What do Socrates and Obama have in common?

[yllus]

They're both technophobes! Okay, not really, but you'll get the point.

Barack Obama's rant against technology: Don't shoot the messenger

"WITH iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations—none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment."

In a speech to students at Hampton University on May 9th, Mr Obama did not just name-check some big brands; he also joined a long tradition of grumbling about new technologies and new forms of media.

Socrates’s bugbear was the spread of the biggest-ever innovation in communications—writing. He feared that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would “create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls…they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.”

Enos Hitchcock voiced a widespread concern about the latest publishing fad in 1790. “The free access which many young people have to romances, novels and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth.” (There was a related worry that sofas, introduced at the same time, encouraged young people to drift off into fantasy worlds.)

Cinema was denounced as “an evil pure and simple” in 1910; comic books were said to lead children into delinquency in 1954; rock’n’roll was accused of turning the young into “devil worshippers” in 1956; Hillary Clinton attacked video games for “stealing the innocence of our children” in 2005.

...

Mr Obama complained that technology was putting “new pressures on our country and on our democracy”. But iPods, iPads and suchlike are not to blame for the crazy theories—about, for instance, politicians’ birth certificates—that circulate in the blogosphere.

People have always traded gossip: the internet just makes it easier and quicker. The culprit is human nature, not technology. And new communications technologies tend to strengthen democracy, not weaken it, as revolutionaries have known ever since Thomas Paine and others used the printing press to argue for American independence.

At least Mr Obama got one thing right: the idea that educating people is the best way to enable them to adapt to technological change, and use it for good. But technology is not an alternative to education and empowerment; it can, in fact, help deliver them. America’s first web-savvy president should understand that.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Looks like someone had to meet a deadline for a paycheck. What a worthless article. OMG Obama hates teh IPADZ.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Technophobe?

I must be one too. I have never used an Xbox, an iPad, an iPod, or a Playstation. Forget that I've been building, upgrading, and repairing computers for 20 years, that I've had a home theater system since I've had a DVD player (started back when you had to cobble a system together because audio meant music).

 

[Thump553]

Technophobe?

I must be one too. I have never used an Xbox, an iPad, an iPod, or a Playstation. Forget that I've been building, upgrading, and repairing computers for 20 years, that I've had a home theater system since I've had a DVD player (started back when you had to cobble a system together because audio meant music).

+1. This technophobe bought his first CD player at a stereo shop bankruptcy auction for $200 (less than half of list price) when there were only a few hundred titles available.

That really was a stupid article.

 

[Atheus]

Technophobe?

I must be one too. I have never used an Xbox, an iPad, an iPod, or a Playstation. Forget that I've been building, upgrading, and repairing computers for 20 years, that I've had a home theater system since I've had a DVD player (started back when you had to cobble a system together because audio meant music).

He didn't say he doesn't use them, he says he doesn't know how to use them, which is fairly pathetic. And BTW if you have really never used an Ipod I would question whether you have any real interest in modern technology, or indeed any friends...

 

[classy]

He didn't say he doesn't use them, he says he doesn't know how to use them, which is fairly pathetic. And BTW if you have really never used an Ipod I would question whether you have any real interest in modern technology, or indeed any friends...

You do realize we have never had a tech savvy president. I mean they do have more important things to do than checking their blackberry every 5 minutes or sending someone a tweet.

 

[tk149]

You do realize we have never had a tech savvy president. I mean they do have more important things to do than checking their blackberry every 5 minutes or sending someone a tweet.

But such Luddism is particularly curious in Mr Obama’s case, given that he is surgically attached to his BlackBerry

 

[jackschmittusa]

Atheus

"And BTW if you have really never used an Ipod I would question whether you have any real interest in modern technology, or indeed any friends.."

One of the stupidest things I ever heard.

IPods make you friends? What kind of friends? The ones with the baggy pants falling off their asses? I drink whiskey with my friends, not fondle an iPod.

Had an mp3 player once (and not an over-priced POS iPod). Absolutely crap audio compared to my living room audio system and a cd.

