Ubiquity

The worst thing is seeing how people don't adapt to Ubiquity. They call it a youth culture, out here, when really they should realize it's just the culture and iceheads and stretchers haven't figured it out yet. They think they're still in their time, when the worst you had to worry about was being shamed and having someone tell your wife that you hit on a model. Because then, all you had to worry about was people finding you through the information you dropped, and having that end up with the model's friends networking into groupthink to tattle. So they think if they mind their Ps and Qs in public, they're fine. They think that nobody really cares about the small casual rudenesses or the refusing to donate money to a charity that they claim to support (charity reviewers are notoriously unreliable, see). They get the Ubiquity patch and the brief rundown on how it works to see where people are at or to see who you'd like to be friends with or to use it for project raising--a couple of bluesky examples like the dude who always tipped and complimented the coffeehouse servers, and so one of them decided to suggest that his next cup was free and exploded over the Ubiquity and now the dude can't pay for his own food or drink anywhere he goes. Can't tip, either--they figured he'd try that. The project's locked in and signed on, so it's not like it'll stop when people get bored, either, because then they'd get dropout minuses on Ubiquity and what if someday they have a project of their own?


Inspiration: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/014036.html, via boingboing
Story Potential: High!
Notes: People don't understand the sporadic outbursts of power in crowdsourcing and social networking, so what's the next thing that people who *do* get it aren't going to understand? Also, iceheads = cryogenic thawouts, stretcher = prolonged life. Got to go add this concept to the list of "in all futures, include some form of X" list. Near-future worldbuilding's got some things not to be forgot. Factor in whuffie.