Information overload. Part II.

Information overload probably isn’t the problem we think it is.  Or is it?

The article below, entirely quoted, is from part of the online supplement to the November/December print issue of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Clay Shirky teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications program at New York University and is the author, most recently, of Here Comes Everybody, about how new means of communication are changing the social environment. CJR’s Russ Juskalian recently spoke with Shirky about knowledge, the Internet, and why we shouldn’t worry about information overload.

CS: Yeah, that’s certainly part of it. I mean, the thing that people say about young people is just that they understand the technology so well. Well, I teach in a graduate program, I see twenty-five-year-olds all the time. They actually don’t understand the technology particularly well. I think I understand quite a lot of it quite a bit better than they do, which is the reason why I’m teaching there and they’re students. The advantage they have over me is that they don’t have to unlearn anything. They don’t have to unlearn the idea that a card catalog is a helpful thing to have. That you need a librarian to find things. That you have to figure out where you’re looking before you what you’re looking for. None of those things are true anymore. And so one of the problems that old people like me suffer from is just we know too many solutions for problems that no longer exist. And it kind of freaks us out to realize that all the things we mastered don’t really add up to much value anymore.

It’s not so much that young people are smart and old people are scared. It’s that young people don’t have to unlearn all the stuff that old people do have to unlearn if we want to understand this world. And unlearning is just about the least fun activity in the world. So, you know, it’s easy to understand why people don’t want to sign up for it. But it’s also kind of pathetic that the people going around talking about information overload don’t stop to factor in the idea that if the twenty-year-olds aren’t complaining about information overload, it probably isn’t the problem we think it is.

My references:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/

http://www.cjr.org/overload/interview_with_clay_shirky_par.php?page=all

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Information overload. Part I.

Book Review

An advance look at a repeat “torture study” in an academic setting has been posted today by The Bay Area News Group under the headline, “Shocking revelation: Santa Clara University professor mirrors famous torture study.” The study will be published in the January issue of the journal American Psychologist. See, http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11283475.

The willingness of participants to inflict shocks is one of the topics in Influence: Science and Practice, 5^th ed., by Robert B. Cialdini, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University. The original series of experiments was conducted by a professor named Stanley Milgram and published as “Obedience to authority,” in 1974.

I highly recommend your reading Influence. The book examines the principles of influence in chapters on reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social truths, liking, authority and scarcity. Cialdini substantiates his assertions with descriptions of controlled psychological research as well as interviews, quotes and systematic personal observations.

My short take on Influence is we need to get real with ourselves and be wary of everybody else.

Cialdini concludes with an analysis of why we don’t use “all of the relevant available information.” (Issues involving the war in Iraq are in my head as I read this section.) In his discussion of the need for shortcuts or “modern automaticity,” Cialdini observes that the modern era is called the information age, not the knowledge age. He argues that “[i]nformation does not translate directly into knowledge. It must first be processed—accessed, absorbed, comprehended, integrated, and retained.”

“Shortcuts Shall Be Sacred”

Cialdini says that we have created a “paralysis of analysis” by the intricacy and richness of modern life, the abundance of change, choice and challenge. The response, he says, is that “we will revert increasingly to a focus on a single, usually reliable feature of the situation.”

Cialdini states that compliance professionals who use the triggers of influence are likely to be successful. He warns that the use of triggers by practitioners can be exploitive when the trigger is not a natural feature of the situation but is fabricated and those fabrications must be opposed.

Cialdini’s exploration of reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social truths, liking, authority and scarcity provides the information that we need to process.

Would you increase the electric shocks because an authority figure told you to do so?

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Executive Bailout Pay

Billions in government bailouts have been approved for Wall St. and/or financial institutions and/or relief for mortgage lenders and/or homeowners and additional billions may be approved for the US automotive industry.

Despite some discussion, no regulations have been passed to limit executive compensation.

There is a simply way to find a figure appropriate for executives.  Congress should mandate that compensation for all executives of companies taking government bailout money should match what Social Security has estimated will be the average monthly  benefits to be paid as of January, 2009.  That average monthly amount is $1,153 for Social Security retirement beneficiaries (or $1,064 for workers collecting Social Security Disability benefits).

Choosing this amount will first of all resolve the issue of what should be paid to executives.  Secondly, using the average monthly Social Security benefits amount would focus on the importance of the Social Security safety net to its recipients.

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Electoral College

 

 

www.nara.gov

 

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/index.html

 

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G04/ElectorAllocation.phtml

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Hillary not Sarah

During the long primary season, I, and I am sure many others, thought about how the primaries could be better structured. 

