Broken? Consume, Create, Connect

Every once in a while this class reminds me to go back to the basics. One of the presentations last week pointed out that, for a person to be “digitally literate,” they should be able to

• Consume content,
• Create content, and
• Connect to other people.

I recently took this to heart and started reorganizing my aPod Touch's desktops with these themes in mind.

After being invited to the closed beta of Connect.me, a reputation-based social network, I found myself preoccupied with social media. I started my categorizing with "Connect."

After putting Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ next to each other, I swiped a few desktops over and came up short with my GMail app. What on earth is e-mail???

When I open an email client, I expect to perform all three of these activities. I consume emails produced by others, I create documents I expect others to read, and I expect many emails to have some sort of personal connection to myself. (Wow, email suddenly sounds so much like...omphaloskepsis.)

Once I was thinking about this, I started looking around...

• Amazon App Store: Vaguely consuming (reviews and prices); mostly purchasing. Where does commercial activity fall?
• Z-Device Test: I really like staring at the constellation of GPS satellites overhead, or playing with the frenetic readouts from the phone's internal accelerometer. Is the device producing content, or is the readout produced content? Most would just brush it aside as technical readouts. Is the Droid letting me consume the app, or is the app letting me consume the Droid?
• American Airlines: it's not consuming much more than a few logistical details, it's creating content at all, and it's not at all social.

Is this class mantra an overarching structure everything should be pidgeonholed into, or is it a narrow set of topics in an untold universe of perspectives and divisions? 

It just felt...broken. Too much of a box--but without boxes, we'd never move. Hmm.