Technology's Place

There's an op-ed in today's New York Times about the place of electronic communication in society:

Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor, takes on the contention that electronic communication is making us dumb.  This is a popular assertion: talking on your cell phone while driving makes you a bad driver; constantly texting makes you a bad conversationalist, and the more general social criticisms that Powerpoint and Twitter cheapen discourse.

To be sure, these contentions carry some weight; when I see bad drivers (which happens all the time in San Francisco), they're usually on their cell phones.  On the other hand, the only authoritative study on the subject indicates that it isn't the cell phone as much as the conversation that's distracting; drivers have as much trouble concentrating when there's someone in the car with them.

That leads us to the real issue, according to Pinker: the issue isn't the technology, it's what you do with it.  This is similar to an argument that I've been making for years: technology is a tool.  When used properly, a tool is an incredible help (ever try driving a nail without a hammer?).  But when used improperly, a tool does more harm than good.  (There's an old expression: to a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.)

Pinker points out that scientists rely heavily on powerpoint, and scientific progress is jumping by leaps and bounds.  And in a world where the pace is constantly increasing but the hours in the day remain the same, we need to find more efficient ways to keep up, or risk falling out of touch altogether.

I think what Pinker means is that it's an issue of causality.  Twitter doesn't cause people to be stupid; their innate stupidity does that on its own.  In the hands of a smart person, Twitter can be an incredibly powerful tool.  To whit: the recent attempted Iranian revolution which relied so heavily on Twitter.  (Turns out, for now at least, the sword is in fact mightier than the pen, but the final chapter of that book has not yet been written.)

Incidentally, I don't use Twitter, because I don't have any special need for it.  (The Iranians would probably rather I didn't help with their revolution.)  But I use a steady combination of cellular telephony, email, texts, instant messaging, and Facebook updates.  If you take a peak at my Contact Page, you'll notice I'm also using less common forms of electronic communication like sharing my calendar online.  I use Web 2.0 mashups to gather news, updates from friends, and even weather reports onto a single web page (which I can access anywhere).  My world is a vast soup of information, on which I dine heartily.

Does this make me stupid, or unable to hold a conversation or concentrate on a single task?  On the contrary; I use my tools to funnel and control my information, clearing it out of the way when necessary so I can excel at other things.  Like the practice of law, for instance.

To be sure, I've seen plenty of supposed intellectuals get seduced by their Crackberries, much like a sailor to a mythological siren.  Ultimately, it all comes down to how you use the tools.

J<