 

As a preamble, it must be acknowledged that at this point in time, there are only two national political parties.   Secondly, the method of voting to nominate a presidential candidate, which allows one choice only (no proportional representative or second choice voting), limits the voter’s input. The two major U.S. parties are both voluntary membership organizations and pseudo-public entities.  Although the two parties make their own rules as to how they wish to nominate a presidential and a vice presidential candidate, they also are subject to state election law and use public resources in conducting elections.

 

It has to be noted also that although traditionally American voters have made judgments in voting for president about both the person and the issues, the long primary season has emphasized the personal and de-emphasized the differences between the parties and thus shortchanged the voters.  Additionally, the long primary season has demonstrated that many dollars that could be better spent have been wasted on foolish ads and television spots. 

 

First, I don’t think that New Hampshire and Iowa need to always be the first primary and the first caucus respectively.  Caucuses have limitations and should be abolished or be entirely non-binding and not paid for by the public. 

 

A series of four to six regional primaries should replace the current system of primaries and caucuses.  The regional primaries should be scheduled sequentially on a rotating basis from presidential year to presidential year with due consideration for the constraints of U.S. weather patterns.  The primaries should be spaced one month apart and scheduled to be completed one month before the political party conventions.

 

Secondly, so long as the United States has an Electoral College, the one winner of a state primary should be binding on the state’s delegates.

 

Thirdly, the candidate who is the runner-up in the primaries should be the party’s vice presidential candidate unless the convention votes otherwise by a significant number, such as two-thirds or three-quarters of the delegates.  By having the runner-up  presidential candidate be the default vice presidential candidate, the candidates will be constrained to conduct the primary contests in a more civil manner and in a manner not to give aid and comfort to the other political party and the selection of a vice presidential candidate will be one whom the voters think as highly qualified.

 

If these rules were in effect, the electorate in November would have much different choices.  But the suggestions here are not meant to discourage voting for the nominees of the respective parties.

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

 

 

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

July 4, 2008

 

 

Text Messaging Converter

 

If you are adept at text messaging on your cell phone or in email, but need to demonstrate conventional spelling in word processing documents in an academic or business setting, you can create a converter system with Microsoft Word, using its AutoCorrect feature. 

 

If you are a student who will soon be going away for college, using conventional spelling would be a nice touch in letters home, especially the ones that ask for money!

 

Depending on your version of Microsoft Word, go to the Tools Menu or the Insert  Menu. 

 

Select AutoCorrect.

 

Click on the AutoCorrect box.

 

Put a check in the box that says, “Replace as you type.”

 

Next, under the box that says, “Replace,”  type your abbreviation, e.g. “b4.” 

 

Under the box that says, “With,” type the full word or short phrase, e.g. “before.”

 

Then click on “Add” and then “OK.”

 

Remember to use an abbreviation that you will not otherwise need as a word, e.g. don’t use “me” for “medical expert.”  Also if you need to use single numbers on occasion in word processing documents, do not use numbers alone as abbreviations.  Again, “b4” works because it is not a number alone.

 

If your abbreviation is too difficult to remember, you can always replace it.

 

You don’t need to do this all at once.  Each time you create a word processing document, you can review it to see if you used text messaging abbreviations.  You can then convert the text messaging words that slipped in. 

 

Instead of trying to use every text messaging abbreviation, it probably is better for you to spell out simple, short words such as to, too and two.

 

You also do not need to add every possible short message, such as “laughing out loud,” to AutoCorrect because such expressions would rarely be found in more conventional word processing documents.

 

Obviously, you can also use this Word feature to create your own shorthand for words that you use frequently or that are difficult to spell or that have to be repeated over and over in the document that you are writing.  For example, you can use a single letter for your name.  You can use “j,” to replace the expression, “The War of Jenkins’ Ear.”  You can use “r, for “Round Orange” in your novel of the same name.

 

In some settings text messaging may be a snappy way to communicate.  But, in other situations, it is a barrier to communication and should be converted to more conventional methods of spelling. 

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.  A limited license to reproduce this blog in an academic setting is granted provided that the url of the blog is included.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Situation Sense

We are now at an age where we remember our own commencements with fondness (and are happy we can remember things), and we also appreciate other commencement addresses (with an air of superiority that the graduating audience probably doesn’t understand the words of wisdom).

I saw this link posted in the forum at http://ssaconnect.com/

Here’s a link to one such address:  http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/kahanREVISED.pdf

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.