Technology and social communication
For centuries advances in what we now term media have generated concerns about the effect these advances have on values and morality-books, stage drama, movies, TV, and now computer-based fantasy and Internet-based distribution. These media comprise some of the most powerful agents for developing our fundamental strategies for living. Computer-based fantasy can provide waves of sensations that everyday life does not prepare us for; they create a wow effect. The implications are especially, strong for adolescents. Wow effects come to seem ordinary. We can easily overdose on them with a subsequent dulling of sensibility that motivates one to seek the next level. As the wow effect is numbed, socializing restrictions break down. A psychological strategy of distancing is one defense against enhanced imagery - a strategy of cool as antidote. The wow-cool dipole can foster a role as spectator that inhibits empathy and a fundamental distancing from the self. Technology - the source of our concerns-can also help to counteract them. The most powerful drive in children is to learn mastery of the world. New input and output devices and especially properly designed software can enhance the capacity to learn and to be creative, i.e. to gain mastery over the world. These powerful new modes of communication not only give us great access to the world, they give the world great access to us. We must supplant what is now mostly a passive broadcast system with interactive exploration and two-way communication.
- OSTI ID:
- 518161
- Journal Information:
- Technology in Society, Vol. 18, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Data Locality Enhancement of Dynamic Simulations for Exascale Computing (Final Report)
Improving Operational Efficiency, Compliance and Community Perception with Real-time Data - 19260