I continue on a search for answers to these kinds of questions: (1) How are we being changed by new technologies? (2) What should we be doing about it?
While listening to the radio, I again came across an author, Lee Siegel, who has been addressing these sorts of questions. The interview I heard was about Siegel's most recent book--Are You Serious? How to be True and Real in the Age of Silly. (Looks fascinating and I have it on hold at the library). But in my research I came across another title by Siegel that grabbed my attention: Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. I immediately ordered it from the library and, having finished it, am pleased to report that it is very good.
The book was written in 2008 before Facebook was so dominant, but Siegel's analysis still applies. Among his targets are anonymous bloggers who, with impunity, slander, intimidate, and ultimately silence people who actually know what they're talking about. The "democracy" of the Internet is a sort of thuggish mob rule. YouTube, he thinks, diplays the opposite of originality. To succeed you must be "more like everyone else than everyone else." On the Internet, the search for mere popularity has replaced fame. To be famous, you need skills or accomplishments that set you apart from the rest of humanity. To be popular, you need merely attend to other people wants and deliver them. The Internet, he says, is geared for "pre-adults," people who regress to ways they once behaved in high school when the most important thing for many or most students was not excellence, orignality, or integrity--but to be "liked."
While Siegel sometimes overstates his case, in general I believe he is on target and I highly recommend the book.
