At the risk of pissing off a lot of friends, I have become steadily more concerned about Facebook to the point where I am beginning to feel that coupled with instant messaging and certain aspects of the world wide web, Facebook is precipitating the end of civilization, not just as we know it – but period. That is extreme, I know. But, I can't shake the feeling.
Over Thanksgiving at a family affair, I watched a group of teens navigate their reality. They weren't just avidly using their portable devices – ranging from modest cell phones to large screen laptops. Rather, they were inseparable from those devices. They were constantly at them. And they didn't even have Ipads! Okay, big deal, you might say. But yes, I think it is.
The young people, and some of the elders as well, couldn't even watch TV and focus on it much less seriously converse about anything at all. They had to, instead, at the same time as watching TV, send and receive instant messages while periodically, almost convulsively, visiting and revisiting their Facebook pages.
Een ouer het gesê dit was vroeër dat hulle gevoel het dat TV antisosiaal is in vergelyking met om aan ete te sit en lank te praat. Nou het hulle gewens dat die groep selfs net TV as 'n groep kon kyk, sonder om self vasgevang te wees om absoluut individualistiese persoonlike ruimtes te skep wat deur toegang tot hul mobiele toestelle gedefinieer word.
Inderdaad, ek het uiteindelik verstaan hoekom verskeie netwerk-TV-programme nou hul webwerwe adverteer en kykers vertel om dit te besoek terwyl die program nog aan is, en dus oënskynlik met hulself meeding. Is hulle moer? Natuurlik nie.
The answer is, they do it because contemporary kids multitask like that, whether they are invited to or not. The kids, and many adults too, can't not be doing a bunch of things – not so much literally at once, which is real multitasking – as one after another after another, back and forth, which is what I have come to call flitting. In this case this yields a little attention on TV and some on messages and Facebook and some on frequent forays to web sites – but no attention for everyone else in the vicinity, even, and no sustained attention for anything at all.
This is also why more and more TV shows and web sites, clutter things up with quick info bulletins, constantly flowing at the bottom. It is so the new audience of network aficionados can keep changing what they are doing, without literally, entirely, leaving the show. You can see it on talk shows, too, as the talking heads change topics as fast as they can. In fact, what many people find cluttering nowadays isn't so much clutter, as it is anything that threatens to require serious time.
Die punt is, en ek is ernstig hieroor, aandagspan daal na nul.
We have been schooled already for some years by the habits of browsing on pages flitting among many choices often as quickly as possible. Now added to the mix is Facebook with its never ending flow of snippets of personal gossip and news, and of course, talking about snippets, we have Twitter. We can tweet – yikes, they aren't even embarrassed by naming the behavior incredibly accurately, we tweet, or we even follow an avalanche of other people's tweets. Are we birds? Thousands of years of intellectual development and struggle and now we can tweet, tweet, tweet – speedy and vacuous.
Kids now sit in school ensconced in their mobile devices – tweeting, messaging, and otherwise twitting about. One wonders, do the sons and daughters of the rich and professional do this all the time, too? If so, their brains are doomed to decline. But I bet not. I bet many are in private schools that keep a lid on it. I bet they go to clubs and homes which put a lid on it. But if not…and if maybe the poor don't do it for want of access, perhaps finally, a saving grace – the poor may inherit the earth due to alone not becoming bird brains. But, alas, inquiries evidence that no, the poor twit too.
Oordryf ek? Seker - wel, ek hoop so. Maar miskien is ek nie so seker daarvan nie.
Ons word vertel van 'n massiewe toename in kommunikasie. Goed, ja, ek gee toe dat – daar is beslis meer stuur en ontvang – meer stukkies en grepe word oorgedra – maar die inhoud wat oorgedra word, neem af, selfs al neem die aantal boodskappe toe. Die tydsduur van elke kommunikasie nader nul. Vinnig, vinniger, vinnigste. Die inhoud van elke kommunikasie nader nul. Kort, korter, kortste. En hier is die vreesaanjaendste deel, die individuele en dus ook die kollektiewe brein herbedraad homself in ooreenstemming.
Dink daaraan om te oefen om goed te word in een of ander nuwe funksie. Ek is medies heeltemal onkundig, maar my intuïtiewe indruk is dat een ding wat min of meer gebeur, is dat jy in jou spiere en verwagtinge en gewoontes ingestel raak op die nuwe funksie. Miskien is dit om vuil skote op 'n basketbalbaan te skiet of ysskaats. Of miskien is dit 'n soort verstandelike berekening of speel van 'n musiekinstrument of luister selfs na sekere soorte komplekse musiek.
Or maybe, nowadays, the new function we master is literally doing any one thing after any other thing, after still another thing, after another. Thus the function that is mastered is being the fastest and most efficient possible switching of one's brief focus over and over.
In die vorige gevalle van die aanleer van 'n nuwe vaardigheid, weet ons dat ons uiteindelik redelik goed in iets raak, en ons is geneig om dit te wil aanhou doen en ons voel goed om dit te doen, ensovoorts. Dit kan selfs 'n bietjie gewoonte word. Gegewe die geleentheid om ons ding te doen, voel ons 'n druk om daardie geleentheid aan te gryp en om inderdaad te doen waarvoor ons kundige geword het.
