The Thoughtful Web #9: Teens, Things and TMI

Warning This article was written over six months ago, and may contain outdated information.

This is the latest of my semi-regular collections of links to the best writing about the web and technology, information, soci­ety, science, and philo­sophy. I also send this out as an email newsletter, a format better suited to the ‘slow web’ ethos I’m trying to support. If you agree, you can subscribe to the newsletter.

The Links

I promise I’ve read every single one of these, and can recommend them all.

The Interface Layer: Where Design Commoditizes Tech
Scott Belsky makes the case that the future of digital services lies in building a simple interface over convenient utilities and services – a reverse of the atomisation of apps and services we’re currently seeing.

Mobile First
No, not that mobile first. This is Ben Thompson’s theory that we’re seeing a shift where products and services – online and physical – are undergoing changes driven by smartphone culture. Based on some speculation about an unannounced product, but pretty sound theory nonetheless.

Technology Has Made Life Different, but Not Necessarily More Stressful
A study indicates that frequent internet and social media users are no more stressed than those who use technology less often, and some women even show a reduction in stress when using digital tools. By Claire Cain Miller. I love seeing data that goes against the general narrative.

The Internet of Things needs a few SMACS
Scott Jenson lays out the requirements for the ThingNet, and it’s more than just the things and a standard protocol.

Europe is Wrong to take a Sledgehammer to Big Google
Search becomes more useful the more it knows about you, and forcing a breakup of Google would make all of its services less useful. Evgeny Morozov argues that what we need is not to hobble big services, but to provide data regulations to allow thousands of smaller companies to compete.

The Hot Topic

Variations on a theme.

A Teenager’s View on Social Media and What Teens Really Think about YouTube, Google+, Reddit and Other Social Media
These two articles caused a stir recently, because they were written by Andrew Watts who is an actual teen, making everyone very excited because they thought they were getting a valuable insight into teen social media use. However


An Old Fogey’s Analysis of a Teenager’s View on Social Media

 this response by Danah Boyd points out that what we’re reading here is the opinion of one somewhat privileged, savvy teen, and probably shouldn’t be taken as anything other than this teen’s point of view.

The Disagree

Not that this is bad, I just think it’s off-target.

Why the modern world is bad for your brain
I’ve seen this argument by professor Daniel J Levitin in many different forms, but it has what I think are two fundamental flaws: first, ‘information overload’ has been decried as a problem since around the era of the printed word; for the second flaw, see the next link.

The Classic

A brilliant article from a few years ago.

Why Google Isn’t Making Us Stupid
 or Smart
“Technology is neither an abstract flood of data nor a simple machine-like appendage subordinate to human intentions, but instead the very manner in which humans engage the world.” By Chad Wellmon.

The Weird

I’m not quite sure what to think of this.

Why you should ask: “Why?” (The pratfalls and potential windfalls of modern technology)
I agree with the premise (the tech landscape too often doesn’t think about the social impact of their work) and the conclusion (we should consider longer and slower context when making things), but almost nothing in between the two makes sense to me in Gunther Sonnenfeld’s article.

Comments are closed.