"How can we ensure that our development as moral and social animals keeps pace with our rapidly evolving communication technology?"
As I was reading The Influencing Machine I came across this quote that I found to be very true.
We need time for efficient data collection and time for inefficient contemplation. But we don't have the much time. And it's changing us. - Nick Carr
If we focus on one type of communication more than the other, obviously it is going to be stronger. Something scary I learned about in this book is where it talks about shifting our cognitive styles from deep attention to hyper attention. The reason this is scary to me is because I already see how this has affected my life. I get bored EXTREMELY easy and always have to be doing something to entertain myself. My husband get's frustrated with me because I am always on my phone. Even if I am not necessarily doing something on my phone, I am always looking and playing around on it.
Gladstone takes a nice stab at apple when she said
Any company that offers cool devices -- but bans applications that might offend some users --stands in the way of evolution. Worrying about offending people drags us back to the lowest common denominator.
I don't know if I fully agree with this statement. I do agree that worrying about offending people will pull us back from our full potential. However, some apps do deserve to be removed. I came across a news report that covers some of the apps that apple has banned. I completely agree with apple's choice in removing the Baby Shaker! That is a serious problem that we have going on in today's world, for people to feel as if it is okay to shake a baby is horrible. It goes farther then offending people, it is putting wrong images and emotions in people's brains that could have serious effects on them.
Something I found to be very interesting about this book is that it goes against what the majority of what the media is saying. We constantly hear about the negative effects of the internet and how the internet is "dumbing" us down. However, that prediction is not necessarily true. According to Gladstones research, surveys, and predictions, we are evolving to be more adapted to high data stimulation.
Gladstone talks about the "larger and richer webs of interdependence." At first I didn't understand what this meant. I came across this website that helped me better understand. The conversion of non-zero-sum situations produce more positive sums than negative sums. Technology has given us new opportunities to profit from one others progress. New technology encourages new, richer forms of non-zero-sum interaction. Then after society realizes the rich potentional of adapting to this new technology (that convert non-zero-sum situations into positive sums) social structures evolve.
Back to the original question, it is hard to say exactly because it also
depends on the person. Too much of a good thing ends up being a bad
thing. For example, apples are good for us. But if we only ate apples
day after day we would get very sick. We need proteins, vegetables, and a
variety of other foods to survive. This same method applies with our need to keep our moral and social well-beings progressing in this technology rich world. Ultimately, it is finding a balance between the two worlds that works best for you.
