the events of bø
Can Anything Take Down the Facebook Juggernaut? | Epicenter | Wired.com (via adactio)
the night has come, to hold us young.
Posts tagged “internet”
“ The Internet—meaning everything from email to file trading to voice-over-IP phone calls—was always technically larger than the web, but the web’s mass adoption managed somehow to overwhelm the vessel that contained it. The web became the main attraction; the packets and DNS lookups became the plumbing, essential but invisible. Facebook now threatens to perform that same jujitsu against the web itself. The difference, of course, is that no one owns the web—or in some strange way we all own it. But with Facebook we are ultimately just tenant farmers on the land; we make it more productive with our labor, but the ground belongs to someone else. ”
Our digital experiences are out of body. This biases us toward depersonalised behaviour in an environment where one’s identity can be a liability. But the more anonymously we engage with others, the less we experience the human repercussions of what we say and do. By resisting the temptation to engage from the apparent safety of anonymity, we remain accountable and present - and are much more likely to bring our humanity with us into the digital realm.
from Douglas Rushkoff’s ‘Program or be Programmed’ (pp. 84)
“ The internet, as its proponents rightly remind us, makes for variety and convenience; it does not force anything upon you. Only it turns out it doesn’t feel like that at all. We don’t feel as if we had freely chosen our online practices. We feel instead that they are habits we have helplessly picked up or that history has enforced, that we are not distributing our attention as we intend or even like to ”
Benjamin Kunkel (“The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr p.199) reflecting on the Net’s expanding hold on his waking hours.
Yes - that exact reference is mentioned somewhere in the last two or so chapters I read. I think it’s from a column of the NY Times. I’ve been looking for it so I can quote it…he had quite an interesting take on it. If I find it I’ll let you know :)
The thing I don’t understand is how quickly we’ve dismissed the once considered ‘original’ tool of personal insight and creativity (books) and considered it to be a barrier to imagination and a ‘waste’ of mental space.
“The Net quickly came to be seen as a replacement for, rather than a supplement to, personal memory. Today, people routinely talk about artificial memory as though it’s indistinguishable from biological memory.” (p.180)
Considered my thoughts captured. The Net is an amazingly useful medium. However, I don’t think we fully understand it yet. The consequences of any piece of intellectual technology always appear more abrupt throughout its early pioneers (us). This is bound to us.
I think we forget how new it is as well. There’s much to learn.
Final piece of quoting spam: “Culture is more than the aggregate of what Google describes as “the world’s information.” It’s more than what can be reduced to binary code and uploaded onto the Net. To remain vital, culture must be renewed in the minds of the members of every generation. Outsource memory, and culture withers.” (p.196)
Would love to pass this book onto you when I’m done, if you’re interested. I’m sure you’d appreciate it. Newtown soon as well.
“ We don’t constrain our mental powers when we store new long-term memories. We strengthen them. With each expansion of our memory comes an enlargement of our intelligence. The Web provides a convenient and compelling supplement to personal memory - but when we start using the Web as a substitute for personal memory, by bypassing the inner processes of consolidation, we risk emptying our minds of their riches. ”
Nicholas Carr (The Shallows, p.192) in response to the ongoing trend of avoiding the consumption of knowledge and subsequent memorization, as more use the Web as a go-to-guy guide for information retrieval.
“ Old tools are just plain fun. As virtual life weighs down on us, material objects paradoxically begin to seem light and playful. Vinyl records not only do sound better, they’re fascinating to handle and ponder. I take yo-yo breaks in my office. Dominoes and marbles have become a draw. Board games can be bliss. ”
William Powers (Hamlet’s BlackBerry, p.217)
“ In a multi-tasking world where pure focus is harder and harder to come by, paper’s seclusion from the Web is an emerging strength. There’s nothing like holding a sheaf of beautifully designed pages in your hands. The whole world slows down, and your mind with it. ”
William Powers (Hamlet’s BlackBerry, p.216)
Holiday reading. Cannot wait. Nearly finished Hamlet’s BlackBerry. Highly recommend it to anyone who lives in the digital age and wonders ‘why?’ from time to time. Am happy to lend.
“ The point of new reading technologies, it often seems, is to avoid deep immersion, precisely because it’s an activity the crowd can’t influence or control and thus a violation of the iron rule of digital existence: Never be alone. Deep, private reading and thought have begun to feel subversive. A decade ago, the digital space was heralded for the endless opportunities it offered for individual expression. The question now is how truly individual - as in bold, original, unique - you can be if you never step back from the crowd. ”
William Powers (Hamlet’s BlackBerry) p.135
The Angus and Robertson bookstore in town is closing down in 2 months because of the internet taking over booksales. Tis a sad end of an era. This bookstore was part of my childhood and I love how rundown the stairs are and how tired it feels.
This is indeed saddening. It’s the end of an era. I have no doubt that in 10 years I’ll be scrummaging through stores in Newtown, looking for ‘books’…just like vinyl.
(Source: iamkloo)
