Re: Internet Productivity
"What do you think about the webs...between now and then?"Like all other media, the dominant focus quickly became entertainment (read "flash and sizzle") as opposed to actual colloquy between folks prepared to take the reins of a new medium. (That's not to say that nothing good has happened online--don't get me wrong.)One difference here is that in this online medium, the listener/reader/subscriber can be tracked and traced in a way that was not generally allowed (or easily available) before. An interested party can now find cookie crumbs leading to any 'net user's name, religion, political affiliation, favored brand of soap, detergent, hot dogs, etc. Every step we take online is recorded in digital sand, and those tracks will now be used to advertise to us, and of course, later, to straightforwardly manipulate us.And in exchange, we get . . . well, not only the convenience of shopping online, but also lots of kitten videos, laughing babies, lightsaber battles fought in back yards, more laughing babies . . . Perhaps the easy access to communication has made some folks more productive. I am betting that the "bailed out" firms that you may recall from the last couple of years all had internet access, and just look how productive their work has turned out to be, at least for those at the top of their organizations. I tend to think that an awful lot of humanity has simply been selected for their predictablity by this new medium. In the end, who benefits from the knowledge that x number of customers bought brand B on day 7? Certainly not the customers . . . The internet is a gigantic market study, and what it is "discovering" is that people like to be entertained--and can easily be manipulated when they are. Not that this phenomenon or its discovery is anything new.I do appreciate that this board exists, for just that reason. Seems to me that something different could be happening here. Herring405
H
Herring405
(view)
"What do you think about the webs...between now and then?"Like all other media, the dominant focus quickly became entertainment (read "flash and sizzle") as opposed to actual colloquy between folks prepared to take the reins of a new medium. (That's not to say that nothing good has happened online--don't get me wrong.)One difference here is that in this online medium, the listener/reader/subscriber can be tracked and traced in a way that was not generally allowed (or easily available) before. An interested party can now find cookie crumbs leading to any 'net user's name, religion, political affiliation, favored brand of soap, detergent, hot dogs, etc. Every step we take online is recorded in digital sand, and those tracks will now be used to advertise to us, and of course, later, to straightforwardly manipulate us.And in exchange, we get . . . well, not only the convenience of shopping online, but also lots of kitten videos, laughing babies, lightsaber battles fought in back yards, more laughing babies . . . Perhaps the easy access to communication has made some folks more productive. I am betting that the "bailed out" firms that you may recall from the last couple of years all had internet access, and just look how productive their work has turned out to be, at least for those at the top of their organizations. I tend to think that an awful lot of humanity has simply been selected for their predictablity by this new medium. In the end, who benefits from the knowledge that x number of customers bought brand B on day 7? Certainly not the customers . . . The internet is a gigantic market study, and what it is "discovering" is that people like to be entertained--and can easily be manipulated when they are. Not that this phenomenon or its discovery is anything new.I do appreciate that this board exists, for just that reason. Seems to me that something different could be happening here. Herring405
