lug
15
Pare che la teoria della Coda lunga di Chris Anderson non abbia retto al trascorrere del tempo.
Wikipedia – Slate (via Fimoculous)
lug
14
Per la serie “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“, un altro saggio incentrato su quanto le giovani generazioni si stiano rincretinendo per colpa di internet e affini. Quest’ultimo ha un titolo anche carino (“The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future – Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30″) e, tra le tante idee apocalittiche abbastanza esagerate, una coglie un po’ nel segno: l’abitudine a connessioni orizzontali (tra simili) e alle velocità di risposta sempre più elevate sta portando a una deriva abbastanza superficialistica. Insomma, si sa solo quello che si capisce in 20 secondi, si parla solo di ciò che gli altri intendono al volo, si clicca sulla prima pagina di risultati di Google perché poi ci si annoia. Si potrebbe dire che quello di “enlarge your p3nis” avesse capito tutto anni fa.
The Atlantic – LA Times – Amazon
lug
08
We as a society have been far too sensitive. In order to avoid injury to people’s feelings, in order to avoid appearing judgemental, we have failed to say what needs to be said. We have seen a decades-long erosion of responsibility, of social virtue, of self-discipline, respect for others, deferring gratification instead of instant gratification.
Instead we prefer moral neutrality, a refusal to make judgments about what is good and bad behaviour, right and wrong behaviour. Bad. Good. Right. Wrong. These are words that our political system and our public sector scarcely dare use any more. Of course as soon as a politician says this there is a clamour – “but what about all of you?” And let me say now, yes, we are human, flawed and frequently screw up.
Our relationships crack up, our marriages break down, we fail as parents and as citizens just like everyone else. But if the result of this is a stultifying silence about things that really matter, we re-double the failure. Refusing to use these words – right and wrong – means a denial of personal responsibility and the concept of a moral choice.
Il leader dei Conservatori inglesi David Cameron.
Conservative Party