Driven to distraction ..

Fascinating piece in the SMH on Saturday (in the Spectrum), bottom line: We have access to more information than we have ever had, but little knowledge or wisdom as a result because the internet is changing how we think, read and act.

Panic-book

Here's a great piece about the hysteria around facebook and social-networking sites. [Mark Vernon, The Guardian].

 "So, as long as people seek to live, not merely log-on, the panic over social networking sites would seem to be just that, a panic."

Update: Here's a link to a BBC article on the risks of being online.

And another one, about politicians and Facebook. [also from the Guardian, UK]. I do wonder how many of our MP's are online...

"Most MPs don't seem to want connectivity with their electorate, avoiding useful channels such as Facebook, or even email."

On happiness in the e-world

So evidence that perhaps blogging does make us happier..

The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.  [Read more here]

 But, then again points made in the comments valuable too - is there, and does there need to be, a control group of non-bloggers. The comment I made with the piece yesterday holds true here too - blogging will imapct some negatively, and some positively, why do we need to extraplolate to the whole population and think about casuality. Even though its perhaps makes the article more fun.

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And in other news .. apparently its now 3 days to there is a line on the Horizon, and sadly, the U2 Conference has been postponed :-(

e-friendship..

I really enjoyed reading this article about social-networking sites and their impact on our health. I did find it hard to take the article too seriously given the tone it began with - "is an x as good as a kiss", its quite an assumption to say that trading messages doesn't equate a thriving social life". I have little doubt that there is capital in trading emails, and being a part of an online community. I do tend to agree that with the internet, we can communicate with more people, over greater distances, more often, but at the same time we get into trouble when we attribute
a universally positive or negative value to these conversations.

Weekend Reading...

:: Saving the world is off the curriculum... Audio: interview with Stanley Fish author of Save the World On Your Own Time)

:: An experiment on teaching taste ... (Interview)

:: One I don't need to be convinced of - the value of the male school teacher. For more about teachers and teaching, Lesson Plans (a new NYT's blog) is well worth a read.

:: A day without google...

:: Depression and men ..

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Links..

:: Here's one piece on Facebook, about the how the News Feed page and Twitter, is impacting how we relate (via NYT).

You could also regard the growing popularity of online awareness as a reaction to social isolation, the modern American disconnectedness that Robert Putnam explored in his book “Bowling Alone.”

:: I enjoyed this piece about Bono, and his activism. As for me, I am glad to see people like him out there speaking about what's going on, and the profile he has, brings light onto the cause.

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Random Shorts

:: An interesting article about living with autism (via the Washington Post)

:: On technology recommending movies (and music),via the WSJ This quote sums it up nicely for me:

And sometimes, even when technology can get it right, many of us will still opt for the old-fashioned way. After all, it's nice to listen to a computer recommending a movie we might like. But sometimes it's even nicer to listen to a person we know we like.

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Is…

:: the Internet, [Google] making us stupid? (aka Uncle Google and Aunt Wikki)
Here’s an article about how the internet is impacting the way we search for and read, (and I have noticed a few of these in myself recently).

They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski. The Atlantic Monthly

See this piece from NPR too.


:: the media making us feel bad?

Here’s a piece via the Wall St Journal, suggesting that the news is not all bad; not as bad as we are always told, sure the petrol prices could be a little lower but for the most part we’re okay.

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Wikipedia told me so...

Marshall Poe's 2006 mediation on the online encyclopedia:

The power of the community to decide, of course, asks us to reexamine what we mean when we say that something is "true." We tend to think of truth as something that resides in the world. The fact that two plus two equals four is written in the stars—we merely discovered it. But Wikipedia suggests a different theory of truth. Just think about the way we learn what words mean. Generally speaking, we do so by listening to other people (our parents, first). Since we want to communicate with them (after all, they feed us), we use the words in the same way they do. Wikipedia says judgments of truth and falsehood work the same way. The community decides that two plus two equals four the same way it decides what an apple is: by consensus. Yes, that means that if the community changes its mind and decides that two plus two equals five, then two plus two does equal five. The community isn't likely to do such an absurd or useless thing, but it has the ability.

[via The Daily Dish]

Sunday shorts...

