WEBVTT - Social Media and You 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.720 Get in touch with technology with text stuff from how stuff? 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:16.800 What's that? Hey, there, it's text stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.360 and I'm Lauren Boglebaum, and today we want to talk 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.479 to you about social media. Do you use it? Do 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.880 your kids use it? Are you worried? Could it possibly 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.159 be turning you into an irritated hermit who likes to 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.640 scream at people as they walk by your front door? 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.040 Or is that just the natural progression of the way 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:36.800 I'm aging? I might have share too much information just 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.519 now there there is there's Jonathan's partially joking, but but 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.480 there's a lot of I really do yell at people. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.920 But other than that, Yes, there's a lot of fear 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.040 out there. I think in a lot of a lot 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.120 of news stories that are kind of amping up that fear. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.239 And there's been several studies that that talk with this 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.640 doom and gloom about like about like, oh, no, social 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.480 media is so big that we're not going to talk 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.480 to each other in person anymore. Um, total communication breakdown. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.600 Captain Donn's looking together that that kind of thing. Um, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.800 and uh, it's this is not pop stuff. But I 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.679 like to just yes anyway, yeah, no, no, no, we 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.280 quote documentaries all the time here on tech stuff. It's 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.400 perfectly fine, and I agree entirely, Lauren. I mean from 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:21.000 an armchair psychology perspective, if I were to just look 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.319 at the whole idea of social media and human interaction 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.920 in general, uh, part of me would think, hey, social 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:33.000 media is replacing that face to face human interaction that 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.080 we tend to think of as being really important as 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.720 part of our development as a person, right, or that 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.200 seems to be really important for a very long time. Yeah, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.199 I mean it's it's part of socialization. And the worry 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.640 is that without that face to face interaction with something 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.440 else replacing it, we would be less capable of dealing 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.400 with those interactions when they come up. And a lot 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.520 of the the information about this tends to be anecdotal, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.360 which anyone who has done any science knows is not 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:07.080 reliable when it comes to actually measuring it's not actually science. Um. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.200 There have been a few studies. There's a one one 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.520 that you will hear quoted all the time was from 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.600 the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. UM. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.160 And uh this one said, this one is was in 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.040 two thousand five, to be fair, so This was a 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.400 few years ago, before Twitter and Facebook were really huge. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.160 But um, but it found that um, compared to people 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.520 who do not use the internet frequently, those who do, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.040 um uh, spend seventy minutes less per day interacting with 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.480 their family, twenty five minutes less per day sleeping, and 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.040 thirty is less watching television. Although I'm not sure why 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.360 that's necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, that could o but 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.240 but but that but that family thing, that's seventy minutes 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.400 less a day talking to your family, that sounds that 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.160 sounds awful until of course you're interacting with your family 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.440 online exactly. And that's and that's what we're I think 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:57.360 it turns out that that is what we are doing 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.000 right right. Yeah. Again, it's one of those things where 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:03.000 I think the stereotype, the thing that we all imagine 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.520 is the person sequestered in his or her room. Uh 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:13.359 you know, it's dark. Its yeah, it's depressing, and yeah, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.840 the only interaction they get is never whomever is online. 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.640 Is there a keyboard and never a microphone? Right, And 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.760 that's it. And it could be a synchronous communication, meaning 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.240 that you know, you leave a message, then later on 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:25.960 the person reads it and then they leave a message. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.680 This is essentially the way email works. It's a synchronous 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.360 as opposed to a face to face conversation, which is 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.120 generally synchronous unless you're talking to me, in which case 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.440 it is just a monologue. But uh, that's the way 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.400 I work. But anyway, that's generally speaking, that tends to 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.520 be the view is that it's a person who is 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.280 withdrawing more and more. And it's this this idea that 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.840 social media could ultimately be dehumanizing us, at least in 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.120 the sense of how we define what a human is 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.160 right now right, And to be fair, isolation is a 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.960 very scary thing. Um. There's all kinds of studies about 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.320 about how it can be as bad for you as 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:08.800 smoking an obesity, how it increases cancers, tumors in mice. Um, 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.840 I mean it's developmentally, it's a very big problem. I mean, 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.600 there's there are actual cases of tragic cases of children 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.719 who are deprived the ability to interact with other people 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.160 and how that has impacted their ability to develop as 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.440 a human, like like you know, they never