In laasgenoemde geval egter, waar dit waarmee jy goed word, letterlik vinnig, doeltreffend en herhaaldelik oorskakel wat jy doen, dan is dit waarmee jy goed raak, flikker. Jy word 'n goeie flikker. Maar ook in daardie geval, kan ons verwag, sal jy begin wil fladder, en selfs nodig hê om te fladder, om jou nuwe fladdertalent te openbaar. Wie jy nou is, is wel, deels 'n groot flitter. Dit is amper soos jou spiere wat ingestel raak op mandjies skiet of skaats of wat ook al. Jou brein raak ingestel op fladdering. Eksperimente toon dat vir hierdie funksionaliteit jou brein homself selfs heroriënteer, homself herbedra - 'n bietjie - om jou fladderkapasiteit te maksimeer.
And here is the scary part – the rewiring to facilitate flitting has a by-product. You gain flitting ability, but you also lose inclination to and perhaps even ability to focus for more than a smidgen of time on any one thing. You become disinclined to appreciate activities that require you to pay close extended attention, much less activities that require you to think many connected thoughts over an extended time without repeatedly taking off on some other very brief path. So you start to want short, shorter, shortest. You start to want fast, faster, fastest. You keep moving your attention until your attention can't sit still. You are a flitter. And there goes civilization.
Miskien is ek paranoïes, maar dit is wat ek sien gebeur. Ek kan dit soms selfs in myself voel, wanneer ek byvoorbeeld 'n Ipad gebruik, wat 'n wonderlik ontwerpte en kragtige instrument is wat egter, soos die meeste instrumente, ten goede gebruik kan word, maar ook vir nie so goed nie - insluitend vir flits. Goed, jy kan weer sê, so wat.
Wel hier is wat.
Die internet en selfs sosiale netwerke kan beslis uiters voordelige hulpmiddels vir menslike en sosiale verryking wees. Ek kan net hoor hoe mense dit lees en vir my sê – of op my skree – maar MIchael, ons gebruik Facebook om goeie links-artikels aan mense te stuur. Dit is 'n wonderlike ding. Ons gebruik dit om demonstrasies te organiseer. Ons gebruik die web om massiewe volumes te lees. En so aan.
Natuurlik, dit is goeie moontlikhede. En sommige mense doen meestal hierdie dinge. Maar die goeie hier word oorval – en dit is ’n veels te swak woord vir wat gebeur – deur die slegte.
Die potensiaal van die internet word gekaap. En ons – die mense wat dit gebruik en selfs die mense wat dit vir goed gebruik – is, wanneer ons die kommersiële en fundamenteel dodelike dele gebruik (wat voordeel daaruit trek terwyl ons dit ook legitimeer en die behoefte om beter alternatiewe te bou ignoreer) by die kaping aan.
It is hard not to do it. If you are a teen and you don't tweet and you don't message and you don't Facebook, you are decoupled from your community. You have no time to build and contribute to and advocate for better networks and sites and practices – because you need to go back and check your Facebook page – and, in any event, you have come to think Facebook is perfect, or nearly so. After all, if it wasn't why would so many people be using it so much? This is now starting to occur even for adults. Age creep – up toward those of us staring at senility on one side, and at techno babble on the other side, wondering which is duller.
Who wants to unplug from everyone? So we choose to message and Facebook and tweet, and having chosen to do it, we laud it so we don't have to feel guilt about our choice, and slowly but surely, or even quickly but inexorably, we forget about books, even magazines, hell – even a TV show that requires real focus. Not while the cell phone is in reach.
Gee my brokkies of gee my die dood!
En dus word almal wat dalk netwerkopsies gebou het wat die beskawing bevorder, sonder gehoor gelaat, redelik gou sonder motivering - en hulle sluit ook aan by die stormloop in gedagteloosheid.
Inderdaad, selfs die linkse webwerwe begin dink, ons moet die groot seuns naboots wat sukses behaal. Ons moet op hul grasperk meeding. Vinnig, vinniger, vinnigste. Kort, korter, kortste, want selfs linkse gebruikers begin aantrek na lokale wat die grootste skare kan en sal lewer wat die minste met hul verstand doen – die brokkie-twiet-lokale.
I used to be concerned about video games. I still don't like that they have kids celebrating shooting and killing in a less and less playful and more and more violent and vindictive and even realistic fashion that increasingly acclimates the soul to murder. That's very bad. But I don't think video games begin to approach the Facebook, messaging, web flitting nexus of devolution of human prospects. That is even more serious. In fact, there is no competition on the horror meter. Facebook is starting to annihilate video gaming that requires long attention, I think.
Mense het vroeër lang ernstige briewe geskryf. Ja, die uitruilings het baie tyd geneem, maar hulle het werklike kunssinnigheid, werklike inhoud, werklike inhoud gehad. Toe kom e-pos en dit was fantasties – maar die briewe het baie korter begin word, al het dit meer gereeld geword. Toe kom tweeting en boodskappe – wat binnekort e-pos vervang as die hoofmodus van kommunikasie – en die boodskappe het byna, en byna alomteenwoordig, betekenisloos geword. Vir die saak, mense het vroeër gesprekke gevoer – nog 'n hoedanigheid wat ek geneig is om te dink is in ernstige vrye val.
Daar word vir my gesê dat ongeveer een kwart van alle internetgebruik Facebook bekyk. Dink daaroor. As ons 'n verwronge verspreiding van inkomste vreeslik vrot vind – dink net aan daardie verwronge verspreiding van inligting fokus. Die internet dra byna alle menslike inligting. Jy kan universiteitskursusse neem – lees byna enige boek – volg besprekings en artikels, verken, leer oor feitlik enigiets – en tog, in plaas daarvan, ondersoek ons toenemend brokkies.
And I haven't even bothered to mention the big brother aspect of Facebook being in the business of saving private, personal information about 500 million users to enhance the effectiveness of advertising – among other potential uses of the information.
ZNetwork word uitsluitlik befonds deur die vrygewigheid van sy lesers.
skenk