:: I am quite intrigued by the 2020 summit being held this week, not by what will necessarily come out of it, but rather by the opportunity it presents to listen to each other, and hear ideas about the direction Australia should take.

:: We went and saw Billy Elliot yesterday. I thought that it was beautifully done, and it reminded me in some ways, of Brassed Off: another very real and human story from that period in Britain.

:: I caught this piece from my Google-Reader, the premise is simple - turn off the technology for one day a week, (as the article says - ironically its blogged on here). Might be worth giving a go~!

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Fiddling...

I was fiddling with Google reader recently (thanks mostly to my brother and sister) and I've been enjoying it too. So I updated my blog to have a little box with the shared items from my Google reader, and decided that a change of template was in order too. Anyway hope to at least share new bits and pieces in the feed from Google Reader, if not post a touch more frequently.

Random links..

:: Online campaigns …
Here’s one successful online campaign, maybe we can see more of these on (cough) more important (cough) issues, it will be interesting how activism will work online with the popularity of facebook.

:: Princess Myth…
Here’s an interesting article about the Disney princess myth.(via ALD). Today's Herald also had an interesting article the ‘Princess Myth’.

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Reconnecting...

An interesting article in The Australian's Review over the weekend, focused on the [re]gaining of social capital.

Matchett wrote, social networking sites have taken steps to reconnect us with each other. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook may open up more of the world to individuals, enabling to build a community from their own lounge. Sure, I do wonder about the depth of this community, but I know it runs very deep for some.

I wonder how community and political groups will use these sites, at the moment on Facebook you can join, create, and invite others to join a cause, but where does cyber-activism take us?

I mostly use MySpace to hear new music from bands I know (though sometimes I listen to new music by going to their 'friend's' pages). I use Facebook a little more, as with the plugins there lots of great "procrastinatory" things to do - join tipping competitions, music and film quizzes, and knowledge tests, and with all these you're always intrigued to see who you can 'reconnect' with and the links between your circle of friends.

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In Rainbows

I listened to In Rainbows for the first time over the weekend. On the first few listens All I Need // Weird Fishes – Arpeggi // Videotape (great closing track) // House of Cards // Jigsaw Falling Into Place, really stood out for me. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in it again.

It is distinctly Radiohead, and quite an amazing and intimate record; I’m not sure it is quite as good as either Kid A; OK Computer, but time will tell.

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While I do, in essence, like the way Radiohead chose to release this album, there was something missing when I listened it for the first time. I opened my computers media player and pressed play. (It was a shame that I couldn’t make Joe’s Listening Party, as it would have been nice to have listened to it with other people, and hear their impressions). Was interesting to read that a lot of the reviewers completed the review on their first listen.

I have to admit, I did miss the booklet, being able flick through the book, as the new music surrounded me, I don’t think it would have been the same if it had come with a PDF copy of a book. Yeah, maybe I am a bit old fashioned (weird) or both.

Glimpses from the paper

:: No decrease in abortions when illegal – study

Found this an interesting article. While I do not really agree with the practice of abortion, the reality is that people will chose to have an abortion (as this article states), whether it is legal or not.

The findings presented here indicate that unrestrictive abortion laws do not predict a high level of abortion, and by the same token highly restrictive abortion laws are not associated with low abortion incidence.

:: There's more to academic research than hitting the search button

I found this to be quite an interesting article about the impact of the internet on research.

:: Generation Q.

I thought that this was an interesting article outlining a little more about the current crop of college students in the US (and perhaps here too); though I’m not sure it needs to be limited to the students.

I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.

“Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.

America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

“Courage.” That is what real activism looks like. There is no substitute.

:: 9/11 President (Prime Minister)

While there is the focus on how the global community has change since Bali, or New York, what is often not spoken about, is who we are, and perhaps what should not change.

:: Keeping it all together in the iAge

Are we writing the obituary for the Album?

The album demands something very different of the listener than the iPod. It wants your time and patience. Great albums have ebb and flow, and even dud tracks. But they are made up, as rock writer Paul Williams put it, of songs that like to be listened to together. Something essential is lost when the album is broken up — and this is mostly what the iPod does.

NB: I have to admit that I often leave my mp3 player off shuffle, and listen to an album from track 1 through.

