Technology: Is Technology Making Us Idiots?
In his insightful 2008 article in the Atlantic, Nicolas Carr asks, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He goes on to explore how new technology has altered our reading habits and, more unsettlingly, how we process information and think. It is a cerebral piece that meets the high intellectual standards we expect of that august magazine. […]
Read MoreTechnology: The Law of Unintended Consequences
I’ve been called a skeptic, an alarmist, and a doomsayer because the focus of most of my technology blogging is on the risks of and what’s wrong with technology. I realize that I may sound like a Luddite despite the fact that I’m actually an early adapter and readily admit that I couldn’t function in […]
Read MoreTechnology: 10 Things I Love About Technology
I’ve been reviewing my technology-related blog posts of late and I’ve noticed a particular trend that I find troubling: I seem to be a technology doomsayer. The overriding theme I’ve identified in my own writing about technology is one of skepticism and caution. My posts tend to focus on the problems that technology creates, not […]
Read MoreTechnology: Off Line, On Life
The title of this post refers to an epiphany I had over the New Year’s weekend. The realization was about my relationship with technology, namely, I was exhibiting some of the symptoms of technology addiction. And I wasn’t the only one in my family with email and Internet issues. My wife, who doesn’t own a […]
Read MoreTechnology: Less Input and More “Innerput”
The Web, the Internet, and all of the new computer and communication technology that has sprung from them, have been a boon to the information age, making information available at our fingertips instantaneously. The sheer volume of information now accessible on line is staggering. As of a few weeks ago, there were more than 21 […]
Read MoreTechnology: Real-time Web, Unreal-time Life
Pete Cashmore, the founder and CEO of Mashable, the well-read social-media blog, suggested in a recent CNN column that real-time Web is one of the top 10 Web trends of 2010. Real-time Web means being able to send and receive information almost instantaneously. Mr. Cashmore (great business name, by the way) argues that real-time Web […]
Read MoreTechnology: On-line Communities: The Kindness of Strangers
For those of you who follow my Psychology of Technology blog posts (especially here and here), you know that I’m a bit cynical about how technology is impacting us, particularly when it comes to how we define relationships. My worries aren’t so great that I’m looking to wipe out our communications grid with an electromagnetic […]
Read MoreTechnology: Should Search Engines Have a Conscience?
The recent appearance of a racist image of the First Lady Michelle Obama during a search on Google?s search engine raises an interesting question: Should search engines have a conscience? Obviously, search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, that rely on highly complex algorithms to determine search results, have no intentional bias or inclinations that […]
Read MoreTechnology: Horse or Cart: Technology is Actually in Front
A fascinating new book, The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves, by the economist W. Brian Arthur, was just published that challenges much of the conventional wisdom that we hold about the relationship between science and technology.? Most notably, the notion that science is the horse to technology’s cart; in other […]
Read MoreTechnology: Cloud Computing: Lose My Data, Lose Myself?
Does anyone feel the least bit unsettled by the emergence of cloud computing as the Next Big Thing in computer innovation? Yes, it looks like a great idea on paper (or monitor): less computer hardware, common applications on line, cost savings, easy networking, a pooling of computer resources. Sounds like win-win, doesn?t it? Not quite. […]
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