You Are Not a Gadget

You Are Not a Gadget

Rebecca Hunt

AlannaHibbs

Beth Rubiano

Discussion Questions:

“You are not a Gadget”

Jaron Lanier

  1. Seeing students in the classroom today, do you think technology has a negative effect on their creativity, critical thinking, skills, etc. as opposed to previous generations?
  1. Lanier discusses at some length about Internet “trolls.” He argues that people lose some sense of morality on the Internet due to anonymity and lack of repercussions. As teachers we see this trend represented in cyber bullying. How can we individually try to combat this trend in our careers? Can we?
  1. “At these companies one finds rooms full of MIT PhD engineers not seeking cancer cures or sources of safe drinking water for the undeveloped world but schemes to send little digital pictures of teddy bears and dragons between adult members of social networks (182).” With companies full of these highly educated individuals, do you think many are focused on the prospect of the juvenile sense of financial gain instead of a greater investment in human history?
  1. “What computerized analysis of all the country’s school test has done to education is exactly what Facebook has done to friendships. In both cases, life is turned into a database. Both degradations are based on the same philosophical mistake, which is the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships. These are things computers cannot currently do (69).”

Do you see any other facets of life where technology and information systems may be having unintended adverse effects, such as with Facebook and the education system?

  1. Lanier claims that we depend on the collective mind to promote and create ideas that we accept as fact especially with the advent of sites like Wikipedia. Do you think that this “collectivism” destroys individualism and eradicates individual intelligence and creativity?
  1. “The baby boom isn’t over yet, and the 1960s still provide the dominant reference points in pop culture. This is in part, I believe, because of the phenomena of Retropolis and youthiness, but it is also because the boomers are not merely plentiful and alive but still vigorous and contributing to society. People live longer as technology improves, so cultural change actually slows, because it is tied more to the outgoing generational clock than the incoming one (181-2).”

Although the latest and greatest forms of technology are available to our society, do you think that the current generation is reluctant to excel with these new technologies because so much influence currently comes from the previous generational culture?

  1. Lanier has one main idea to try to combat the negative side effects of the open, free access Internet: having to pay for access to anything and get paid anytime anyone accesses your own “bits” (Detailed in Chapter 7). This universal system, he feels, will reward everyone for their own individual creativity. Do you think this system could work? If not, are there other options that could be a better alternative to our current system?
  1. Despite all of this negativity surrounding technology, do you think that it’s actually a testament to our society’s creativity and advancement progression?
  1. With all of the negatives and positives of technology considered, what do you think about the effects of technology on our lives? Do the positives outweigh the negatives? Vice versa?