A familiar digital space: The Public Library
For this experiment I traveled to my local library, Enoch Pratt Free Library, located at 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Here they have a computer labs available for their members.
As an observer it was fascinating seeing so many people occupying this area in the early morning (10:00 am) and already inhabiting the space. What really caught my attention was the age range of the members. Ages range from 5 to the oldest probably being around 65 years of age. Most of the individuals occupied the computers. Some had smartphones others had MP3 players while they were engulfing into their preferred mediums. I carefully tried to analyze and study what in plain view what could potentially be a commodity.
A commodity is defined as the process by which goods that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of uniqueness or brand that end up becoming simple commodities in the eyes of the consumers. In the time that I was there the only items I’d consider commodities are the smartphones, pagers, tablets, headphones, and even the computers. The people there seem to view those items as a simple commodities and treasure the uniqueness and abilities those items provide for them.
