There was a theory during Web 1.0, when possibilities seemed infinite, that in the near term the majority of workers would either telecommute or plop down in offices that had communal desks. Why would anyone need to be anchored when the Internet had connected us virtually and set us free? More people certainly telecommute today and many offices have far more democratic architecture, though anonymous desks still aren’t the norm.

But what if the thing that liberated us made us more anchored in other ways? What if being so connected means that our impetus to shift our material lives for new stimuli and opportunities has diminished? In an otherwise interesting Opinion article by Victoria and Todd G. Bucholz in the New York Times about the rising number of young Americans remaining moored in their home states–a trend that’s been increasing since before the recessesion–too little attention is paid to the role new media has played in reducing relocation in the U.S. I would assume a significant percent of that demographic change has to be assigned to technology: More money is spent on tablets, less on motorcycyles. At any rate, here’s an excerpt from the essay:

“The likelihood of 20-somethings moving to another state has dropped well over 40 percent since the 1980s, according to calculations based on Census Bureau data. The stuck-at-home mentality hits college-educated Americans as well as those without high school degrees. According to the Pew Research Center, the proportion of young adults living at home nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008, before the Great Recession hit. Even bicycle sales are lower now than they were in 2000. Today’s generation is literally going nowhere. This is the Occupy movement we should really be worried about.”