blogmarch

As I’ve been writing my final paper, I’ve been thinking about how much easier it is to do this in 2008 than it was 20 years ago.   After writing everything in blog form this semester, I’ve been frustrated writing in Word.  I want to add links and photos for explanation, clarification and expansion (I know I can do this in Word, but it isn’t as instantaneous or as cool).  20 years ago I would have killed for Word.  Or a computer.  Or the ability to edit as I write.  You “digital natives” might not know that all of us old people used to have to write everything out by hand.  Take notes, make an outline, write the paper, work on rewrites, and then type it.  On a typewriter, electric if you were lucky. Often you had to retype whole pages after realizing that an  entire sentence was all wrong, and a whole sentence was too much to white out.  Suffice it to say that it sucked.

So if anyone is in a position to appreciate the new technology, it’s me.  And appreciate it I do.  Love it, even.   But I don’t love easily.  Anything I love, anything I take seriously, I question.  I wonder what it means, if the good outweighs the bad, if it is going to make life better or worse, if it is going to irreparably change the way I think and feel.

I recently read an article about dreams.  It said that people under 25 dream in color, while many people in the 55 and over crowd dream in black and white.  It all depends on the kind of television you watched as a child.  In its early days, the merits of television were as hotly debated as is the technology of today.   If that particular technology had and has the power to color our dreams, then what will the ubiquitous technology of today do to our psyches?  My point throughout all of this has been that if something is going to have that big of an impact, well then, it had better be excellent.  Technology in and of itself is value free.  It’s a tool, that’s all.  It’s the human element, what we do with technology that I have questioned and will continue to question.

Jaron Lanier is a computer guy who writes for Edge and Discover Magazine.  One of his areas of expertise, and yes, I would call him an expert, is Artificial Intelligence.  Lanier wrote a few pieces for Edge a few years ago questioning the rise and trust in Wikipedia and what he refers to as the online collective.  He believes that there is a parallel between promoters of A.I and promoters of online collectivism, with a corresponding belief that the collective dulls the creativity and humanness of individual voices.  Just as  the A.I. people are “willing to bend over backwards and make themselves stupid in order to make an AI interface appear smart (as happens when someone can interact with the notorious Microsoft paper clip),”  Lanier feels that the internet culture is willing to accept online dullness and mediocrity in the name of democracy.

This has been the crux of my concern–accepting without questioning.  It is easy to see all of the benefits of the online collective–connectivity, conversation, linking, expansion of ideas.  I just wonder why there isn’t more wondering. About the things that might not be so good–like dullness, and mediocrity and inane entries that we are supposed to take as seriously as excellent intelligence or wickedly funny wit.  About the fact that originality is sometimes harder to find now in the midst of the cacaphony.  About the fact that lots of stuff that is on the internet is there for somebody to make money, even if it is presented in the package of a free exchange of ideas.

This class has been a good place for me to do my questioning.  I tried a lot of the tools that have been on my list–Facebook, Flickr, Ning, Twitter (I still don’t get the love of Twitter, by the way).  In the trying, I got to answer some of my questions (Is Facebook dumb?  Yes, but in the best possible and most fun way.)  I also got to dispell some of my own wrong ideas.  (Does Facebook turn people evil?  Not really, only if the person posting is already evil.)  And I have new questions.  What does having access to all the people from your present and past do to the idea of personal memory?  With universal access to long tail items, how do people in their teens and twenties make themselves feel hip and cool and different from everyone else?  And most importantly for this class, where do I and my MLIS degree fit into this chaotic sea of information?  I don’t have answers to any of these questions.  But as for the latter, I will always question information.  I will always wonder how something I read or hear or see fits into the bigger picture.  I will wonder if it is worthy of my precious time and even more precious affection.  I will always look for the smartest or the funniest or the most clever.  Hopefully doing all of this will help me to order the chaos and to make a career out of helping others to do the same.