Breaking Point? We've run out of air!

According to this article on CNN, The US is rapidly running out of airwaves for mobile phones. Smartphone and tablets require more and more uninterrupted "airwaves" - the mobile spectrum is apparently a finite resource and we may run out by early next year. Apparently there are things they can do about it, but all will involve more cost to the phone companies, and therefore more cost to us. And the cost for data plans was already crazy!

In addition, it seems "Video and Mobile are Breaking the Internet." Our unending craving for video is increasing internet traffic like crazy, and the internet providers are having to think fast to figure out what to do about it. I'm sure the cost will go up there as well.

You can't just keep throwing bandwidth at this problem

So we are rapidly reaching a breaking point. Will it be self-regulating? What are the consequences? The American society, and to some degree, global society, have begun to hinge so much on mobile communications and "cloud-based" data. What happens when it's too expensive for the average Joe, especially with the world's economy all crazy-pants? We can't honestly believe we can just keep "consuming" more data without consequence, both as a culture and from a resources standpoint. Even digital data consumes real resources. Will it spark some amazing inventions and groundbreaking re-think? Or we will we all begin to cut out the video and heavy data use, choking Hollywood down to a manageable size and shifting us away from Facebook and back to the real faces surrounding us? Will our noses lift from the smartphone screens or will we fall on our faces clinging to our fun plastic gadgets?

Whatever happens, I think our society has made major shifts in priority, in the way we interact with each other, in the way we spend our resources. I have lots of guesses where it will all go but I'm not too thrilled about any of it. Everything has a cost, and even in the midst of a difficult recession, we still find a way to pay for our iphones, even as we claim mental health disability from lack of a job.