and mobile devicesThis gives me a framework for distinguishing between the devices.  A laptop, even if customized by your applications, isn’t intimate, and by size isn’t used with immediacy.  Tablets are intimate, but not immediate.  Smartphones are intimate and  immediate.  Finally, there’s the category of immediate but not intimate. This might be the use of a touchscreen kiosk you find at a public spot or in a museum, or perhaps also using someone else’s device for a quick access.

This seems to give me a handle on thinking about the differences between tablets and smartphones & PDAs (I think the iPod touch is a great device, say for kids in schools).  Does it work for you?

 

Comments

  1. Rob Moser says

    20 October 2011 at 9:02 AM

    I guess I struggle to find the difference in intimacy created by downloading custom apps for a handheld, and downloading custom applications for a bigger device. If anything, it seems like a laptop is far more customisable, simply by virtue of the larger virtual space that you can re-arrange however you like, and the wider range of options.

    Overall though, I’d definitely agree with the fact that handhelds are a more intimate experience. I’d have guessed that that intimacy was actually tied to the immediacy of its use; the ubiquity of its presence in your life, and the fact that you’ll pop it out to help you do things you’re already doing, rather than unpack it to start doing something on it. In fact, I find tablets very cold and sterile – just the opposite of intimate. To me, its just a box of toys; they may be my toys, personally chosen by me, but there’s nothing personal about the box itself. But thats because I don’t use it day-to-day for much; its not the place where I live. The place where I live is my desktop, which is therefore elaborately customised and feels like home. It sounds like you use your tablet all the time – even if not so frequently as your handheld – so the immediacy might create a sense of intimacy with it. Both intimacy and immediacy are definitely important, and as you say useful handles for understanding the experience, but I’m not sure that they’re independent – or at least entirely independent – variables.

  2. Andrew Joly says

    21 October 2011 at 4:23 AM

    It certainly begins to work for me, yes. It reminds me of a workshop I attended back in 1993/94 at an interactive tv conference about the difference between the brave new world of PC based entertainment (coming soon on CD-ROM) – referred to then as deskware – and the (coming not so soon) world of interactive television – sofaware. The misunderstanding between these two quite different types of entertainment and how they might be used resulted in many millions of pounds being spent creating strange documentary/entertainment titles for the PC (which never sold) and, on the other hand, television based info products that were simply not a competitor for the PC, even then. I think we have learned this lesson many times since then. I hope so.

  3. Clark says

    23 October 2011 at 7:31 AM

    Rob, I agree that you can customize your laptop (well, if it’s yours, if it’s the org’s, sometimes IT has a problem with that :). But then you still have that ‘arms distance’ relationship. And you’re not that representative, having a much deeper understanding of the underlying software and a job that requires a more custom workspace.

    Andrew, I think no one at the time really anticipated the WWW. We were using the internet for Usenet and WAIS, but the transition to the WWW was a major inflection point.

    Just thinking that given the number of people accessing the web through mobile, for instance, is a game changer.

    Finally, someone on twitter thought that the kiosk was a stretch. Perhaps, but it’s an interface you might find available as you wander: you might jump in and use it with a touch screen interface, but you’ll puzzle over the design a bit, and you’ll move on. Maybe it was a stretch, but couldn’t think of what else might qualify in that space.

  4. Brian O'Malley says

    24 October 2011 at 9:35 AM

    Perhaps the kiosk idea isn’t too far off the mark. Waiting around in an airport recently, I was surprised at the number of iPads built into restaurant tables. Also hotel rooms, taxis – they’re popping up everywhere.

    We’re used to Gmail etc on a public kiosk, but what about a full operating system profile on the move? Both Mac OS Lion and forthcoming Windows 8 provide roaming ‘profiles in the cloud’. In this way public screens become personalized devices. Intimacy and Immediacy again?

    I agree on the marked difference in intimacy of tablet devices too – the touch input method, the way you hold it (as opposed to sitting down at a laptop), fully personalised apps, notifications etc. After 6 months it feels far more personal than any laptop I’ve used.

Trackbacks

  1. Internet Time Alliance | You know you’re mobile when… says:
    31 July 2012 at 8:53 AM

    […] you, but increasingly I think it’ll be tablet or just a pocketable device (and see my earlier distinctions around those, particularly that laptops don’t typically count).  When you’re at your desk, […]

  2. Sandra f. Sawaya | Mobile Device: Intimacy and Immediacy says:
    21 October 2013 at 1:50 PM

    […] Quinn, C. (2011). Intimacy & immediacy. Learnlets. Retrieved from: http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=2253 […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Clark Quinn

The Company

Search

Feedblitz (email) signup

Never miss a post
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Pages

  • About Learnlets and Quinnovation

The Serious eLearning Manifesto

Manifesto badge

Categories

  • design
  • games
  • meta-learning
  • mindmap
  • mobile
  • social
  • strategy
  • technology
  • Uncategorized
  • virtual worlds

Blogroll

  • Charles Jennings
  • Christy Tucker
  • Connie Malamed
  • Dave's Whiteboard
  • Donald Clark's Plan B
  • Donald Taylor
  • Harold Jarche
  • Julie Dirksen
  • Kevin Thorn
  • Mark Britz
  • Mirjam Neelen & Paul Kirschner
  • Stephen Downes' Half an Hour

License

Previous Posts

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006

Amazon Affiliate

Required to announce that, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Mostly book links. Full disclosure.