President Obama Slams Video Games, Blogs, iPads

[Kuya]

I am probably going to buy this book:

Two years ago, Nicholas Carr, a technology writer, published an essay titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in the Atlantic Monthly magazine. Despite being saddled with a grabby but not very accurate headline (the defendant was the Internet itself, not just its most popular search engine), the piece proved to be one of those rare texts that condense and articulate a fog of seemingly idiosyncratic worries into an urgently discussed issue in contemporary life.

It turned out that a whole lot of people were just then realizing that, like Carr, they had lost their ability to fully concentrate on long, thoughtful written works. "I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do," Carr wrote. "I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle." At first assuming that his fractured mental state was the result of "middle-age mind rot," Carr eventually concluded that his heavy Internet usage was to blame. His article about this realization instantly rose to the top of the "most-read" list on the Atlantic's website and stayed there for months

.

While "The Shallows" does contain significant chunks of the Atlantic essay, this isn't one of those all-too-familiar annoyances, the book that should have remained an article. In the brief period between the writing of the original piece and the publication of "The Shallows," neuroscientists have performed and reviewed important studies on the effects of multitasking, hyperlinks, multimedia and other information-age innovations on human brain function, all of which add empirical heft to Carr's arguments.

The results are not cheering, and the two chapters in which Carr details them are, to my mind, the book's payload. This evidence -- that even the microseconds of decision-making attention demanded by hyperlinks saps cognitive power from the reading process, that multiple sensory inputs severely degrade memory retention, that overloading the limited capacity of our short-term memory hampers our ability to lay down long-term memories -- is enough to make you want to run right out and buy Internet-blocking software.

Above all, Carr points to the past 20-some years of neurological research indicating that the human brain is, in the words of one scientific pioneer, "massively plastic" -- that is, much like our muscles, it can be substantially changed and developed by what we do with it. In a study that is quickly becoming as popular a touchstone as the Milgram experiment, the brains of London cab drivers were discovered to be much larger in the posterior hippocampus (the part of the brain devoted to spatial representations of one's surroundings) than was the case with a control group. These masses of neurons are the physiological manifestation of "the Knowledge," the cabbies' legendary mastery of the city's geography. The drivers' anterior hippocampus, which manages certain memory tasks, is correspondingly smaller. There's only so much space inside a skull, after all.

References to the cabbie study don't often mention this evidence that cognitive development may be a zero-sum game. The more of your brain you allocate to browsing, skimming, surfing and the incessant, low-grade decision-making characteristic of using the Web, the more puny and flaccid become the sectors devoted to "deep" thought. Furthermore, as Carr recently explained in a talk at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, distractibility is part of our genetic inheritance, a survival trait in the wild: "It's hard for us to pay attention," he said. "It goes against the native orientation of our minds."

Concentrated, linear thought doesn't come naturally to us, and the Web, with its countless spinning, dancing, blinking, multicolored and goodie-filled margins, tempts us away from it. (E-mail, that constant influx of the social acknowledgment craved by our monkey brains, may pose an even more potent diversion.) "It's possible to think deeply while surfing the Net," Carr writes, "but that's not the type of thinking the technology encourages or rewards." Instead, it tends to transform us into "lab rats constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment."

[*Shinzon*]

I think it's a valid concern, in the iGeneration. Sure, information is at our fingertips, but to what extent ? How will it be used? How is it currently being used?

Don't get me wrong, I love technology and the technological advances that have occurred these recent years. But at the same time, I feel enslaved by it. I'm sure at the same time, instead of thinking for themselves, people pull out their phone and google something right there. It's become a source of dependence and entertainment, while not allowing us to think independently and creatively. It's like becoming drones.

This is not to say technology is bad; that iPad/iPhone/other Smartphones/video games are bad. I take it more like a cautionary tale, of what could be, or where the coming generations may be going if they don't realize the current trend.

Just my thoughts.

If you feel enslaved by your tech then you are. I'm not unplugged or anything and use plenty of technology, but I can live without having net/text or whatever on my phone ( I have a blackberry). Sure I use google to search, but I also know how to browse and effectively use other search engines to find what I'm looking for in say, a database or the library. I mean, I really just find statements like yours, not to attack you, just kind of confusing. The only thing I could not be able to live with is internet access and my car, that's bout it. Learn to do shit manually, get your hands dirty and you'll appreciate the real value of your tech.

[Weiing]

If you feel enslaved by your tech then you are. I'm not unplugged or anything and use plenty of technology, but I can live without having net/text or whatever on my phone ( I have a blackberry). Sure I use google to search, but I also know how to browse and effectively use other search engines to find what I'm looking for in say, a database or the library. I mean, I really just find statements like yours, not to attack you, just kind of confusing. The only thing I could not be able to live with is internet access and my car, that's bout it. Learn to do shit manually, get your hands dirty and you'll appreciate the real value of your tech.

No I completely understand. I feel enslaved even just a bit...and I don't even have a blackberry. I use the library and other databases to do research, not wiki. But I can't live without internet now, and I feel sort of imprisoned by my dependency on it. I don't tweet or care what people are up to 24/7... but I guess everyone has his or her own interpretation of what it means to be 'enslaved' and 'dependent'. Although it was my fault for not being clear how I felt it, but also, don't assume.

I just wanted to clarify. I didn't feel attacked really. Challenged maybe, but I hope I didn't come off as defensive.

Thing is-- people don't want to learn how to do things manually nowadays and take technology for granted. ;o

[Meresgi]

im sure 99.999% of people who google something is simply because they do not know the answer to it, right?

Without the above mentioned items said person would remain ignorant to the problem at hand, where as with said items they would at the very least develop a simple understanding based of information they can find online.

The only difference is saving someone the drive to a library to look it up.

