Where Is Technology Taking Us?

in Economics, Web/Tech | March 4th, 2010 4 Comments

A recent Front­line doc­u­men­tary, Dig­i­tal Nation: A Life on the Vir­tu­al Fron­tier, asks just this question–particularly with regard to edu­ca­tion. Sub­jects include atten­tion span, mul­ti-task­ing, and the doubts of one-time tech­nol­o­gy evan­ge­list Dou­glas Rushkoff. But while some see tech­nol­o­gy as an obsta­cle to clear think­ing and human inter­ac­tion, oth­ers see it as essen­tial to con­tem­po­rary edu­ca­tion.

I have to say the whole sub­ject res­onates with my own ambiva­lent technophil­ia. You can watch the doc­u­men­tary above or here (and the trail­er fol­lows), but don’t for­get to check your news feeds, twit­ter, and face­book while it’s on in the back­ground.

Wes Alwan lives in Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts, where he works as a writer and researcher and attends the Insti­tute for the Study of Psy­cho­analy­sis and Cul­ture. He also par­tic­i­pates in The Par­tial­ly Exam­ined Life, a pod­cast con­sist­ing of infor­mal dis­cus­sions about philo­soph­i­cal texts by three phi­los­o­phy grad­u­ate school dropouts.


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Comments (4)
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  • Malcolm Bellamy says:
    March 5, 2010 at 5:18 am

    I think this is an impor­tant video and I have just start­ed to look into the web­site that accom­pa­nies the pro­gramme.
    I have been com­par­ing this pro­gramme to the recent BBC series “Vir­tu­al rev­o­lu­tion” which cov­ers much of the same ground. So far, in every respect it is supe­ri­or. It is bal­anced and infor­ma­tive and does not sing the prais­es of the new tech­nol­o­gy but makes us think about the speed of its growth, the way it is trans­form­ing soci­ety and pos­si­bly the way it might harm us as a species.
    Thanks Open Cul­ture for yet anoth­er good post­ing.. it is why I make sure that I look you up reg­u­lar­ly.

    Reply
  • Davor Bakovic says:
    March 6, 2010 at 12:44 am

    Thank U for the film and all it brought with it !!Much information,many ques­tions to deal with,good oppor­tu­ni­ty to rein­force or change out­look on the place and impact of the tech­nol­o­gy on our life and the young gen­er­a­tion !!I am spe­cial­ly con­cerned with the need to bridge the gap between the generations,clarify bet­ter dan­gers and advan­tages and inte­grat­ed well and for good of all into all lay­ers of life and society.I love tech­nol­o­gy and use it much,in com­par­i­son to my gen­er­a­tion generaly,but am always “on guard” con­cern­ing who is con­trol­ing who !!??

    Reply
  • paul clayton says:
    March 12, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    this is a use­ful film.
    I’ve been a fan of Dou­glas and his work for some time, and as such am also pleased that he not devel­oped a techn­odog­ma.
    Oh dear, anoth­er made up term. It seems in these times, as we are tak­ing the con­tents of dreams and exter­nal­is­ing them (therapy,fantasy,conflict and rela­tion­ships) and putting them into a dig­i­tal for­mat to deal with, if not under­stand them.
    I espe­cial­ly find the sub­ject of sen­so­ry input and telep­res­ence very much fac­tors of this sce­nario. Talk to dis­abled peo­ple of all kinds, and you’ll find the ben­e­fits of tech­nol­o­gy to augment,replace and enhance options to com­mu­ni­cate and engage. On the flip side, there is too much going on to engage and replace a life that needs atten­tion with con­se­quences, real­i­ty bites; even if you have anotehr two lives.

    Reply
  • eugene goosen says:
    July 16, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    hi do u guys have any account­ing free cours­es

    Reply

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