“What’s on tonight?”
This common question no longer means anything.
Every TV show is on. All the time.
Our record collection streams every record ever recorded.
And our readers can find and display just about any book we can name.
We haven’t thought about the impacts of this abundance nearly as much as it deserves. Live matters less, scarcity is not really a factor, and ubiquity of access can easily lead to boredom, lack of status and a search for real-time connection.
Success used to be based on gatekeepers and access to access. What are the new rules?