A new type of human, thanks to the digital age? Well, not exactly.
I agree that cellphones have made a HUGE difference in the third
world. A Bangladeshi peasant can now check market prices for the
agricultural products he/she is raising, so he/she can no longer be
cheated by the middleman who buys the goods wholesale and resells
them in the city. In the Congo, peacekeepers are now paid via
cellphone; the credit is transmitted to their phones, and they go to
a cellphone provider's booth to collect the actual currency. In
Iran, social networking sites are used to organize protests against a
tyrannical regime. Things like this are stupendously marvelous, IMHO.
But a whole new type of human, which was what the program claimed?
I don't think so. Human evolution doesn't go that fast, and human
brains aren't that plastic. And there has been rapid connectivity
since at least the Victorian period, for middle-class persons in
developed countries. Remember those Sherlock Holmes movies and
stories where Holmes finishes the Marsh test and scribbles a note for
the errand boy, who runs to the telegraph office, where the message
flashes to another telegraph office and is instantly carried to its
destination? Email and phone texting are faster, but the difference
is one of degree, not of kind. And can you REALLY reach anybody, any
time--or even anybody in your immediate social circle, at any time?
You can leave a message for them almost any time, but you could have
done that before, by talking to the answering machine--or even the
receptionist. You could even have sent a letter or a postcard, which
has definite legal advantages--if you try certain kinds of hanky
panky through the U.S. mail, it's a Federal rap.
As for the other things on the program: you see mostly middle-class
people doing middle-class things. Children are doing their homework
on their laptops, while Daddy works on his laptop and the toddlers
amuse themselves with Mom's iPhone. In a rich suburban school, a
teacher manipulates pictures on a screen that covers half the wall.
In another school, every child has a laptop. In Korea, a child is
sent to camp for two weeks to try to cure him of his video-game
addiction, and children learn songs about proper behavior on the
Internet. All very nice, but all very local, developed, and middle-
class.
The majority of people on this planet don't have these advantages.
And in the current economic situation, a lot fewer people in this
country will have such advantages. The program depicted a middle-
class movement for high-income people in developed areas.
So claims for a new type of human are, at best, overstated.
P.S.: And if you want to continue to use GPS, you might drop a note
to your Congressperson about funding for NASA. GPS depends on a set
of aging satellites and, AFAIK, there are no replacements in the
pipeline.
And speaking of silly--the Frontline program on the Digital
Revolution (or whatever) on WETA last night. I agree that looking
things up on Google is a lot faster than looking them up in the
encyclopedia, and texting to your friends is a little faster than
talking on the phone, but will we have a whole new type of human
being, just because a lot of middle-class people have bought
wireless plans and carry smartphones? Because students cheat by
downloading a plot synopsis of "Romeo and Juliet" instead of
getting it from Cliff's Notes?
I have not watched it yet, but I wonder if you are missing the
major qualitative changes that even a small change in technology
can achieve. Cell phones give ubiquitous connectivity. The ability
to reach out to people at any time from any place changes how we
organize our daily lives. Add to this mix Apple's apps innovation
and you not have the same ubiquitous ability to reach data. Add to
this GPS and you can become aware of your environment in a way that
is wholly different. This is a big deal.
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