Cell Phones and Fall of Western Civ

Kevin Drum has a post up on the collapse of western civilization due to the inability of 20 somethings to communicate in a manner other than text. The basis for his post is an article by George Packer. I thought i would take the opportunity to address this topic as i am in fact one of these young 20 somethings who have grown up with the advance of cell phone technology and feel qualified to offer my observations about my peers. Packer writes,

It turned out that cell phones had become a major headache in his work. Customers called him all the time, expecting him to hear every little complaint even while he was wrestling with a roof hatch. Meanwhile, they were more and more unreliable, not answering their phones, missing scheduled appointments.

....“It’s the technology,” the roofer said. “They don’t know how to deal with a human being. They stand there with that text shrug” — he hunched his shoulders, bent his head down, moved from side to side, looking anywhere but at me — “and they go, ‘Ah, ah, um, um,’ and they just mumble. They can’t talk any more.” This inadequacy with physical space and direct interaction was an affliction of the educated, he said — “the more educated, the worse.”

....This was a completely new phenomenon in the roofer’s world: a mass upper class that was so immersed in symbolic and digital cerebration that it had become incapable of carrying out the most ordinary functions — had become, in effect, like small children with Asperger’s symptoms. It was a ruling class that, out of sheer over-civilization, was quickly losing the ability to hold onto its power.

to which drum responds

WTF? These folks call constantly on their cell phones, so it's not that they've lost the ability to carry on a verbal conversation. It's just that they can't do it face-to-face. Do I have that right?

Is anyone else skeptical about this? Obviously I have zero experience with 20-something metrosexuals in New York City, but, seriously? Is this happening? More anecdotes, please.

First, if you read the article you find that packer is writing about times when customers have intermediaries present who handle communication. Like having your lawyer with you to talk to the police or negotiate your divorce. The client doesnt talk. Second is that the roofer seems to segue into a comment about how all of these people will end up dependent on the government. This seems rather dubious to me. I havent met or heard of any friend or acquaintance unable to talk face to face with anyone due to an over reliance on text conversation. I might ask a friend familiar with roofing or contracting to come with me when i meet a roofer or a contractor because i lack general knowledge in that area, but i wouldn't have them do all the talking.

As far as communication habits and some general tendencies of those who have grown up using cell phones and texting as common means of communication there is one common behavior -- the lack of concrete plans. From a comment in the drum post.

I finally got a cell phone again when I realized it was hurting me. People in their 20s don't make real plans anymore- they have a vague sense that they're doing something with someone at some point, but all the details are negotiable, right up to the moment that it happens. So if I'm supposed to go to the movies with friends at 7 on Tuesday, I could get a text at 6:59 changing that to 8, or to Wednesday, or cancelling, or anything. When I didn't have a cell phone, I used to waste an enormous amount of time waiting for people who weren't coming, because the plans had changed and they couldn't text and tell me. When I confronted them about it, they would tell me that if I had a phone, things like that wouldn't happen.

This is very true. My friends and i will agree that we are going out on a friday night. The time will generally be 10. The transportation, and place are all decided about 15 minutes before we leave. The reason for a lack of concrete planning is simply that it is unnecessary. While it used to be that in order for a group to assemble everyone needed a prearranged meeting place and time now with cell phones and instant communication people can find each other or change plans without worrying that things will fall apart.

This flexible attitude leads many people to view young people as flaky but is really just a difference in the general ability of young people to manage time on the fly. Its more dynamic and, when done correctly, allows for an increased efficiency. For example, knowing you can push back something 15 minutes may allow you to perform an extra task that would have had to be pushed off to a more inconvenient time later. instead the plans can change, people can take care of their business without being tied to times set arbitrarily to begin with. The problems in this scenario arise when your out of the loop of communication as the commenter was. He likely prevented his friends from making optimal use of their time because he could never be reached to modify plans.

As far as face to face communication goes, it is my preferred method. The reason for this is that i find it easier and more effective to conduct a difficult or complex conversation in person than by phone or text. What texting and leaving messages does allow for it people to try and avoid tough conversations. this is a pint made by another commenter in that thread.

Face to face communication, especially when it involves negotiation, or a message that one person doesn't want to hear, requires courage. Courage requires practice. The existence of text-based communication allows you to avoid all the situations where, in the past, you would have practiced. So I kinda see where this dynamic might work for a some people. But there are plenty of jobs and hobbies that require and even thrive on face-to-face competition and negotiation, which will develop the skills needed.

Another view of the same phenomenon is that text-based communications allow the socially phobic to actually express themselves. Kind of a strange prosthetic.

There is an anxiety in, say, calling up a girl and asking her on a date. You have to dial the number, wait for the phone to ring. Then you have to talk with her with the possibility that she rejects you. Texting and asking apparently reduces that anxiety. I still prefer to do it in person.

Texting has its place though. Some conversations are so simple and not particularly important that you can have them over a longer time span. for example you text you friend about what time you want to meet for lunch. text also ensures you dont interrupt whatever that person is doing. It allows them to take their time in getting back to you without the hassle of checking a voicemail. What is the difference between hearing a message and reading it. most of my friends just call back without even listening to the voicemail.

I cannot say i have noticed an inability among the educate or uneducated to carry on conversations in person. The only explanation i can think of for the observations of the roofer is that the customers were intimidated and unacquainted with contracting and so wanted others more knowledgeable and better able to deal with the contractors to handle it for them. I guess this is possibly due to a general ability to avoid difficult or uncomfortable conversations through the use of text messages but it seems unlikely.

