RECENT years have seen a surge of books and articles on the impact of technology on people’s lives and thinking.
asserted
years → see → lives
While communication technology has opened new vistas and opportunities it has also created its own problems in our digital age.
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it → open → age
Some works celebrate its benefits.
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works → celebrate → benefits
Others warn of its damaging consequences especially those of social media.
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Others → warn → media
James Marriott’s The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society joins this debate from another angle.
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Ages → join → angle
The British journalist’s work falls within the genre that emphasises the harmful consequences of digital technology.
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that → fall → technology
The book’s principal concern is that people aren’t reading anymore and that a screen culture is displacing a print culture.
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culture → read → culture
For Marriott, the spread of literacy and the kind of thinking nurtured by the world of print drove progress in economic development, scientific advancement, and the emergence of modern democracy.
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spread → nurture → democracy
In a print culture, he argues, knowledge is organised, understood, and contextualised.
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knowledge → argue → culture
“Books make arguments, propose theses and develop ideas.”
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Books → make → ideas
This process, he contends, develops the power of reasoning.
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he → contend → reasoning
For Marriott, this is getting lost in an era where the smartphone has taken over our lives and become the main reason for the decline of reading.
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smartphone → lose → reading
There has never been a technology quite like the smartphone, which has so much distracting content that it keeps people’s attention endlessly on the screen.
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it → have → screen
He maintains that a hostile environment for learning has been created by this digital distraction.
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environment → maintain → distraction
Screens are changing human behaviour.
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Screens → change → behaviour
Smartphones are shaping a “fragmented, trivialised and angry new world”, in which conspiracy theories and mad ideas are spread at terrifying speed.
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theories → shape → speed
The spread of knowledge is impeded by this and is actually breaking down.
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spread → impede → this
Political discourse once grounded in logical argument now takes place “amid the moronic inferno of social media”.
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discourse → ground → media
Marriot attributes much of the 21st century’s disorder and unreason to the fading of the written word and the “colonisation of culture” by addictive screens.
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Marriot → attribute → screens
He sees the intellectual hollowing of society as a consequence of the decline of reading and the world becoming a less rational place.
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world → see → reading
Public discourse today, he claims, has become trivial to the point of dysfunction.
uncertain
he → claim → dysfunction
It has affected politics too as this environment encourages the rise of mediocre politicians with little understanding of history, whose appeals to the public are emotional and do not rest on rational propositions.
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appeals → affect → propositions
Politics, Marriott argues, is growing “angrier, stupider and more obsessed with personality”.
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Marriott → argue → personality
He laments the fact that the full ramifications of the onset of what he calls a post-literate society are not fully understood.
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he → lament → what
Marriot may be overstating his case and exaggerating the damaging impact of digital technology.
uncertain
Marriot → overstate → technology
Last year in a compelling book Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart, Nicholas Carr surveyed how digital technology — including smartphones, the internet, social media and artificial intelligence — is transforming both people and societies.
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technology → tear → people
He argued that instead of broadening minds, expanding empathy and fostering harmony, this technology has had the opposite effect.
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technology → argue → effect
It is eroding understanding and trust and contributing to strife and social disharmony.
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It → erode → strife
Communication technology offers immense opportunities but has serious unintended consequences.
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technology → offer → consequences
For Carr, speed and intensity in the flow of information and stimuli compel people to rely on intuitive thinking based on biases.
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speed → compel → biases
It deprives them of the ability to tap into deeper analysis.
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It → deprive → analysis
As a result, it has undermined reasoned analysis, methodical evaluation and contemplative inquiry.
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it → undermine → analysis
As he puts it “Attention splinters, understanding grows thin”.
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understanding → put → it
This results in mental shortcuts and shallow thinking.
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This → result → shortcuts
Thus “rather than levelling barriers to knowledge, it becomes a barrier itself”.
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it → level → knowledge
For both Marriott and Carr, the information spread through digital vehicles does not foster knowledge but detracts from it.
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information → spread → it
“More informed does not mean better informed.”
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informed → mean → ?
The fragmented nature of information provided by the screen makes much of it useless, according to Marriott.
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much → provide → Marriott
Social media further dumbs down the public conversation.
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media → dumb → conversation
Marriott sees social media and short-form videos producing junk content and misleading posts.
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media → see → content
…and 20 more, not listed.