really develop 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.640 beyond a certain what would be equivalent to a certain age, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.000 like a younger age. That there are stories about kids 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.720 who were in terrible conditions and you know, grow up 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.720 and never really develop beyond say a seven or eight 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.960 year old mission level. Lonely subjects have been found to 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.960 have less brain activity than than people with a a 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.000 healthy and diverse social network. Yes, whenever I get lonely, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.760 I'm not thinking of anything. It's just me and Supernatural, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.880 Natural Marathon. You had it, man, before I could even 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.640 say it. Yes, it's just me and the next episode 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.320 of Supernatural. Not that there's anything wrong with that. These 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.039 brothers are dreaming. I wouldn't know. I don't want to 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:14.720 show they are. I'm like, I believe you know. Okay, cool, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:20.119 So anyway, yes, that these are these are all perceptions. Now, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:22.760 when it comes down to science, there are a lot 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.760 of different stays that look at this, and there's some 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.440 conflicting results. And part of that is because the nature 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.120 of the studies. Part of it is that you know, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.479 the studies are not necessarily looking at the exact same criteria, right, 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.560 So it could be that one seems to contradict another, 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.000 but it maybe then a broader perspective, they're not really contradictory. 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:41.680 It's just that they're looking at they're looking at different 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.560 aspects because when people are talking about social isolation, um, 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:49.640 they're they're talking about the size, the intimacy, the diversity, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.160 and the location of your social network. Right. Yes, there's 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.400 lots of different terms for this as well, about whether 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.200 or not you have a certain number of confidence like 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.400 people that you you really connect with. These are the 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:07.240 people with whom you share those deep personal things that 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.080 are not something you would talk about to just you 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.440 your neighbor, unless they're your confident or or someone on 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.800 the street or your coworker. Necessarily it's it's it's who 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:17.679 you go to when you're upset or when you're happy. 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.960 It's the first person that, if you're me, you text 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.640 message when when something terrific happens to you haven't received 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:31.679 text messages. Okay, so awkward, Uh, moving on, I'm dealing 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.760 with a little heartbreak here. But it's okay, I I 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:39.159 don't I don't have to be everyone's best friend. Well, well, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.640 the thing is that people that people really um, the 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.080 average person has has one point eight ish and then 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.560 that's that's you know, one point eight close contexts like that, 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.840 depending upon depending on which survey, Because some of these 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.680 one of the one of the surveys I really looked at, 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.279 which is one that you you sent me the information to, 0:06:58.360 --> 0:06:59.960 So I thank you, Lauren, because without it I would 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.000 have nothing to talk about. But it was a Pew 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:06.280 Internet Personal Networks and Community survey. Now, before I even 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.800 get into the data here, I should stress they surveyed 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.480 two thousand, five twelve adults. Now that's a pretty small 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:18.880 sample size, so any results we get you have to 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.760 keep in mind this is this is a very small sample. 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.720 But within that sample they drew some pretty big conclusions. 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.360 One of those was that of American adults said they 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:37.080 used the Internet, So wow, didn't but anyway said they 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:41.600 used the Internet. And nearly half of adults, or of 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.840 those who said they use the Internet, say they use 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.600 at least one social networking service. So this is stuff 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.840 like Facebook, Twitter, linked in, that kind of thing, and uh, 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.640 this is sort of tangential to our community. Are our 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.840 our conversation here, But I found it really interesting out 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.880 of the ones they surveyed, of the those who used 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.560 social networking services said they used Facebook, so them like 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.760 Facebook is one of the ones I use, used my Space, 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.040 LinkedIn and used Twitter, so that means more people are 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.800 using my Space than Twitter, which to me says the 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.480 of people who said that are all in the band. 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.200 I mean, really, when was the last time use my space? 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.160 I I deleted my my Space account about a year ago. Now, 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:34.040 I granted it's it's coming back because brought sexy and 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.160 my Spacebook. Those are the two things he brought back. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:38.760 I don't know where he went to find them, but 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.520 he brought them back. Um. But yeah, I don't use 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.839 my Space either. It just blows my mind that more 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.440 people are using my Space that in the survey anyway 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.320 than LinkedIn and Twitter. But um but but but that's 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.280 I mean, that is indicative of the of the overall usage. 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.520 I mean, Facebook as of October had um one billion 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.280 monthly active users. Yeah, that's a huge, huge number and 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.400 four million daily active users. That's a whole bunch of people. 