EST 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Mobile Phone, Scientific Management
14 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 10
Is google making us stupid?
●Internet chipping away at people’s ability to concentrate and contemplate
○Many report trouble reading traditional literature, books or long articles
○Recent studies indicate there is a shift in the way people read and think
(University College London)
Reading
●Reading might be more prolific for some with wider internet use today relative to
television of past years, but the manner of reading is different
○Not an inherent, but learned skill for humans
○Shift in reading style comparable to differences in”mental circuitry” between
alphabetic (Indo-European, Semitic) and ideogrammic languages (Far Eastern)
Intellectual Technologies
●Innovations that change the way we think (clocks changed how people organize and
internalize)
●New ways of thinking can produce new ideas
○Writing’s effect on memory (according to Socrates)
○Algorithmic working practices (Taylorism)
○Solving unprecedented problems (Google’s approach)
Corporate Censorship
●Corporations find themselves needing to agree to government regulation in order to
pursue profits, leaving them open to ethical gaffes (Apple’s voluntary censorship entering
the Chinese market)
●Net Neutrality demands that governments, internet providers and companies do not
restrict products or use of their programs based on political or social views
●Apple, T-Mobile,AT&T have been accused of political censorship. Others like Comcast
to extort certain consumers based on those consumers’ internet usage habits.
●Some advocate government regulation to enforce net neutrality
○“New technologies like the internet start off as revolutionary, but are eventually
co-opted by monopolists”---Tim Wu, Law Professor at NYU
Internet Freedom
●Some see net neutrality as a prerequisite for internet freedom
●Opponents of internet freedom say it violates the private rights of companies to make
their own judgements about what to allow on its programs, networks, and technologies
Document Summary
Internet chipping away at people"s ability to concentrate and contemplate. Many report trouble reading traditional literature, books or long articles. Recent studies indicate there is a shift in the way people read and think (university college london) Reading might be more prolific for some with wider internet use today relative to television of past years, but the manner of reading is different. Not an inherent, but learned skill for humans. Shift in reading style comparable to differences in mental circuitry between alphabetic (indo-european, semitic) and ideogrammic languages (far eastern) Innovations that change the way we think (clocks changed how people organize and internalize) New ways of thinking can produce new ideas. Writing"s effect on memory (according to socrates) Corporations find themselves needing to agree to government regulation in order to pursue profits, leaving them open to ethical gaffes (apple"s voluntary censorship entering the chinese market)
