THE PENDULUM
WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 16. 2009 // PAGE 11
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Learning how to forget
When knowledge loses its permanence
Revolutions In communications
technology are credited with making
life easier and encouraging ties between
distances and cultures, but it also must be
noted that such revelations bring about a
change in a populace’s mentality. Even if
a message remains the same, the conduit
through which it’s conveyed is guaranteed to
uniquely contort it.
The progression from spoken word to
text, then to recordings and telegrams,
phones and faxes and eventually the
Internet’s instantaneous outreach, isn’t
notable merely for the time it cut out of
communicating, but for the irreversible
change it brought about.
“They will not use their memories. They
will trust to the external written characters
and not remember of themselves. The
specific which you have discovered is an
aid not to memory, but to reminiscence,”
Plato quoted Socrates in “Phaedrus.” “They
will be hearers of many things and will
have learned nothing; they will appear to
be omniscient and will generally know
nothing."
Socrates was referring to the advent
of written texts replacing spoken word as
the main vessel through which stories,
lessons and knowledge were passed on
from one generation to the next. His fears,
stated plainly, were that if ideas were given
physical embodiment, their importance
would decline.
After all, if an individual can go to a
book for information, what use is there
in retaining whatever is learned? Socrates
feared knowledge would be leased, not
owned, by society.
That prediction has never been truer than
right now. On a scale the ancient Greeks
never could have predicted, innumerable
amounts of information are right at the
fingertips of entire countries.
The hunt for knowledge has changed
from a long trek through library corridors,
while leafing through yellowed texts with
a notebook riddled with hectic notes. Now,
almost every question can be answered with
a quick Google search and a click on the
first link.
But is it such a bad thing? Though it
may be handy to pull out obscure facts in
dire moments, and an elaborately well-*?*' .
founded improvisation may be useful for
a presentation here and there, it appears
as though the cultural momentum is
moving toward temporary, readily available
information.
A study released in April from The
Ohio State University, suggesting higher
amounts of time devoted to Facebook were
influencing lower grades at the university,
seemed to validate the critical view of
this huge breadth of information. With
such a deluge of names, dates, interests
and the like eating space that presumably
would be devoted to memorizing pertinent
information for exams, it seemed it was
obvious that students actively gobbling
information would have less time and space
for schoolwork.
But the study’s claims were called into
question after Josh Pasek, a Ph.D. candidate
at Stanford University, released a study that
used a significantly larger polling base to
draw the conclusion that there was little to
no reason to justify the claims that Facebook
was rotting the intellect of its users.
“The question is not whether individuals
are using a particular medium, but how,” the
study imparts.
It’s not just the Internet that contributes
to the clutter. The expansion of television
channels has led to, like the Internet, a
diverse and at times incredibly inane,
landscape. The problem isn’t that there are
hundreds of channels or millions of Web
sites covering news and world events — it’s
the way in which users interact with their
choices.
There’s a natural predilection to gravitate
toward information that either fits a cookie-
cutter worldview or serves to placate instead
of agitate. As more and more options fall
into society’s lap, it’s inevitable that without
rigorous objectivity, said worldview will
become increasingly myopic.
Instantaneous information is, at face
value, perfectly innocent. Being able to rent
movies right on YouTube, receive medical
advice with just a few search terms and be
given a rundown of pertinent news events
on Drudge Report is convenient and in no
way inherently in.sidious.
But the manner in which it changes the
way society thinks, remembering links
— not facts — or being satisfied with a
quick search as opposed to going through
articles containing at least a bit of context,
has far-reaching implications. The point
of contention is simple. Is it our role to set
limitations on how much our own thought
processes are altered by technology, and
to encourage others to do the same? Or is
societal change inevitable, and knowledge
that vanishes with a passing breeze simply
too commonplace to change?
The danger in giving up on human-
held knowledge, though, is that those who
acknowledge this change can use this to
their own advantage, manipulating these
temporary memories with pandering,
baseless claims that will be received as fact
because there isn’t anything upstairs to
claim otherwise.
The speed of knowledge
Messenger pigeon
30 mph
Pony Expre^:
10 days
First-Class Mail:
2-3 days
A book:
Hours of eye-straining work
Google:
A few minutes
INFORMATION COURTESY OfBBC, UPS
CORRECTIONS...
The Sept. 9 column, “Don't be
at his Beck and call," incorrectly
said, "While Cooper is one of
those responsible for the slough of
misinformation that's out there ...”
The intended wording is as follows:
“While Cooper is not one of those
responsible for the slough of
misinformation that's out there ..."
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