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.240 That's that's that's more people than there are even user 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.240 accounts on Twitter. Um as as of December, Twitter had 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:19.920 had more than December people when the far future are 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.600 listening to back in the future, where's my jet pack? 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.240 Is it on the way the time machine to bring 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:28.920 it back to me? Right? There's no way they can 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.280 tell me. This is the sad thing like you've been 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:36.040 using it for three years. Time travel stinks, um because 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.520 I only get to go one direction and it's really slow, 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.960 second by second as it turns out. Anyway, the interesting 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.480 thing about this this survey, I mean, we've been kind 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.680 of talking about the things they found, but one of 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.920 the things they were specifically looking for was this idea 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.640 of social isolation and does the use of social media 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.440 contribute to social isolation? Is it true that we are 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.720 actually withdrawing from so I D in favor of the 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.120 interactions that we have on social networking services? And according 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.960 to the service spoiler alert, no, no it's not. Yeah, 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.360 they said that, according to the surveying that social isolation 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:20.320 has not really changed since which this is just for 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.400 people who aren't paying really close attention. Not really a 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.080 big year for the internet. Um five, If you were 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.439 using the Internet, you were in a research facility or 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.800 a university. Uh, you were not the average person. Because, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.600 of course, the Worldwide Web the main way we tend 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.360 to think about interacting with the Internet, apart from apps 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.640 and stuff. That's starting to really take control but soon 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:47.840 wed web wasn't a thing until two so obviously is 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.679 before social networking services are a thing like three people 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.680 on Prodigy as of eight and that was just it. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.760 So if you're on a bulletin board system, maybe, but 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.360 it's before social networking servi This is obviously uh, but 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.360 these the extent of social isolation hasn't really changed the sense. 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.959 So that tells us that it's very possible social networking 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.200 services don't have a big impact. Now we can't say 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.200 that for sure because there are a lot of different facts. Yeah, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.080 it could be that we are reducing social isolation at 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.920 an exponential rate, but the social networking services are pulling 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.520 that back. So it could be that there is an 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.360 impact on social isolation. It's just that other factors are 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.920 pushing it forward, so it ends up balancing. Yeah, this 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.800 is the complex thing about science. This is why drawing 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.400 conclusions is difficult. You have to do a lot of 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.960 studies and really look at all the different factors and 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.280 try and control for as many variables as possible because 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.800 otherwise whatever you say could turn out to be not 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:54.720 so true in the grand scheme of things. But based 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.920 upon what this survey found, it looks like social networking 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.520 services are not turning us all into hermits. This isn't 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.720 from the same Pew Internet study. I think it's from 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.280 a different one. I didn't write down which study it's 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.360 from in my notes, but um, it's been found that 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.199 mobile phone use has actually made our contact lists smaller 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.520 but more intense. That makes sense. So, for instance, you know, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.800 it's not that it's not that the relationships are less meaningful. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.839 It just means that the ones that we contact, we're 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.880 really depending upon them, and that we might be using 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.200 a phone in order to make that connection as opposed 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.920 to necessary you know, walking across the street or or 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.000 driving to a friend's house or meeting up at a 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.679 coffee shop or whatever. To me, you know, that just 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.720 means that we're transferring that same need for interaction to 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.880 a different medium. It doesn't mean that we're losing that interaction. 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.000 It just means that it's a you know, we're taking 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.319 advantage of technology in ways that we couldn't before, which 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.600 is awesome because I mean, I'm sure you've known people 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.360 who have moved away. You you yourself have moved a 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.880 few times. Absolutely. I I play Halo every Wednesday nights 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:58.120 that I get to hang out with my friends who 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.360 don't live here anymore. Right, So this is technology giving 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.600 us those social interactions that otherwise we might lose if 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.200 if we were to relocate or our friends relocate. And 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.520 in my view, that's a huge positive. It means that 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:17.000 those those those relationships that have been formed over years 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:22.400 sometimes decades of uh knowing one another don't fade away. