The Internet Has Transformed Our Lives

                                     

The Internet Has Transformed Our Lives

 What if someone at your side offers you mind boggling benefits?  At your request, you are given access to an unlimited amount of information about almost anything.  Your companion enables you to chat instantly with friends anywhere in the world.   Should you wish, the wireless wizard who likes to live in your pocket will entertain you with games, give you the latest news and your favorite music, act as your tutor, psychologist, doctor, list keeper, or financial advisor.

 For those of us who still remember the Twilight Zone on television, the science fiction of 50 years ago has become a marvelous reality.   We still have the habit of attributing human traits to technology, but these days the companion with amazing assets is really a network of digital networks not much older than we are.  We call it the internet. 

  I suggest that the “net” is like a wizard because its responses to our commands seem almost magical.  Yet how we make and react to those commands is embedded in feelings, emotions, and views of the world that belong uniquely to us.  Our use of the internet reveals how information and data can influence our personalities, emotions, and behaviors for better or worse.

 In his 1970 book “Future Shock”, Alvin Toffler invented the term “information overload”.  His futuristic warning was about the “shattering stress and disorientation” that we induce by overwhelming the human capacity to adapt.  Acceleration of knowledge was Toffler’s shock factor.  To cope, he told us that we must learn to deal with transience.  We must adapt and learn how to learn.

 There is plenty of challenge in Toffler’s warning because the growth in our usage of the internet has been phenomenal.  Pew surveys show that at least 95 percent of all U.S. adults are net users.  Eighty percent subscribe to high-speed internet at home.  Cell phone ownership has accelerated to 97 percent among those under 50, a proportion just 35 percent in 2011.  The rate of internet use by those 65 and older impressively jumped from 14 percent in the year 2000 to 88 percent today.

 As a senior citizen, I embrace the internet via a multitude of web sites that constantly provoke my curiosity or entertain me.   Gradually, I have recognized some nagging liabilities from hours of screen time.  Research confirms certain happenings. These trends distress educators in particular.  A chronic attempt to ban cell phones from the classroom is just one result.  Young people may be more vulnerable to social abuses or virtual addictions than I am, but the personal impact for me includes a shortened attention span, quick and faulty answers, loss of memory, and even real-time social isolation. 

 I think of the internet as a universe of information organized for access and utility on a grandiose scale.  Meanwhile, especially since the 1950s, its connections to something called artificial intelligence (AI) have been maturing.  Dependence on the internet is fundamental, but instead of just providing data and options, AI builds on data to make choices and decisions, to plan and set goals. 

 Alexa is my daily personification of AI.  She is the virtual technology assistant for Amazon and is capable of natural language processing for a growing variety of informational chores.  Typically, she tells me about information she gleans instantly from the internet. More generally, AI can perform complex tasks that historically have called for human intelligence.  Built upon machine learning, it creates algorithms which are like electronic recipes that enable computers to create patterns, relationships, and insights based on massive amounts of data derived from human experience.

There are various levels of sophistication in the expanding world of AI. Currently one of the highest is called generative.  As a photographer who has come to rely on the processing miracles of Photoshop, I marvel at the latest innovation of the Adobe company.  I can plug in my photo, and then expand its margins in any direction to produce an entirely realistic and accurately rendered addition to the picture.  Or for that matter, I can articulate in words the addition or replacement I want in a photo, and then immediately see samples of the result from which to choose. 

 Countless AI variations can make our decisions and choices seem almost effortless. It is well to keep in mind, however, that issues of data privacy and security are compelling. AI can be used to invent visual renditions based on elaborate fiction.  Whether using the internet or applying AI to it, we can tap capabilities to create wondrous conveniences and efficiencies.  My warning is that we must never fall back on allowing these digital miracles to become an easy escape from thoughtful learning.  We must remain the arbiters of truth.  

 

Everyone Leads a Life of Rituals

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

 

 In early March pairs of geese noisily arrive and patiently wait for the ice on our pond to melt so they can nest.  Hundreds of miles to the east, our collegiate granddaughter leaps up and down and shakes her shoulders and legs as she and everyone else at the starting line nervously prepares to compete.  Meanwhile, my wife spreads ingredients across our kitchen island as she reads directions for a dinner casserole from her old Fanny Farmer cookbook.

You might think these activities have little to do with each other. However, they share a common thread called rituals.  These are not really the same as habits, compulsions, or traditions.  A habit may define what we do almost automatically without thinking. Compulsion drives us to do something despite ourselves. Tradition is a repeated practice we embrace because it bonds us together for sharing at particular times. 

Rituals are like these but different in intriguing ways. They define who we are and infuse our lives with purpose and emotion.  For instance, geese instinctively mate and reproduce, but they do it in ways that bind them together for life.  With their new goslings, they parade across the water and fields.  One adult leads the group, the other follows, and often an apparent uncle serves as a sentry.  They become angry and trumpet their displeasure when their ritual is disrupted.

