By Joe VanderMeulen

The other day, one of my colleagues got a little misty-eyed as she talked about taking her daughter to a college someplace downstate. There'll be changes in her home as everyone adjusts to the absence, and in Traverse City, as another well-regarded track star leaves her high school team for new challenges.

As an 18 year old, this precious young woman will be on her own to navigate the dangerous and beautiful world, choosing her own directions. If we are all lucky, she will also choose to vote for the first time in a national election this fall. Of course, she won't be far from mom and dad's counsel. They'll talk on the cell phone, e-mail messages, and exchange pictures and videos over the Internet.

My colleague's daughter has grown up in the age of the Internet; a world in which data has always been digital and people have always shared information over cell phones and on the web. She probably can't recall a time when her friends didn't have personal music players and personal computers. Thinking of this networked generation, I can't help wondering if they will value the natural beauty of the Grand Traverse Region and the communities I've grown to love.

In recent years, those of us concerned about the fate of our communities have witnessed a huge change in the way people interact and communicate. According to the studies compiled and completed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/), technology is changing the way we communicate with each other and they way we define our communities - completely and dramatically. The effects are no less substantial than those brought on by the invention of the printing press.

Today, the vast majority of people - particularly young people - use digital devices to carry on communications everywhere they go. Over 73% of adults and 67% of teenagers in the U.S. own cell phones. At least 35% of cell phone owners use them to send and receive text messages. Cell phones are also used to access the Internet, take pictures, play games, exchange stock tips, and more.

Indeed, nearly half of us also carry our media (music, pictures, video) and entertainment with us wherever we go. Over half of the adult population and about 43% of teens own digital cameras. Nearly half of all adults own video cameras. About 45% of all teenagers own MP3 players (digital music players) and about a third of all teens own laptop computers. Of course, there are lots more mobile digital devices for fun and communications, from portable DVD players, to hand held computers (e.g., personal digital assistants - PDAs), to the Blackberry-style phone and internet devices.

Photo by Paul Worthington

The abundance of communications and media devices available to all of us has grown dramatically in only a few years. According to the Consumer Electronics Association of America, the average home now has 26 different electronic devices for communications and entertainment (www.ebrain.org/crs/crs_arch.asp?crscode=CRS269). One result is that we are thoroughly engaged with our personal media. According to a study completed by researchers at Ball State University, "The average American spends more time using media devices - television, radio, iPods and cell phones - than any other activity while awake" (www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,1370,7273-850-36658,00.html). For the people observed by the study, about 30% of their waking days were spent using electronic media as the sole activity.

Another key trend pointed out by the Pew Internet Project is the dramatic change in our information sharing and content creation habits. Information is no longer mediated by experts and gatekeepers. On-line search tools sifting through massive quantities of digital data are democratizing information. At the same time, people of all ages and young people, in particular, are generating content for everyone to access. Amateur experts are writing their own encyclopedias (e.g., http://www.wikipedia.org/). Web logs or blogs (e.g., http://www.blogger.com/) have become a key source of news and information for many Internet users. All sorts of social connections are being fostered and mediated by web sites that call themselves communities.

Apparently, people are being absorbed by their media devices and tools of communication. Our attention is increasingly drawn to screens, speakers, and ear-buds. We are communicating and being entertained without regard to physical location - almost constantly. Multi-tasking our days and nights away, we live in a state of constant distraction.

So what do these trends have to do with our communities in the Grand Traverse Region? What difference does any of this make to land use planning or the preservation of cultural and natural resources? A whole lot, I suspect.

Perhaps it means we care less about the physical spaces we inhabit. How can I notice the colors of a sunset over the bay, the smells of coffee and baked bread in town, or church bells ringing on a Sunday morning, if I'm talking on the phone or playing music everywhere I go? How could a planning meeting on a Wednesday night at the town hall hold any interest or meaning for me, when I'm connected to hundreds of friends all the time and entertained wherever I go?

Maybe there's another side to this story. Perhaps the Internet generation will expect more from the communities of the Grand Traverse Region. Given massive connectivity and real-time data sharing, young people may expect local governments to continuously track changes in land use, traffic congestion, and environmental conditions and communicate them with everyone instantly.

The Internet generation may well expect public officials to be more inclusive, transparent, proactive, and thorough in their deliberations about land use changes - not just posting meeting minutes afterwards, but inviting citizens to participate on-line as issues are discussed. Maybe they will apply their new media expertise to better understanding and communicating the long term impacts of land use decisions, encouraging us all to preserve our cultural heritage and natural resources. Perhaps these young people will even find a way to make those city and township meetings a little more engaging and a little more fun.

Joe VanderMeulen is executive director of the Land Information Access Association