First, Second and Third Screens

I was reading this PDF about the "mobile device ecology" (in other words, how cell phones are being used in the real world for data services instead of just talking), and they used this metaphor of the "third screen" for any handheld mobile device capable of sending and receiving data.

I thought it was an odd place and time to use that metaphor. They went on to explain that the "first screen" was television, the "Second screen" was the computer, and thus mobile phones and the like are therefore the "Third Screen." Don't get me wrong, I understand the logic and sequence of it-- but the way it was introduced and used in this white paper seemed so forced and unnatural, it was practically jumping up and down, screaming "See how clever I am as an author? I just extended a previously existing metaphor!" And yet, the metaphor didn't add any extra insight above and beyond what could have been said by using "televisions," "computer monitors," and "cell phone screens."

So, why do I even mention it?

Well, that's the problem with metaphors-- they cause people to start thinking, and sometimes things will pop us LONG AFTER the metaphor has passed.

Before cell phones, before computer monitors, before televisions, when we were all children huddled around the camp fire at night, listening to spooky stories-- when we closed our eyes and could see the people and places in those narratives in our imagination, exactly what "screen" was that? I ask because it seems to me that "Screen 0" (or whatever you want to call it) is the one that you really want to engage and capture.

Artists and story-tellers do it all the time.