Tag: Technology

Will Podcasting Change the Way we Think?

Nearly one in five internet users (19%) has downloaded a podcast to listen to or view later — up from 12% in 2006. But podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of internet users, as very few download podcasts on a typical day. Yet, podcasting is on the rise among all ages under 50. See Pew Foundation research here.

How will podcast proliferation change the way we think? Podcasters pull down audio from reliable and unreliable sources. Will this medium, coupled with the internet, actually decrease reliable, accurate knowledge? Or will it increase specialty understanding? Do you podcast? What kinds of programs?

Against the Machine

Ellen Ullman (Washington Post) reviews Siegel’s new book, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob:

The author paints everyone he sees as a huckster, poseur, opportunist, hypocrite, liar or pornographer. He cannot admit it’s not all evil out there. Despite the junk shown on YouTube, the lies told on Facebook, the anonymous trash talk that passes for reader comments — despite all that, there is a generation that has been born to the Web and is finding its way through it. It does no good to brand them all as lazy makers of mash-ups and vapid self-displays. Siegel quotes Spinoza: “All things excellent are both difficult and rare.”

Read the whole article.