If you of course mean something different ignore this, or explain further, either way i'll be willing to listen.

I feel no way entrapped by Technology, if anything thanks to the mass amount of information we have at our fingertips now i feel if naything freed by it, cause if theres anything i find myself baffled by i can either as you say, google it, or ask my peers on a Forum.

I'm likely misunderstanding you though

Spoiler: show

After reading the stickies!

^This

Information being readily available is great. Thing's like twitter, facebook and other stupid shit is not. Sure there are decent things to come from facebook.....maybe, but all they do is serve to dumb down people even more.

[Beckwin]

in a lot of contexts, information has become a commodity and we are increasingly taking part in physically-alienating forms of entertainment that distract a lot of people from pursuing things generally concerned to be more valuable/meaningful. Now of course, not all technology is bad and most things in moderation are fine, which I think is something Obama would agree with, but as others have noted, I think all of us can admit to succumbing to the distractions of modern technology, even just a bit.

Hell, anyone who played ffxi and quit should be able to see this point. inb4 internet tough guys (who also happen to be supernerds without much concern for things that aren't vidya or school [which is fine but don't pretend everyone else holds the same values]), but while I always did well in school while spending ridiculous amounts of time on vidya, and while I didn't become completely socially retarded during that same period, I will say that I've become more productive and well-rounded post that episode.

I mean, look at what we spend time doing with all this amazing technology: waving cocks around in faceless e-arguments. Some of us become more educated in the process or get motivated to do something irl, but for the most part it's all pretty meaningless.

[Lordender]

Just think of it as Obama trolling those of us who love their google, videogames, ipad.

But really, on a serious note.

Irresponsible people are the reason for bad education. You can be as good as you want at any fucking thing you set out to accomplish if you try hard enough. If you fuck up in school whether it's grade,middle,highschool or at the college level it's because your parents failed to teach you that an education is important.

[*Shinzon*]

No I completely understand. I feel enslaved even just a bit...and I don't even have a blackberry. I use the library and other databases to do research, not wiki. But I can't live without internet now, and I feel sort of imprisoned by my dependency on it. I don't tweet or care what people are up to 24/7... but I guess everyone has his or her own interpretation of what it means to be 'enslaved' and 'dependent'. Although it was my fault for not being clear how I felt it, but also, don't assume.

I just wanted to clarify. I didn't feel attacked really. Challenged maybe, but I hope I didn't come off as defensive.

Thing is-- people don't want to learn how to do things manually nowadays and take technology for granted. ;o

Well I understand what you're saying, but most people who feel overwhelmed by the tech they have, usually have too much for their own good. An example is people getting stuff that they just don't need. Or feeling obliged to use or buy tech they really have no use for. Case in point being like an ipad when the person owns a netbook, ya know? Like I said it's just kinda confusing when people say they feel enslaved or too dependent on technology. I've never once thought that to myself so I get shocked when I hear someone else say it.

[Cadsuane]

I just realized, I haven't read a real book in ages.

edit: oh and after I posted this I reflexively tabbed over to FoD and random images

[Demosthenes11]

people are actually twisting this trying to justify it?
the items he talks about are specifically for distractions and fun, not to "empower the users."

he is basically saying technology should be solely used for progression and not as entertainment

[Anoat]

I think the gist of what he was saying was "Turn off the Xbox and read a book once in a while." Or Kindle, if you want be ironic.

[Kerberoz]

Anyone who thinks "google is making people stupid" has severely overestimated their ancestors who treated their preachers with the exact same authority as the first hit in a search engine is treated nowadays. People, by and large, are stupid. Profit from it or cry about it.

[Beckwin]

yes, derp's advocate, that's exactly what he's saying. next obama will issue an executive order banning all technology that functions as entertainment.

or, he's trying to give some graduates advice about not getting totally distracted in the media-saturated, gadget-tethered world we live in and make sure to try and do something important.

nah, couldn't be.

edit: furthermore, this is a point that kind of proves itself, in the news-as-entertainment (and in this particular article, an entertainment news site) world that jumps all over a snippet of his speech and creates out-of-context headlines that'll show up with lots of hits on digg.

[Cadsuane]

And look at us, the internet counter-culture trading micro opinions amongst a slightly elevated plebescite to form and test their world views.

[Asai]

-- but the iPad? That seems to me to be more of a tool than anything else. My doctor uses an iPad to quickly reference medical information before he writes prescriptions.

Is the iPad the tool, or is the tool using it the tool?

[Kuya]

I find the opinions of angry children quite educational.

[Beckwin]

And look at us, the internet counter-culture trading micro opinions amongst a slightly elevated plebescite to form and test their world views.

pretty much, man

[Plow]

Didn't he have a campaign ad in a video game?

http://blog.epromos.com/obama-video-game-ads.jpg

http://www.textually.org/tv/archives...n-xbox-360.jpg

http://flipthemedia.com/wp-content/u...deogamead1.jpg

sup

all the ea sports games + burnout paradise, not sure if any others

[Jefe]

If you let it become an addiction, then you're fucked. Obama Hussein speaks the truth.

[Mythe_Seraph]

It's pretty obvious that he's just mad because he can't control how people educate themselves. Considering newspaper, libraries, and pretty much all printed media, and even the T.V. news are "dead." i.e. things that were easily controlled. Nowadays people get their information from the internet, and they educate THEMSELVES.

Edit: Power hungry bastard imo. Needs to be impeached.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

It's pretty obvious that he's just mad because he can't control how people educate themselves. Considering newspaper, libraries, and pretty much all printed media, and even the T.V. news are "dead." i.e. things that were easily controlled. Nowadays people get their information from the internet, and they educate THEMSELVES.

Edit: Power hungry bastard imo. Needs to be impeached.

lol 10/10 would read again