Tuesday, September 11, 2018

1.4 Two Takeaways from Douglas Rushkoff

In Douglas Rushkoff's chapter titled, "Time, Do Not Always Be On" he discusses technologies inherent quality of being disconnected from time. He describes how the relationship between timelessness and the internet started in a way that was potentially healthy for users. For example, the internet only being used for an hour or two at night / interactions were thoughtful and in frequent. However, with advances in technology and increasing accessibility to the internet, it remains constantly on which beckons to people to want to stay constantly connected. Humans have become incredibly reliant on something that does not exist in time, which poses serious threats to our cognitive functioning, social relationships and perspective of live experiences. He mentions how people have PTSD symptoms with phantom phone vibrations, how our interactions online have become short almost barks at each other and that we value what is "recent" over what is "relevant." He asks the reader not to give up on technology, but to recognize it's timelessness. He suggests that instead of recognizing technology as a "necessary compromise, we exploit the same learning to become more human."


In the second chapter titled, "Live, In Person" Rushkoff points out technologies bias towards distance. While at times, technology can create intimate connections between massive amount of people, it almost always favor creating distance. He gives an example of Gina, the girl who is "everywhere" yet never creating connections with people or settings around her, thus actually being quite distant. He mentions the simple fact that technology allows people to connect from far away, creating connection only over distance. He concludes with a similar point with chapter one. A point that tells readers they can only become aware of this tendency towards dislocation, thus empowering them to choose when they want "local interaction" and when they might need dislocated relationships.

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14.3 Digital Steward Presentation