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Technology Rules My World

So my laptop died a couple of days ago. The death was long drawn out and fraught with rage. I tried to resuscitate it for hours and ultimately managed to get it on life support. Then it lost a major organ, an internal wireless card, and so it had to go out to be fixed by the manufacturer.

As a law student i am utterly and totally dependent on my laptop. It is actually rather unhealthy. I literately cannot function for very long without my laptop. So my solution to the absence of my laptop for the next several weeks...purchase a new one.

I decided that i should purchase a second laptop so that i could get through the next several weeks. I purchased one of those mini laptops you see at best buy for a cor a couple hu8ndred dollars. So far i am extremely impressed by it. Its not big but it has the advantage of being very light. It has lots of memory abd is capable of running the word processor i need and it seems to do fine with movies as well. The only draw back is that it lacks a disk drive. if i want one of those i have to purchase an external one.

I wonder how many other people out there cant go without a lap top or a computer for several weeks. Is it just because im a law student that i find i need a computer at virtually every hour of the day? An over dependence on technology is one of the core themes of science fiction. In many of the dystopic futures we became so dependent on technology to live that we essentially lost our humanity. I dont think im at that point yet but its easy to see the theme as especially important in modern society.

So hopefully i can get back on a more regular blogging schedule.

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More Evidence McCain is out of Touch Elitist.

I am not a technology guru but I consider myself proficient in dealing with my computer. Technology more than almost anything demonstrates how current people are. Young people are typically the first adopters of new tech, though not always. For many people having the newest technology is a status statement. In this race Barack Obama has been the candidate who takes the most advantage of technology and the candidate who appears most comfortable. The GOP does not look ready to cede the tech field to Obama entirely and they are trying to appear more tech shrewdness by taking email suggestions for their party platform. Their sad attempt just goes to highlight how out of touch and far back they are on matters of technology. The most out of touch among them might be their second highest profile member and Presidential nominee, John McCain.

NYT has published an article on the GOP efforts to portray themselves as the leaders in the use of technology and the internet to create interactivity. I feel sometimes now like I read the portrayals of the GOP in articles in a more favorable light than they might have been intended. For instance, I read the opening paragraph-

The conventional wisdom prevailing since the start of the 2008 campaign has always maintained that technological astuteness is the specialty of Senator Barack Obama and his followers. Rightly or wrongly, Senator John McCain has been burdened with the image of someone whose campaign is hopelessly behind the times, who can’t navigate the Internet unless his wife or aides are there to guide him.

I think that it is definitely a correct portrayal of McCain. McCain has made repeated statements that belay his lack of tech knowledge and skill. McCain used the nonsensical phrase "a Google" to describe the most famous internet search engine in the world. McCain had the lack of awareness to say during an interview with the New York Times that even though his aides "go on for [him]" right now, "[he's] learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon. McCain has also said that he is "an illiterate [who] has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get." Of course this may all be wrong, because McCain may not speak for McCain. Now here comes the GOP claiming they are now the party of the people and the web.

Just don’t try telling that to the Republican Platform Committee and its leaders. In a novel experiment, they have been online for several weeks now, seeking suggestions about what their platform should say. More than 12,000 people have responded, offering proposals, either as written text or in video form, that anyone interested can access.

“This is the first attempt by either party to solicit people’s input into the platform so broadly and transparently,” said Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, co-chairman of the platform committee. His co-chairman, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California added: “People might think that if you look at this, the Democrats are much further along” on the technological side, “but if they look at our platform, we’re so much further along, and more open too, in using today’s technology to get greater input.”

The first thing to note is that the platform is essentially worthless. The parties celebrate the platform every four years, but it has no impact on any legislation or anything of consequence. So the GOP can claim it is inclusive and reaching out to the people all it wants but until they make the platform their litmus test for everything, three monkeys in a shed could write it and it would never matter. Shockingly the input of the public might not mean all that much.

What the 112 members of the platform committee will do with those ideas once they begin meeting in St. Paul next week is another matter. In separate interviews, both of the chairmen said not to expect significant changes from the positions Republicans have taken in the past on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

“I don’t think the delegates will change significantly, or at all, the language on social issues that has been worked out over years,” Mr. Burr said. “But we do want a platform that looks forward and not backwards, and that means an opportunity to state more clearly than ever what we stand for, what are our principles.”

It is clear that nothing will really change and that the input of these people was all for show. Can we really expect the authoritarian GOP to take direction for the little people? Not likely. The GOP platform will be consistent by nature as conservatives are against change. I think is disingenuous thought to ask for input on something that is not going to be changed or matter.

Why is all this important? With the advent of the McCain is rich and out of touch meme the tech issues should make a big return. Not because McCain is old and so cant use the internet but as Andrew Ramano points out-

For one thing, McCain's computer illiteracy doesn't reflect a lack of curiosity--it reflects a lack of necessity. Over the past 10 years, most adult Americans have encountered and explored computers primarily in the workplace, where the ability to communicate and find information on the Internet has gradually become a required skill. But McCain's job in the U.S. Senate--where all communication and information has to be filtered through staffers--has actually made fluency more difficult to achieve (or at least less necessary).

McCain is so elite he does not need the internet or computers or email. That sounds pretty out of touch to me. How many Americans can go through life now without the constant us of the computer? Not many. You have man who cannot remember the number of houses he has and a man who does not need or care about the most important communications revolution since the television.

To say that because McCain has staffers though does not excuse his lack of interest in the internet. He has never been interested in a topic and looked it up online or wanted to find the score of a baseball game somewhere? Does he ask someone else to do it? I think that McCain’s lack of knowledge about the internet show how out of touch he is and it needs to be revived.

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