Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The addicted society - What is your relation to your mobile phone?


Technology changes our relation to each other. It adds some things, and removes other things - and changes our meeting points. Nil Eyal wrote in TechCrunch how technology is making meetings worse. I think he here refers to business meetings, but this is thoughtful for any kind of meeting I would say;-)

"It seems that whenever people meet in person these days, they do so while separating their attention between the people in the room and the devices in their hands. Somehow, it has become socially acceptable to digitally masturbate in each other’s company. You might say, “but I’m taking notes or responding to an important request!” No you’re not, you are digitally dicking around."

"Most corrosive however, is the fact that less attention means worse outcomes. When people use their devices during meetings, even just for a quick sec, they eventually rejoin the conversation, aware that they may have missed something while they were mentally away. They fear revealing that they were not paying attention and tend to shut down. Thus, otherwise valid concerns and bright ideas are never discussed. Their lack of participation only serves to make the meeting less productive, less interesting, and more boring. Conveniently, to escape the discomfort of being not only bored, but also increasingly paranoid, more device usage ensues and the cycle continues."

Reblogged from:

Nil Eyal: Tech Is Making Meetings Worse, It’s Time For Digital Hat Racks, Tech Crunch, 2012-12-09, (http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/09/digital-hat-racks/) 

Friday, December 7, 2012

Dominant perspectives as evolved social constructions

Why do we think the way we do?

“When any group within a large, complex civilisation significantly dominates other groups for hundreds of years, the ways of the dominant group (its epistemologies, ontologies and axiologies), not only become the dominant ways of that civilisation, but also these ways become so deeply embedded that they typically are seen as ‘natural’ or appropriate norms rather than as historically evolved social constructions.” (Scheurich & Young, 1997: 7 quoted by Chilisa, 2011: 45).

 Read more at:

http://psychsoma.co.za/qualitative_inquiry_growt/third-space-methodologies/