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On Facebook, My-space, and "i-Networking"

Today, our self-portraits are democratic and digital; they are crafted from pixels rather than paints. On social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, our modern self-portraits feature background music, carefully manipulated photographs, stream-of-consciousness musings, and lists of our hobbies and friends...
[from The New Atlantis /via ALD]

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A little bit more reading…

Stanley Fish, from the New York Times, writes an interesting article about the three recent books by Dawkins, Harris, and Htichens.

Facebook..

I recently joined – here’s an interesting piece (also from the NYT, but published in the SMH here) on Facebook. [Comments on the NYT article are here]

Australia's Cultural Diasporia

While in Canberra recently, we went to the National Portrait Gallery, which at the moment is housing Australia's Cultural Diasporia, an exhibition of photo’s by Nathalie Latham. The exhibition features photographs of people involved in the Arts, who have left Australia. I found it eye-opening that a large number of Australians who in essence leave Australia for opportunities, collegiality and perhaps recognition; but not many have have definite plans to return.

“Her portraits therefore have a double edge, being both celebratory pictures of courageous Australians going out there into the unknown, and melancholic pictures of loss, of the loss of another generation of young Australian artistic talent drawn to the lure of elsewhere.” Geoffrey Batchen

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Tribal Mind – Tribal Response

I guess I learnt something about the Internet recently; a few Sunday's ago, David Dale, talked about the nature and values of Australia from the National Anthem. I understand that most of the information he used came from the ABS. What I found interesting was the passion in the responses to his article; I found the extent to which David was personally attacked for his views quite amazing: He was un-Australian; he should leave.

For the above reason, I find the 'Your Say' responses, a very interesting (and perhaps frustrating) part of the paper to read. Not only because I often find myself as part of minority but mainly because of the verocity of the responses.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised because it is simply part of the median – it provides an opportunity for a quick, emotional response to a topic.

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After seven seasons The West Wing will end. The current season [7th] in the US is the last one. Being honest, I never really thought that it could continue into another presidency, because the staff would be changing, and they would have to build up the viewers loyalty to another President.

I have been recently watching the first few episodes of the Fifth Season, and had wondered how difficult it would be to keep the momentum of the show going while retaining the realism that made the show so great through a Second term. I like the idea of ending with all the original cast together, perhaps after Leo’s funeral reminiscing and playing poker. We'll see; but I for one will miss The West Wing.

21st Century Relationships / World: “Un42n8”

Among a few articles that grabbed me over the course of the weekend was a piece by Megan Gressor talked about mobile phones being the substitute for meaningful communication. In her articles not only did she mentioned people being fired via SMS, people asking others out, or dumping them, but also how she received news that a friend “Un428lY took [their life] 2Day”. Eek.

Communication in this day and age appears to have been reduced to almost short strings of characters. Will we see “The Collected SMS and E-mail’s of (insert famous writer here)?

In a sense I get it. The phone is liberating – it increased the distance between us, and rejection. The phone is changing in the manner of our interactions, the mobile also allows us to be late - we say: “Will B L8, CU Soon”.

To quote from the article: “So we retreat behind our electronic barricades, tuned in, but turned off and unable to react”.

This is modern emotion - filtered through the screen, passed on strings of alpha numeric symbols.

I turned the page; and I found another poignant piece, detailing how, even in spite of the prosperity we are supposed to be feeling we live in a climate of fear. McDonald quotes a study which details how children in the 90s report higher levels of anxiety than child psychiatric patients did in the 1950s.

Perhaps this is because the world feels more dangerous, perhaps because we feel more isolated, insignificant, or impotent to cause change. McDonald talks about how though technology promised to make us more connected, instead, we email and SMS - not talk; we (I) chat on the internet; people can watch “reality” TV to view how people relate. Interestingly today we have more one-person households than ever before.

Community has been replaced, and we live in a disengaging, individualistic society. Richard Eckersly was quoted in the article as saying that materialism appears to create less well being, not more; our culture asks that we measure ourselves against criteria which we say is the root of the issue – materialism.

Are these challenges peculiar to our age, or is this anxiety simply normal? Two very interesting articles appearing to reveal a few truths about the 21st Century