Reading in the Brave New World

We exist in a consumer society - I hope I’m not stating anything new to you with that statement. Our current challenge is how to remain hardcore consumers while minimizing our carbon footprint. I’d say, reducing the amount of bleached, heavily treated paper is a good start.

After years working for a major book retailer I can assess that people want options, and the way we read has been changed forever by new media. As an example, it’s surprising to discover magazines and newspapers without any online presence except to list statistical information concerning their distribution and ways to advertise. Forget about seeing an App or podcast available. Instead of embracing new directions there seems to be a sadness over the dwindling sales of printed material and traditional media. There are also concerns that modern communication and information searching tools will injure our intelligence.

Luckily there are experts on the subject and we don’t need to continue scratching our heads over how to understand the reading brain. Maryanne Wolf, is a cognitive neuroscientist and child development expert from Tufts University and author of the exceptional book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

“Human beings were never born to read,” she writes, “Reading is a human invention that reflects how the brain rearranges itself to learn something new.”

Contrary to what your 3rd grade english teacher led you to believe reading is an evolutionary exercise and doesn’t follow an intrinsically strict rule book. If language and reading were to remain the same we’d still be saying ‘thou’ and ‘shalt’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘should’. The main difference in these contemporary times is that technology is at the helm of consumption. New forms of communication are altering spelling and causing the older generations to squirm at the sight of lol, brb, and whatever other forms of new speak the kids are talking these days.

While I can’t say that I’d jump at the thought of reading a book or even short story written entirely through IM abbreviations it would be an interesting visual representation of the times. After all, isn’t that what most art tries to achieve? The classics that define our culture will never die because adaption ensures their survival.

Finally, tools such as Literature Map will take care of those pesky publicists who believe their opinion should dictate which books are worth reading. Peer to peer sharing and personalized recommendations are how I want to find new authors and books worth my time and money.

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What is this thing we call privacy?: Part 1

There isn’t a moment in our modern day that we aren’t confronted by someone wanting information from us. Whether it be Greenpeace good-doers soliciting donations on nearly every street corner, or a website requiring you to register as a member. There is so much information floating around us we are in a constant state of information overload. In many ways, information has become a commodity.

In fact, if you search information overload the results will illustrate nearly everyone is aware of a potential problem, but no one can be certain what to make of it. On the one hand, we adore the playfulness of social media and the ease of open communication within a network, but at the same time we are fearful that the price of these tools is too much personal information. No longer are we remote islands onto ourselves, but digital villages of white noise, colourful images, encapsulated in a blur of promotion. The ability to exist within this new world is to trade information about your true identity.

According to Roger Clarke, “cyberculture' is the concept of a group or groups of people achieving cohesion by means of the information infrastructure”. As a consultant specialising in strategic and policy aspects of eBusiness, information infrastructure, data surveillance, and privacy he is a good source on the subject. In a paper entitled Dissidentity, Clarke raises an important point regarding the psychological need for private space.

“There are many different contexts in which human behaviour depends on the freedom and constraints associated with the identities that they use.”

Wikipedia defines privacy as; ‘the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.’ To me, the reality is that no one should expect to be entirely private when online. Privacy is a relative term in the offline world and it’s no different online. There are a few colourful words to describe a person who would walk around wearing a mask and cloak. Usually, when someone has something to hide it’s because they participate in some sort of action that they believe would change other people’s perception of them. Fear of embarrassment, judgment, hate, as well as a multitude of other emotions can lead people into strange behaviours that they’d rather keep to themselves.

I can entirely appreciate the notion of privacy and why most people do not wish to have personal information disclosed without their explicit consent. When I provide my email address to a site in exchange for a newsletter, registration, or information there should be an understanding that my email addresses is not to be used for any other purposes then the agreement of which I consented. In other words, my email address should not be sold on a list for other product promotions and third parties should not contact me as a consequence of my participation in divulging my personal information. Spam is a cute name for a very big problem. Another issue is identity theft; which I'll try to tackle in another post soon.

Some believe that the World Wide Web is a virtual space, cyberculture, or cyberspace. The reality is that who we are online is not a different person from our offline selves, and the laws in which we conduct ourselves online should be in keeping with the laws that stop us from stealing and hurting people in the physical world. The ability to be intrinsically more of our darker selves or indulge our fantasies is a freedom and not a right. An abuse of freedom has the power to alter the structure of a society, or at the very least break down trust. Anarchy is a beautiful yet unrealistic dream that would sooner turn into a nightmare then a Utopic wonderland.

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