PROGRAM OR BE PROGRAMMED
I. Time: Do Not Be Always On
a. Addiction
Rushkoff makes a clear argument that because online technology was not created to function in relation to time it runs at a different pace than daily human life and routines. In the origins of dial-up Internet, he explains, this had clear advantages, where you could create conversations and gain information whenever worked for you, ie. whenever you chose to dial-up and open up the chatrooms you wanted to participate in. Now that the internet and other digital platforms have become linked to devices that are always on our bodies, our work desks, and our bedside tables, we do not choose to use them, as much as we are compelled to obsessively check them. Where as in person, there is often one conversation or task in front of us, our online worlds can have hundreds of threads of communication coming to our devices simultaneously, from emails to tweets to snapchats to news notifications. Because this "speed" of information happens much faster than human brains generally work, we are constantly trying to "catch up" with all of the communication and data. Rushkoff explains, "...commands are coming at us now in increasingly rapid bursts, stimulating us to respond at rates incompatible with human thought and emotion." In order to "not miss anything", in our social lives, professional lives, and the non-personal realms of news, memes, and breaking-internet-level content, we have to be checking our devices constantly, as Rushkoff explains, "like classically conditioned gamblers at the slot machines." We are addicted to the act of just checking, and because of the breadth of content and the speed at which it is dispersed, we will always have plenty to discover on each quick "check", instantly reinforcing the addictive behavior.
b. Anxiety
While Program or Be Programmed was published in 2010, at least half a decade before the term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) became a society-defining acronym, Rushkoff is keen to notice the nature of modern technology to cultivate anxiety in its users. My personal experience of relaxation vs. anxiety appears to directly stem from when I have information "under control" vs. when I feel overwhelmed or behind in what I am trying to process. The new, the unknown, the unread email, those are all things I want to take time to understand, to master, and to "take care of". When they are not yet handled, they can cause some anxiety. Rushkoff proposes, "As Internet connections grow faster, fatter and freer...we are more likely to adopt an 'always on' approach to media...our devices, and by extension, our nervous systems are now attached to the entire online universe, all the time. Is that my phone vibrating?" Because of the speed at which all the internet platforms work, as explained above, and because of the continual stream of information and notifications we are receiving, it is much more likely that we feel "behind" in our digital lives, than "on top of it". Feeling like we constantly need to catch up to not miss something can easily cause high stress levels, even for things we earnestly enjoy, like following popular culture, for example. How many pop news stories can we read at a time? How may platforms can we check simultaneously? The answer is most commonly, only one at a time. Humans are not wired to process vast amounts of different information at the same moment, like computers are able to do. "No matter how proficient we think we are at multitasking, studies show our ability to accomplish tasks accurately and completely only diminishes the more we try to do at the same time," Rushkoff explains. Thus, to try to keep up, we can only plug along at a painstakingly dawdling human pace, and are living in state where we are often on edge and anxious, feeling like we are behind.
I. Time: Do Not Be Always On
a. Addiction
Rushkoff makes a clear argument that because online technology was not created to function in relation to time it runs at a different pace than daily human life and routines. In the origins of dial-up Internet, he explains, this had clear advantages, where you could create conversations and gain information whenever worked for you, ie. whenever you chose to dial-up and open up the chatrooms you wanted to participate in. Now that the internet and other digital platforms have become linked to devices that are always on our bodies, our work desks, and our bedside tables, we do not choose to use them, as much as we are compelled to obsessively check them. Where as in person, there is often one conversation or task in front of us, our online worlds can have hundreds of threads of communication coming to our devices simultaneously, from emails to tweets to snapchats to news notifications. Because this "speed" of information happens much faster than human brains generally work, we are constantly trying to "catch up" with all of the communication and data. Rushkoff explains, "...commands are coming at us now in increasingly rapid bursts, stimulating us to respond at rates incompatible with human thought and emotion." In order to "not miss anything", in our social lives, professional lives, and the non-personal realms of news, memes, and breaking-internet-level content, we have to be checking our devices constantly, as Rushkoff explains, "like classically conditioned gamblers at the slot machines." We are addicted to the act of just checking, and because of the breadth of content and the speed at which it is dispersed, we will always have plenty to discover on each quick "check", instantly reinforcing the addictive behavior.
b. Anxiety
While Program or Be Programmed was published in 2010, at least half a decade before the term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) became a society-defining acronym, Rushkoff is keen to notice the nature of modern technology to cultivate anxiety in its users. My personal experience of relaxation vs. anxiety appears to directly stem from when I have information "under control" vs. when I feel overwhelmed or behind in what I am trying to process. The new, the unknown, the unread email, those are all things I want to take time to understand, to master, and to "take care of". When they are not yet handled, they can cause some anxiety. Rushkoff proposes, "As Internet connections grow faster, fatter and freer...we are more likely to adopt an 'always on' approach to media...our devices, and by extension, our nervous systems are now attached to the entire online universe, all the time. Is that my phone vibrating?" Because of the speed at which all the internet platforms work, as explained above, and because of the continual stream of information and notifications we are receiving, it is much more likely that we feel "behind" in our digital lives, than "on top of it". Feeling like we constantly need to catch up to not miss something can easily cause high stress levels, even for things we earnestly enjoy, like following popular culture, for example. How many pop news stories can we read at a time? How may platforms can we check simultaneously? The answer is most commonly, only one at a time. Humans are not wired to process vast amounts of different information at the same moment, like computers are able to do. "No matter how proficient we think we are at multitasking, studies show our ability to accomplish tasks accurately and completely only diminishes the more we try to do at the same time," Rushkoff explains. Thus, to try to keep up, we can only plug along at a painstakingly dawdling human pace, and are living in state where we are often on edge and anxious, feeling like we are behind.
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