Social developments from digital environments

11. Reshaping Our Social Environment

• The Death of Distance?
  from Frances Carincross, Death of Distance

  • Horizontal bonds (language, culture, jobs) will be strengthened across different parts of the globe.
  • Vertical bonds (governments and companies
    to people) will weaken.
  • Familiarity may (or may not) breed love; but it will drive knowledge of others.
  • Income distribution across countries will narrow, but within countries will widen.
  • Digitization leaves tracks: commercial use of
    content can be targeted.
  • Information overload will both enable and cripple government surveillance efforts.
• The World is Flat?
  from Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, 3.0
  • Previously closed economies are open to the world.
  • The internet enables wide information sharing and the use of workflow software.
  • Work can be open sourced (with "everyone" participating), outsourced, insourced, and off-shored.
    Personal digital communication devices bring individuals into quick contact with information and the economic stream.
  • The flateners join with the openings to dynamically illustrate the benefits of horizonal integration.
    • Crowdsourcing can be . . . well . . . dangerous (Minds for Sale).

• Four Metaphors:

• Global Village or Global Marketplace?
• In the village, folks would
  • Be interconnected
  • Be interdependent
  • Telecommute, mixing home with job
  • Share a cultural veneer so, would be informed about each other.
• In the marketplace, folks
  • Would share a public info. infrastructure
  • Could access widely available info. resources
  • Could scale info. use to their needs
  • Are very independent.
    
• Urban Villagers or Urbane Villagers?
  • Urban Villagers might stress their participation as villagers and use info. to nurture culture and relationships
  • Urbane Villages folks might ignore those in need and eschew contact with others.
    • Turkle: Expecting too much from technology (short version, CNN); (Full version, TED)

What a creepy photo of Mark Zuckerberg says about our dystopian tech future.

Each week, the typical continues to increase their/his/her media time, watching over 35 hours hours of TV, 2 hours of which is timeshifted TV, 20 minutes of online video and 4 minutes of mobile video, while also spending nearly 4 hours on the Internet. In addition, 59% of Americans surf the Internet and watch TV at the same time. 

Concept 11 Analysis article:

"Building Your Personal Brand Has Its Drawbacks. Burnout, for One."
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/business/influencer-burn-out-jobs.html>


Want to learn more?

Franklin Foer. World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech. Penguin Books, 2017.

Andrew Keen, The Internet is Not the Answer. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015.

Douglas Rushkoff. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. Penguin: 2013. 

Frances Carincross, Death of Distance

Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, 3.0