I'm posting early in the week since I'm sure that we, as well as our readers, will all be using our time over the next few days to catch up with friends and family, eat, and of course,watch copious amounts of football! :)
Shirky is using the term "cognitive surplus" mainly to refer to what is created out of time previously spent watching television in one's spare time after work, caring for children etc. He notes that worldwide the 3 main uses of time are: work, sleep, TV. While some people may be using the internet as a means of escape and denial, they are very likely the same people who would have previously been using television for the same purposes. But for many when the opportunities change, the behavior changes. One of the points he makes is that while people make fun of a woman who blogs about her knitting or a man who plays role playing games online, few people would have made fun of anyone sitting comatose on the sofa passively soaking up programming from the six o'clock news to the Late Show. Somehow THAT was acceptable.
While I agree with you that a lack of focus is troublesome, as there are endless diversions and distractions, I'd say we've been moving down that road since the introduction of cable TV and the remote. The competition for attention today IS a bit overwhelming and IS having an effect. Here's an article (that includes an informative video) suggesting that this generation's brain may actually be wired differently as a result of their constant connections.
The internet does indeed both connect and isolate, yet television mainly just isolates as watching is a solitary activity for the most part with the exception of family viewing (rare today with TVs in every room) or the occasional gathering to watch something like election coverage or major sporting events. So our computers far surpass the idiot box as a means of connection, whatever isolating pitfalls there may be. While everyone predicted that isolation would be one of the biggest impacts of the internet, it is actually being used to coordinate real world contact more often than anyone imagined. Even within the category of connection however there are positives and negatives. While we get Pick Up Pal, which is sort of the Craig's list of carpooling, and the ability to easily connect with friends, we also get cyber-bullying and the fact that last year in the U.K. Facebook was mentioned in 1 in 5 divorce petitions according to this article.
An interesting observation Shirky makes about Pick Up Pal is that the bus company in the city where this program was implemented originally tried to get the site shut down. He submits that the bus company wasn't interested in solving the transportation problem. They were interested in solving the transportation problem WITH BUSES. Any organization designed to solve some dilemma, also has an interest in seeing that the difficulty is never actually solved. But, that is a whole other discussion!
One of the things that the author brings up is that we don't know how technology will be used until people are given access to it. Previously held notions often fail to hold up and he uses the example of what he calls "milkshake mistakes". A fast food company that sells a lot of milkshakes did some research and was shocked to learn that the sales were most brisk during morning rush hour. While the executives had only imagined the milkshake as a treat or dessert customers were using it as a breakfast food. They had failed to ask "What is the customer hiring the milkshake to do?" The milkshake was a breakfast staple for many because it was; easily obtained at a drive through, filling, not messy to eat, and could be consumed with one hand.
Economic productivity: You are right in some respects but I think that the benefits in this area far outweigh the negatives. That woman with the blog about her knitting can now post pictures and take orders, bypassing the "gatekeeper" store owner who would have had to agree to carry her items before. If that avenue was blocked, her only access to customers would have been friends and family and maybe word of mouth. Anyone with a little entrepreneurial spirit can open a virtual storefront now,self publish a book which can be printed on demand eliminating the need for inventory, or just boost the name recognition of a brick and mortar small business.
"We are quickly becoming one another's infrastructure."
~Clay Shirky
Shirky has hope that we will keep finding more ways to create and connect using the internet. His book contains many stories about how people are increasingly using the CS/tech combination to solve problems that are communal and he sees endless possibilities in how it could be used to find solutions that would be beneficial on a global scale. Now that may be overly optimistic, but I had to love that the guy had VISION, as you've said before, something so needed today.
A bit of housekeeping: We've added a search gadget to help you find a previous post you may be looking for or a link that we've provided you'd like to quickly locate. Also you will now see a box "Currently Up For Discussion" that will allow you to quickly see what the topic du jour is.
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