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.120 They still remain relevant because technology allows us to continue 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.160 to build those relationships. Now, those interactions, the nature of 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:34.559 them might change event but it's still a very important 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.400 part of who we are and how we interact. And 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.560 for some people, um, you know, there there are mentally 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.000 and physically disabled people, the elderly, um, new new mothers 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.000 who can't get out of the house, um, all kinds 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.760 of people who they've been doing medical studies with to 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.080 see if use of the internet can actually give them 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.240 better social interaction. Sure, it's it's it's been found to 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.400 reduce depression and to those groups, um and and has 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.720 really helped people out. So yeah, I've even seen that 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.760 there have been studies done with people who have various 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.640 mental health conditions who otherwise would find it very difficult 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.120 to socialize. They they either not just awkward like me 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.600 and Jonathan, right, No, no, no, people who really find 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.320 it difficult to form any kind of social contact. It's 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.000 just one of those things that it's a block for them, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.000 and uh, it can be very frustrating, especially if they 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.280 observe that other people are capable of doing this. And 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.760 there are so many factors involved here. There's a there's 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.560 an entire taboo about mental health in our culture that 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.080 is that's problematic and so awful. Yeah, and it feeds 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.320 on itself, right, it betimes this thing where it just 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.440 mounts on the person who's experiencing this. And some of 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:53.880 the studies had people using social networks and and they 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.640 were finding it much easier to interact with people and 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.760 making suggestions on how to create a social network with 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:04.960 two rules that would allow them to have greater interaction. Which, yeah, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.080 you think about that, like this is this is what 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.280 technology should do. Technology should help people so that they 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.720 can interact any way they want in though, you know, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.960 in a way that brings them the satisfaction that people 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.840 can have, you know, people who don't have these conditions 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:26.120 tend to find naturally. Um, I like this to me, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.320 it's to me, it's a great thing. And anything that 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.520 decreases that sense of isolation and that sense that taboo 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.280 is a good thing to and it's it's an added dimension. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:38.280 It doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be replacement. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.560 It can be. And things change. I mean, I mean, 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:47.000 Socrates was terrified that writing was going to ruin people's brains. Oh, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.520 I want to talk about this, but we're gonna get 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.920 into that all right. Now, hang on one second. Now, 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.360 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor, and 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.600 now back to the show. So you were talking about Socrates, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.040 and right right, the idea that writing things down means 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.600 that you're taking stuff out of your brain and putting 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.360 it on paper or stone or clay or whatever. Right 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.960 a tree, your buddy Bill who stands still for really 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.600 long periods of time, whatever, you're taking it out of 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.160 your brain, you're putting it on something else. And therefore 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.240 you are no longer relying on your brain to process 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.760 that information because you've offloaded it. Socrates thought this was 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.920 a terrible idea. The interesting thing is that attitude has 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.360 continued up to present day, which is, you know, I 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.960 assume why you brought it up, because today we have 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:39.640 computers and and uh smartphones and calculators. Calculators. Yeah, I 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.120 could not do complex equations anymore without the use of 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.920 a calculator, because frankly, I just don't use those skills 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:47.960 as frequently as I as I used to. Well, you're 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.160 a writer, you're not a mathematician. I'm not a good 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.680 one either, um, and then mathematician that is, I'm an 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.080 excellent writer. You should read some of my articles at 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:00.880 houstufforce dot com. You know what I'm talking about. So anyway, yeah, yeah, 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.600 I know, that's the exactly I mean. Nicholas Carr wrote 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.119 the famous article for The Atlantic. Is Google making a 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.640 stupid this whole idea that because we've got so much 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.359 information on the Internet, that we have access to information 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.720 and therefore we're less intelligent? Right right? We don't. We 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.240 don't have to remember stuff, we don't have to know stuff. 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.280 We just because I'm DD knows it, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:24.960 why do we? Why do I need to even process 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:26.760 this information? All I have to do is type in 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.359 search query and Google pull up the first answer and 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.840 then and then repeat it back. It doesn't even mean 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.119 that I even process it on a level where I 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:40.119 understand it. Social media or social networking services, some people 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.840 were worried a similar thing is going on with the 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.120 social aspect. As we're talking with the memory and processing 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.400 of information on the internet. This idea that social networking 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.639 services are creating a less meaningful way of connecting with people, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.520 But things like this Pew research survey suggest otherwise. It's 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.919 suggests that we're getting just as much meaningful interaction online 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.840 and through technology as we would face to face. The 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.159 actual nature of that interaction may change somewhat somewhat, but 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.199 it's still important and it's still helpful. Yeah, and and 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:14.520 that's I mean, you know that that kind of fear 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.080 of technology. To be fair, we hear tech stuff are 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.840 probably biased towards technology and just maybe maybe a little 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.920 bit please listen to all our episodes on your computer 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:30.760 ours contact at Discovery dot com. But um, but but no, 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:32.680 I mean, I mean fear of fear of technology isn't 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.879 going to change the fact that technology is out there, 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.720 and it's not going to change the fact that things 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.639 are changing. Change happen, society changes, everything changes, you know. 