Hmmmm..... Three desktops, a notebook, 7.1 home theater, Blueray, wireless network, broadband, digital camera, etc., and you pronounce me "not interested in modern tech. And historically, the first person among friends, family, and acquaintances to own: an inkjet printer (black only), a home network (WFW 3.1, coax, $100 NICs), a color printer (Panasonic dot matrix with color kit - 8 hours to print a banner lol), a cd-rom drive, a modem (to log onto Compuserve and BBSs)a scanner ($800 SCSI, manual setup on SCSI card), online banking (needed a floppy to set up bank software and modem), laser printer, color laser, and on and on. But no iPod proves I have no interest in tech.

What a moron.

 

[yllus]

If you think that the only people using iPods are the "ones with the baggy pants falling off their asses", you might not be a technophobe, but you're amazingly out of touch with reality.

 

[PokerGuy]

You do realize we have never had a tech savvy president. I mean they do have more important things to do than checking their blackberry every 5 minutes or sending someone a tweet.

Apparently our current one doesn't have anything more important to do than blab on his blackberry, give speeches and worry about which NBA team Labron is going to be playing for.

 

[Tristicus]

Old.

 

[jackschmittusa]

yllus

"If you think that the only people using iPods are the "ones with the baggy pants falling off their asses""

Not what I said at all. I responded to the suggestion that if I didn't have one, I didn't have any friends.

Anybody that thinks I need an iPod to be their friend, must be young and foolish, and can go piss up a rope.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I'm sorry he doesn't know how to use what he uses.

 

[spittledip]

I'm sorry he doesn't know how to use what he uses.

I guess it must be his speech writer that does not know how to use an ipod.



Unless this is photoshopped..

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Unless this is photoshopped..

Been around for a while. Could be 'chopped. Hard to know. It's been around before and Obama fans haven't shot it down.

 

[Tristicus]

That his special issue iPrompter, not a regular old iPod silly.

 

[Bowfinger]

Been around for a while. Could be 'chopped. Hard to know. It's been around before and Obama fans haven't shot it down.

Seems pretty apparent to me he was making a self-deprecating joke, the "old guy" addressing an audience of tech-savvy college kids. Given the laughter in response, it's equally apparent they got it. Unfortunately, in today's climate of partisan gothcha's, this completely innocent and immaterial joke has been perverted into more fuel for the faux-outrage machine.

 

[Bowfinger]

I found the OP disappointing. I expect better from The Economist. If one considers the whole context of Obama's remarks, it seems to me he is not attacking technology at all:

"So education is what has always allowed us to meet the challenges of a changing world. And Hampton, that has never been more true than it is today. This class is graduating at a time of great difficulty for America and for the world. You're entering a job market, in an era of heightened international competition, with an economy that's still rebounding from the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You're accepting your degrees as America still wages two wars –- wars that many in your generation have been fighting.


"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- (laughter) -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.


"Class of 2010, this is a period of breathtaking change, like few others in our history. We can't stop these changes, but we can channel them, we can shape them, we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time."
​

Instead, he is pointing out, quite accurately, that we suffer from information overload, most of it inaccurate or trite, much of it patently dishonest, and he is challenging these graduates to use their education to sort through the noise for the valuable nuggets that will enrich them and empower their success. Given that The Economist is generally considered one of the preeminent sources of such signal in the sea of noise, one would think they would cheer Obama's message. Go figure.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Seems pretty apparent to me he was making a self-deprecating joke, the "old guy" addressing an audience of tech-savvy college kids. Given the laughter in response, it's equally apparent they got it. Unfortunately, in today's climate of partisan gothcha's, this completely innocent and immaterial joke has been perverted into more fuel for the faux-outrage machine.

Could be. On a scale of 1 to 10 it's hardly a concern to me. I'm concerned with more substantial issues.

 

[Bowfinger]

Could be. On a scale of 1 to 10 it's hardly a concern to me. I'm concerned with more substantial issues.

Sure ... but you're intelligent. You're not the target demographic for the propaganda machine that uses stupid stuff like this to keep their gullible drones in a state of constant anti-Obama outrage.

 

[Throckmorton]

What exactly is wrong with what Obama said, aside from his JOKE about not knowing how to use a Blackberry?