Thoughts from a Black Zone

COMFORT OFTEN ARISES when you change locations so we trundled north from Cashel to enjoy a family occasion where mobile telephone coverage was no-bars strength. That meant I could neither make nor take voice calls but a trickle of Jaiku text messages occasionally made their way onto my phone. While with family friends, I realised that none of the 38 people sitting around me was part of my electronic social networks. Not a single cousin, aunt or uncle was "family" on Flickr. But all of them had received Christmas cards and birth announcements. They really appreciated the traditional hand-written touch and even after seeing images stored on my phone that also appear online, they would rather hold the photos in their wn hands. I imagine their reaction explains the booming photo-processing business in Irish chemists today.

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