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.960 And people were also worried, um in the Industrial Revolution 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:52.000 that because um, because these these machines we were starting 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:56.439 to automate human processes, that that the the equality of 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.280 workspace interaction was going to go down right, and and 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.520 all kinds of other ripple effects out from that. And 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:04.800 for sure that's where we get the whole sabotage thing, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.040 because people, you know, the whole idea, the sabo throwing 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.280 the wooden shoe into the automated loom to destroy it. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.720 So any are old old listeners to not not old listeners, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:17.680 but people have listened to old episodes of tech stuff. 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.800 Know that. We've talked about that many many times. And 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.760 and it's not it's you know, the answer is, yes, 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.560 things are changing, but no, that's not necessarily bad thing. Yeah. 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.479 In fact that that Again, going back to that Pew survey, 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:32.359 one of the other things I thought was really interesting 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.240 was that they found that people who used web a lot. Again, 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.000 another one of those those uh perceptions is that these 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.240 are people who don't get out as much. They don't 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.640 you know, they don't interact in other ways other than online. 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.439 But that doesn't seem to be the case according to 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.440 the people that they surveyed. According to the survey, the 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.760 folks who used the web were actually more likely to 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:59.520 interact with people in their immediate physical environment. They were 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:01.840 more like need to do things like speak to a 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.280 neighbor on a on a regular basis or uh yes, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.359 it's respondent said that they talked to a neighbor at 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.640 least once per month, and they found that bloggers are 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.399 seventy two percent more likely to belong to a local 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:18.360 voluntary association than those who do not blog. So there 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.959 you've got people who are very much invested in the 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.840 online world, but not at the expense of the physical one, 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:30.080 so directly contradicting that armchair psychology approach, which is why 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.679 we always say, like, yeah, there's that whole idea of 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:37.359 common sense dictates, which often means I am wrong, but 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.560 it seems like I'm right. I do this all the time. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:45.280 I'm like, well, common sense talking up of my butt 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.359 because I don't have any data in front of me. 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:50.320 But yeah, they also found out they said web users 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.119 are more likely to visit a cafe. I did not 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.560 say if it was an Internet cafe, which obviously would 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.720 increase the odds, but fifty two that more likely to 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.240 visit a library. Didn't say if that was because of 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:06.399 how they access the Internet, but hey, thirty four percent 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.199 more likely to visit a fast food restaurant that I 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.959 don't necessarily think it's a good thing. You know what, 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.080 I haven't visit a fast food restaurant in a very 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:18.399 long time, for I'm not a fast food fan. More 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.680 likely to visit other restaurants now I'm in that category 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.560 we might like food and oh gosh, I love food, 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.080 and then more likely to visit a public park, which 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.399 is awesome. That is awesome. So we're talking about people 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:36.000 who have a real investment in their community and an 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.720 interest in the world outside the realm of the computer. 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.800 So that does contradict They aren't going outside, They're just 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:46.040 taking pictures to upload when they get home. Right. Oh, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.040 that reminds me of something I wanted to talk about 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.080 that wasn't on our on the notes, but it was. 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.280 It's this idea. It's something that's interesting. So one of 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.280 the one of the conflicts that people have with whole 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.879 social networking services and everything is that it it is 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.360 constantly interrupting our daily lives if we are connected in 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:09.360 various ways, so that, uh, there are times where it's 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.440 inappropriate for you to stop what you're doing and respond 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.440 to someone on Facebook or Twitter, like like you're at work, 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.880 or you are in a conversation with someone, or you're 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.480 up on stage developing a keynote address to a bunch 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:30.400 of people. But I was gonna say, like driving, but so, 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:34.359 uh anyway, have you ever been to uh dinner with 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.480 someone or a meal with someone when the very first 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.840 thing that happens is smartphone hits the table? Yes, that 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.000