I just finished Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or be Programmed. I have come to similar conclusions but I think a more realistic solution. I am more concerned we are losing the “learning potential” by being consumers rather than producers. Like Rushkoff I think the problem is we do not recognized how we are being influenced. We are losing the creative potential the Internet made available and we are giving up opportunities in exchange for ease of use.
The author proposes we are being shaped by the tools and services we choose. We do not understand how these services work or acknowledge the motives of those making the services available. Shouldn’t we be a little curious – why are they providing us these services for free?
Services that we have grown to expect at no cost collect information based on our behavior and serve us ads based on what can be learned about our interests. If our acquaintances can be drawn into this same environment so much the better – more data and more ad hits. As the social dependencies grow it becomes difficult to escape and operate independently. We can go it alone, but we then lose the opportunity to communicate with friends unwilling or unable to make the jump with us.
The distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants has always annoyed me. It occurs to me that certain digital immigrants have great insight that the natives are unable to grasp. Some of us were interested in technology and benefit from being there from the beginning. We have witnessed the changes and because early experiences depended on our active participation, we have a far better sense of what has changed and how the advances have been accomplished. We may have even had to learn to program to take advantage of the power in these new tools.
I am not certain Rushkoff really believes it is worth the time to develop programming skills in young people. Schools are expected to accomplish so much already. It would not really be fair to add one more thing. It can be a reasonable hobby, but must be understood as such. I can say from experience that doing real work from scratch is difficult. Those who interact with what you create have grown accustomed to sophisticated products and will likely not appreciate workable products that lack polish. The experiences that have discouraged me have had more to do with security and hackers. Protecting yourself and those who take advantage of what you develop can require as much sophisticated as writing code that works.
In the old days, I was fascinated with the potential of any Internet-connected computer to function as a server. Every Mac came with the potential (still does) to offer web pages. ISPs do not make this easy (you are typically assigned a dynamic rather than a static IP, upload speeds are far slower than download speeds, and the ISP may simply have a policy preventing your from offering content if you do not pay a much higher monthly rate). Things have continued to slip. It seems we have moved away from personal blogs toward easy and simplistic services such as Twitter and given in to Facebook. Rushkoff would claim we now have given in to the model of interaction these tools allow.
Here are some things to consider:
1) There is no free. You give up something to get something. You get dumbed down television because of ads or you pay for content that interests you.
– Invest a little money – purchase the base rate access to tools that allow you to share content you create (e.g., DropBox, Evernote). Create rather than consume. Invest your own creativity and a little money.
2) Use tools that allow personal expression – try a blogging platform (Blogger, WordPress) that allows customization. Add your own photos and generate something useful. Be a contributor.
3) Spend a little money and purchase your own domain and server space. You will learn something and you will offer yourself a wider variety of options.
My greatest concern is the consolidation of services. Interesting tools are continually bought up by big companies. As is the case in so many areas of life, there are fewer and fewer alternatives and fewer and fewer people making the most important decisions. While few would suggest giving up independence and influence is a good thing, the slide whether visible to the digital natives or not is picking up speed.
I think I am regressing to my ‘60s roots. Power to the people, etc.