Precious (Interstitial) Moments

I’ve been thinking a lot about about interstitial moments — moments that exist in between other moments. Not coincidentally, this thinking mostly occurs when I’m waiting for a traffic light.

In a comment on my Twitter: I Was Doing It Wrong entry, Matt Sanford (who I knew before he was at Summize, now Twitter) said something that prodded me into finishing my thought:

“I get no mobile updates but the iPhone + Twitter (Tweetie, specifically) makes it something I can do in the boring little moments where people used to smoke. You know, bus stops and waiting for a friend in the restroom.”

Mobile media has really changed how we use our interstitial moments. I mean, really, life is nothing but interstitial moments (“Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”), but I’m talking about the really dead time, when you’re just waiting for the next thing to happen.

This used to be the province of printed media — books, magazines, newspapers, if you were prepared. Advertisements and the backs of cereal boxes if you weren’t. But mobile media changed things. At first it was just conversations — people yammering on their cellphones to pass the time standing in line, or on the train. And while I find it annoying, I know it’s how lots of people use up their spare thought cycles and maintain relationships.

But the ability for mobiles to send and receive wireless data really changed the nature of interstitial time.

* For starters, interstitial moments got to be even smaller. Instead of having to be defined by the minimum length of a useful conversation, interstitial moments shrank to any discrete moment when you could do something. (See also: infosnacking.) A useful interstitial interval didn’t have to be an entire car ride — it could be just the time you were waiting at a red light.

* Media for interstitial moments got a lot easier to carry around, and more ubiquitous. You didn’t have to remember to carry a book around, you just had your cell phone with you.

* The variety of interstitial media got a whole lot broader. Instead of just printed text and photos, you could have multimedia, as well as interactions with real people — text messaging, IMs, and personal metadata like status and location.

* Interstitial media wasn’t just about consumption, but also creation. Some people microblog. Other people write novels on their mobiles.

Of course, there’s the question of how valuable the things you do during interstitial moments are. Media consumption during interstitial time (at least for me) has near-zero to do about quality, and everything to do about convenience.

For example, on my cell phone (I don’t have an iPhone), there’s an “On Demand” dashboard application that gives bite-sized news, sports, and weather summaries. As a full-fledged content offering, it’s not very good (little breadth, no depth), but it’s enough to keep me occupied (if there’s something interesting, I’ll go look for it later from a desktop).

Also, it helps to maintain boundaries with the times that aren’t interstitial, like things that demand your continuous, full attention (e.g. when you’re actually driving or walking down the street [*thud*]; when you’re supposed to be talking with another person.)

Anyway, I don’t have a useful conclusion to this, other than perhaps to offer that the minimum quality of media is inversely proportional to the maximum time needed to consume it. For ephemeral content, sometimes good enough is good enough.

I am interested in hearing about how you use your interstitial time, and if you’ve found any ways to tailor your content to be more friendly to those moments.