the conversation of humanity

Two days ago, noticed there were a couple of stories about what the internet is DOING TO us: an article in N.Y. Times & a book review (a WHOLE BOOK on the topic)!

And it occurred to me, and posted, here, that some of the people criticizing the internet are saying the same things people used to say about television.

And then today, I got to that book review -- and it carried same idea I had, & took it further - !
"Our Cluttered Minds" is the title of Jonah Lehrer's review of The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.

The reviewer writes,
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Socrates started what may have been the first technology scare. In the "Phaedrus," he lamented the invention of books, which "create forgetfulness" in the soul. Instead of remembering for themselves, Socrates warned, new readers were blindly trusting in "external written characters." The library was ruining the mind.

Needless to say, the printing press only made things worse. In the 17th century, Robert Burton complained, in "The Anatomy of Melancholy," of the "vast chaos and confusion of books" that make the eyes and fingers ache. By 1890, the problem was the speed of transmission: one eminent physician blamed "the pelting of telegrams" for triggering an outbreak of mental illness.

And then came radio and television, which poisoned the mind with passive pleasure. Children, it was said, had stopped reading books. Socrates would be pleased.
[end quote]
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Love that punchline: "Socrates would be pleased."

Above, we're dealing with "input" to ourselves -- information we RECEIVE -- from TV, internet, whatever. What about "output"? Do we say things a little differently depending upon whether we're handwriting them on a piece of paper with a pen, or typing them? I do. Can't specify, but I know it's different.

At end of Lehrer's book review (above) he writes:
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In 1916, T.S. Eliot wrote to a friend about his recent experiments with composing poetry on the typewriter. The machine "makes for lucidity," he said, "but I am not sure that it encourages subtlety."
[end quote]
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Perhaps there is always a question to struggle with -- "When we work with the new technology, is it going to make things better? Or worse?"

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