Shaping Us

What does Snow White look like?  How about the 7 Dwarves?  The original tale didn’t have images, and yet almost everyone’s brain conjures up the Disney images of these figures. 

There’s no doubt that the media shapes our minds — images, function, reflections, and more.  Learn a bit about those influences below.

Attached to technology and paying a price

NYT article about the loss of being in the moment, fractured thinking, stress, creativity, deeper analysis, and other effects of living a very digital life.

Does life online give you ‘popcorn brain’?

“When he read stories to the multitaskers, they had difficulty identifying the emotions of the people in the stories, and saying what they would do to make the person feel better.  “Human interaction is a learned skill, and they don’t get to practice it enough,” he says.”

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

NYT feature article on the subject. 

Thoreau’s Cellphone Experiment

A professor takes away his students smart devices for five days . . . why, and what happened?

Why ‘Data Smog’ May Be Making You Depressed

Dr. Andrew Weil writes for Time Magazine about his own struggle with data overload, and what he did about it.

Alone in the crowd

American Psychological Association article on how living a very digital life influences our social skills in the offline world.

Role of introspection, concentration, and nonconformity

With the fast past of life, sometimes exacerbated by various kinds of media, what is lost that we used to have?  What is the state of considered thought and deep discussions? 

Twitch and success

The value of being informed and in contact and the value of white space and a longer term view.

 

Tech Cassandra One

http://www.williampowers.com
http://www.plumtv.com/videos/hamlets-blackberry

Tech Cassandra Two

http://www.nicholasgcarr.com
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1

Does Google make us stupid?

The Atlantic magazine asks the question, and the Pew research center takes another stab at answering it, along with many comments on the question and the answers.