Burning Man: Tune In, Turn On, Text?

It appears the act of dropping out is truly getting hard indeed, following news that post-apocalyptic, counterculture mainstay Burning Man will be connected to the outside world during this year’s festival with cellphone service. While some posit that the emergence of service is merely a result of increased coverage being provided to the nearby town of Gerlach, NV (Pop. 499), the fact remains that an event defined by its manifestations of authenticity, progressivism and escapism, has just gotten a little more, well, conventional.

The SFist imagines the impact from a constant stream of desert tweets and Facebook updates to be the final straw for an event that has struggled mightily to shrug off the mainstream. Still, if the impending load on social media servers is significant enough, perhaps the attendees will succeed in bringing the system down from the inside in an ironic act of shared idealism. Radical, indeed.

[via SFist]

[image via Smoobs on Flickr]