Friday, May 14, 2021

Diminished and Demeaned Humanity

Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks, and lightweight mashups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole, this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned interpersonal interaction.

Communication is now often experienced as a superhuman phenomenon that towers above individuals. A new generation has come of age with a reduced expectation of what a person can be, and of who each person might become.

 - Jaron Lanier in You are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

2 comments:

Julian said...

WOW. How true is that!

Michael Wade said...

Julian,

On a related note, I just started reading "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr.

Chilling.

Michael