flâneur

Physical media: why we just want to feel something

cybercelibate.com · 1,471 words · saved by 1 readers

Imogen Heap's MiMu gloves, touch as a product feature in tech, and why tangibility is a luxury today

Late stage capitalism has made touch a product feature (screen protectors that feel like paper, keyboards that click like typewriters) — but could Imogen Heap’s haptic gloves make this a good thing? All we really want is to feel something — the reassurance of earphones being properly plugged in; the security of a seatbelt clicking into place; the crisp fizzle of a soda can being opened. But today, everything is digitized. Our lives feel weightless. We crave physicality as Big Tech full sends VR. We’ve lost any sense of stability. We forget that a website can actually weigh something. As…

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