Monday, July 7, 2003

Data-lure NYT has an article on yet another post modern (or possibly just modern) disease. They call this one on-line compulsive disorder, though the people they talk to in the article prefer to call it psuedo-attention deficeit disorder. This allows them to pick up the connotation that inveterate multitaskers aren't particulary effective at the tasks they undertake. I resist the implication that this is tremendously new. I have an image compiled from old movies where an editor or business executive would be at a desk with five or so phones on it talking on two of them at once while someone held up a stock or teletype ticker for him to read. I have been a news junkie all my life I cannont walk by a newspaper (hey are you reading that Boston Globe? - actual history from the last time I was in a train station.) Apparently there are just too many gadgets that can be the Boston Globe for you all at, once and fit in your pocket. I don't have that problem, when I encounter someone who says "excuse me I'm getting beeped by my blueberry", I counter with "yeah well I'm getting a message from count chocula. ... Maybe the Straussians are right, maybe there is no mass Democracy, only mass culture. ._._. pb _._ The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive?. The ubiquity of technology in the lives of businesspeople and consumers has created a a brewing tension between productivity and freneticism. By Matt Richtel. [New York Times: Technology] 9:28:31 AM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2006 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 10/21/06; 2:54:32 PM.