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Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

newsweek.com

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Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#11

Post by roc »

My take is that there were a lot of tasks that were clearly delineated in the past: watching TV, reading news, paying bills, balancing the checkbook, playing games, catching up with friends -- no-one could see you doing one and confuse it for something else.

Now, we do all these things through a couple devices. I don't buy the idea that we're really doing that much different. It's just really hard to tell tasks apart; all we see is "guy staring at screen".

But that guy staring at that screen? He could be checking a Twitter stream, or he could be reading a letter from his mother. He could be watching porn, or he could be studying for an exam. He could be playing Peggle, or he could be looking at photos of his new niece.

The only thing I know for sure, is that it's wildly presumptuous to think I actually know what he's doing, just because it involves a screen.

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#13

Post by protomyth »

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation"

100 years ago, people had less truly leisure time. Books were not as common and news didn't travel fast. I got to see photos of the plane going down in the Hudson minutes after it happened thanks to twitter and an iPhone. We are still adjusting to the new world and it will be some time before the filters get internalized. It isn't the gadgets its biology.

Now the quote. I find it disappointing for two different reasons. The first is simply that I felt we had elected a technology clued in President. It seems that was either a lie or he is being disingenuous in his speech. I really have a tough time believing he doesn't know how to work and iPod.

The second problem is that I hate how he claimed ignorance to make himself look better than the people he was admonishing. There were so many ways to give that speech that would have not put down geeks. "I don't play with those things so I am cool" cliche of his speech writer is a little heavy.

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#15

Post by moultano »

rbarr wrote: post #3

Is it possible we are just temporarily distracted by all the amazing advancements that have developed in a very short period of time? New technology is very fun and exciting for most people. There may come a time when this always-on, constantly updated tendency has lost a bit of its luster and we will get down to business with tools that are multitudes more powerful than those our parents had.

That's a great point. We haven't been exposed to information overload long enough to develop wisdom about it and be inoculated against it.

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#16

Post by commieneko »

philwelch wrote: post #9
d3vvnull wrote: post #2

Or it could be that he just does not see how these new devices, which are today geared only to entertainment, could some day be used to further empower us. Perhaps, in the future we might see the iPad or other devices like it, be used in schools for delivering instructional, interactive content. They might serve as rich clipboards for carrying and streaming medical information in a hospital or other medical centers.…

Yes, and maybe television will be used to bring education and culture to the masses.

Television (and movies, and telephones, and newspapers) _have_ brought education and culture to the masses. Really. Go back in time a couple of hundred years and talk to some regular folks. Salt 'o the Earth, industrious (maybe), and worldly even, but _not_ educated or culturally sensitive in great numbers. It's important to remember that the teeming masses didn't use all that time they spent not watching television reading Shakespeare and Newton...

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#18

Post by philwelch »

commieneko wrote: post #16
philwelch wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and maybe television will be used to bring education and culture to the masses.

Television (and movies, and telephones, and newspapers) _have_ brought education and culture to the masses. Really. Go back in time a couple of hundred years and talk to some regular folks. Salt 'o the Earth, industrious (maybe), and worldly even, but _not_ educated or culturally sensitive in great numbers. It's important to remember that the teeming masses didn't use all that time they spent not watching television…

Nor have they spent all the time they do watch television watching Shakespeare or learning physics.

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#19

Post by nealb »

I read this as 'don't hate the playa hate the game' If somebody wants to use their iPad to play Farmville, great for them. They can and still will find something just as pointless or stupid to do without the iPad or without Facebook. Just because it lets you do some pointless crap doesn't make it a bad tool, and it certainly doesn't mean that everyone who uses the tool is using it for that pointless crap.

Re: Daniel Lyons: Obama right, devices like the iPad are rotting our brains

#20

Post by ytNumbers »

roc wrote: post #11

My take is that there were a lot of tasks that were clearly delineated in the past: watching TV, reading news, paying bills, balancing the checkbook, playing games, catching up with friends -- no-one could see you doing one and confuse it for something else. Now, we do all these things through a couple devices. I don't buy the idea that we're really doing that much different. It's just really hard to tell tasks apart…

Recent technologies have allowed us to do almost everything using a screen. Unfortunately, all that extra screen time often takes a heavy toll in ways people are loathe to admit.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10446874-71.html http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/newsstory.aspx?docid=636475

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