Breaking News

This week The Economist offers a typically thoughtful essay on what wireless technology, like Wi-Fi and cell phones, has done for us. Not from a computing standpoint, mind you, but from a social one. Has wireless tech turned us into a nation of neo-nomads, wanderers who work and play wherever they happen to find a signal? It certainly looks that way...

The Starbucks of the world are regularly crowded with MacBook-toting hipsters who use the cafes as their unofficial offices, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the need for even a laptop and a coffee shop is on the decline, as users turn to the ever-increasing capabilities of smart phones like the BlackBerry and the iPhone to get their work done from just about anywhere.

But getting your work done from anywhere is old news: Now scientists in multiple fields are looking at how these technologies are changing family dynamics (they may actually bring relatives closer), relationships (the jury's out), and even architecture (as buildings now have to be designed with wireless signals in mind).

There's virtually no aspect of society that isn't feeling some impact from mobile tech: Even linguists are LOLing about what it's done to their field. And this one about knocked me off the couch: In Japan, five of the ten bestselling novels in 2007 were written on cell phones.

It's a long read, but an interesting one that will make you reconsider what you think you know about wireless technology.

How has mobile tech impacted your life? Sound off in the comments.