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Nov 7, 04:05 pm: Our time shifted world


Vote Here

Vote Here,
originally uploaded by bobulate.


Like an increasing number of Californians, I use an absentee ballot. I voted two weeks ago. The plethora of information that has come out, from the San Francisco Chronicle recommendations to the Sunday afternoon phone calls from Bill Clinton to the sea of ads on radio and TV, in the ensuing time, means nothing to me. Even though some of it might have. Some of it might have changed my mind.

And, you know what?, I use a DVR. I’ll talk about the most talked about TV show of the season a few days behind schedule. I even watch football games after they’ve happened.

The advantage of this time shifted world, of my control over the where and when of receiving different bits of media, is that I can do it at my own pace, in a way that fits into and makes sense of my world. But I become isolated from a common culture as a result of that. And I’m not alone in my isolation (you know what I mean). A whole bunch of us are voting and watching TV shows but we’re doing it at different times and with different bits of information and different contexts — from the personal to the group to the common.

What does all this mean to activists? To those who pedal influence, how do we make sure that our tactics work in the world that’s distributed across both space and time?

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Marnie Webb  | 

Comments made

  1. Matthew

    I don’t know what it means for activism, though it could make organizing a bit more challenging. But I do know that yesterday when my colleagues were talking about who they wanted to vote for and putting their ballot cheat sheets together I felt left out. Of course, I was proud that I voted, early and often (okay, not often). But I missed that commununal experience. And if my spelling is a bit off down here, it’s because I can’t see what I’m typing any longer because the scroll bar is not working.


    Nov 7, 05:13 pm

  2. uneasy rhetoric

    It only makes organizing more challenging because there are now two election days—a rolling one where absentees vote and a fixed one where polling-place voters vote.

    In a completely vote-by-mail system, campaigns simply switch from bombardment to GOTV a few weeks earlier. The communal experience shifts from a before-election-day experience to one where people start talking about their ballots a few weeks before.

    I lived in Oregon when it went vote-by-mail in 1996, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed that system. Campaigners adapted very quickly.


    Nov 7, 06:09 pm