Name: Changing the Subject
Rating: 4.1 (44 reviews)
Author: Sven Birkerts

What’s in it for me? Reflect on how the new digital world influences your experiences and selfhood.

Right now, at this moment, your smartphone surely isn’t far away. You may be holding it in your hands; it may be in your pocket or purse; it may be on your desk – and wherever you go, you will doubtless take it with you.

The internet and social media are now so pervasive that many of us can’t imagine a day without them. In fact, they shape our whole experience of life – our individuality, our perceptions, our habits.

Given this pervasiveness, it may be time to raise a few critical questions.

In these blinks, you’ll reflect on how the digital world influences you. You’ll learn how it influences your intellect, how it decouples you from reality and how it can even affect your neuronal functioning.

You’ll also learn

why turning off the navigation system is the better way to go;
how Wikipedia, YouTube and Google hinder you from gaining knowledge; and
why you should make time to read a good novel.

Easily accessible information makes our experiences less gratifying and our lives less meaningful.

It’s pretty amazing to think about just how much information is available on the internet. Equally amazing is the fact that, nowadays, the answer to nearly any question is literally at our fingertips.

But having all this knowledge so readily available comes at a price.

First off, this convenience can make acquiring knowledge through first-hand experience seem less relevant and meaningful, which, in turn, can make life feel less gratifying.

Consider GPS. While this tool is very helpful when you find yourself trying to navigate a new city, it also keeps us from becoming familiar with our surroundings. We come to rely on it, instead of maps and our intuition.

Prior to the advent of GPS, people studied and interpreted maps and used their imaginations to picture the landscape around them.

This allowed you to see for yourself a variety of different routes and how far you needed to travel. You could then immerse yourself in the details so you’d know where you’re going. And when you finally got there, you’d experience a substantial reward that following GPS just doesn’t provide.

There’s a sense of gratification that comes with acquiring your own knowledge and putting it to use.

The author used to experience this gratification by discovering new music. He would study the liner notes of albums he liked, reading about other artists who played on them, and then search for good radio stations and get recommendations from people he trusted.

All of this would take time. But when he finally did hit musical pay dirt, the discovery would feel truly rewarding. And it wasn’t merely gratifying; it made music more personal. The extra work and effort made him feel connected to the musical scenes and artists that were around.

In order to feel this kind of gratification, you need to feel like you’ve earned it by working for the knowledge you’ve gained. But this doesn’t happen in today’s digital age, with music services like Spotify and Pandora that just expose you to everything, one click at a time.

The digital world makes us less self-sufficient and keeps us from confronting our feelings.

Having gratifying experiences in life is important. But it’s not all about worldly accomplishments and adventures. Being connected to your inner self is equally important. And with social media providing a constant connection to the outer world, it’s becoming ever more difficult for us to foster internality, a space for self-reflection and self-realization.

This is because the need to be connected to the outside world at all times hinders our ability to be self-sufficient.

Our digital fixation is negatively impacting the way we process information.

It’s not uncommon to hear someone complain about not having time to sit down and read a book these days. And it’s not at all improbable that the rise of the internet and the ubiquity of portable devices are what’s eating up all our time.

It takes focused attention to read a book. The internet, in contrast, works by distracting us, by shifting our attention from link to link, giving us little time to think or reflect on a topic.

By using the internet as a source of knowledge, we lose the context and meaning of information.

Another part of our lives that has transformed in the digital age is how we learn. Whether it’s picking up a new skill or finding out about a new subject, there’s a good chance you’ve gone to Wikipedia, YouTube or some other result from a Google search.

This isn’t always the best way to learn and become well informed. To learn about a subject on Wikipedia or through a YouTube tutorial is often to strip it of its context.

Kernaussagen in Changing the Subject

Worum geht es in Changing the Subject?

Changing the Subject (2015) takes a critical and concerned look at how the internet is affecting our lives. In these blinks, you’ll find out how our constant connection to the digital world is causing us to lose our individuality, our attention span and our intellect. Are we headed for one giant hive mind, or can we put down our phones for a moment and reconnect with our own emotions?