Our granddaughter’s starting line rituals may loosen muscles or reduce anxiety, but they also affirm training routines, competitive desires, and preparation that is universal among all track athletes. 

 

My spouse’s culinary rituals are rooted in the pleasure she takes from commitment, skill, and a delicious result that defines just who she is.  I am the beneficiary of her rituals, but so is everyone in our extended family who enthusiastically repeats the same rituals.

A rewarding investment of effort is crucial for ritual-building. In his insightful analysis of the “Ritual Effect,” Harvard business professor Michael Norton describes why the Betty Crocker baking company experienced a big sales slump after World War II.  

Young women initially enjoyed the simple convenience of the company’s fully premixed cake batter.  But within a few years a decline in sales prompted the company to ask the women why.  It turns out that they felt guilty about doing too little and wanted to add or adapt their own ingredients to make the batters their own. By switching the recipe from dried eggs in the package to real eggs that could be added, the company regenerated sales.

Something called the IKEA effect, generally known as DIY, has become spectacularly successful for the same reasons.  People value a product or activity more if they have put something of themselves into it.  Scholars call this an endowment effect.  Chefs would readily agree, as would most do-it-yourselfers. 

Professor Norton has spent a decade exploring rituals. His work explains why religious ceremonies and major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas produce an enduring impact on our lives.  Yet legacy rituals like these do not fully describe the impact of our own personal daily ritual signatures.

Rituals may involve a rite of passage or lifestyle dividing points.  They can build or destroy relationships.  Sometimes they create experiences we savor and love, but at other times they generate anxiety or stress.  Marriages, the birth of a child, or moving to a new job can produce either positive or negative rituals.

In any event, personal rituals are pervasive.  When one disappears, another may replace it.  Professor Norton coins the term “emodiversity” to describe the unique richness and changeability of rituals in our lives.

Symbols are linked to rituals. Often those symbols, whether they are objects or acts, provoke powerful memories. For example, our basement is a repository of ritual memories: books I refuse to dispose of, ties I have collected, and workout equipment I try to use every day.

The phenomenon of hoarding may be rooted in memories of bygone rituals.  Considering my own hoarding tendencies, my wife’s sometimes compulsive pursuit of a clean and organized house (she calls it being “house proud”) is a much-needed compensatory ritual. 

Rituals need not be a big deal. One of the memorable and distinctive examples in my life occurred in my third grade at the end of each day. As we filed out of the classroom, our teacher, Miss Magnusson, would make sure no ill feelings would linger. She required us to line up and shake her hand as we said goodbye. I never forgot her gesture.

Professor Norton’s research confirms that “rituals are everywhere, imbuing our ordinary actions with extraordinary power.” Their essence lies not in what we do, but in the meaning and emotion we give to just how we do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gondor the Beast

 

The Story of Gondor the Beast

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

A strange creature  inhabits our backyard. He is a 350-pound concrete beast with fangs,  wings, and eyes that seem to glow in the twilight. After eight years, he has become an old friend who reminds us why we love to scare ourselves.

His name is “Gondor,” which is the term J.R. Tolkien used to describe the Middle Kingdom in his famous trilogy.  This moniker won first place in our own facebook contest, but our creature’s  formal name is a gargoyle or chimera.  The former term sounds like gurgle or gargle for good reason.   Gargoyles are the grotesque offspring of Gothic church architecture in the Middle Ages.  They are fantastical creatures who perch on steeples and steep rooftops.  Their mouths are spouts to drain rainwater off the roof and sides of a building.  

 On the other hand, chimeras seldom have spouts, but they are nonetheless nasty looking Greek mythological beings composed of animal parts – lions, goats, dragons (wings) with a snake-headed tail.  Gondor is one of those snarling hybrids, crouching on his haunches, resting on huge claws, and baring fangs.

 The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is a favorite haunt for chimeras that were sculpted in the 1800s.  Hundreds of years earlier, so the story goes, a dragon-like beast would rise from the Seine River and eat terrified residents with grisly abandon.  Helped by a Catholic saint, enraged citizens trapped and burned the dragon.  However, his head and shoulders resisted flames, so instead his hide was nailed to the church to ward off evil.

Today the biggest numbers of chimeras and gargoyles can be found on Catholic churches. across France.  They also sit on city rooftops in places like New York City, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.  American horror novelist Stephen King insists that they are quite alive and always watching us from above.  

Our own story of Gondor began eight years ago when we visited our daughter in Albany.  She suggested antiquing at a downtown salvage yard.  There we discovered a demonic statue who looked like he might have flown in from the rooftop of a nearby Albany church or office building.  Fatefully, I remarked, “Wow what a birthday present he would be sitting in our yard back home!”

My wife and daughter mischievously hatched a plan to ship the creature 300 miles across the state to our rural home.  My son-in-law Bill arranged to have the beast hoisted and lashed onto the bed of his truck.  Out on the thruway gawkers would pull even, wave and laugh at his fierce cargo. I thought the chimera’s arrival was the best possible birthday.  Several husky friends wrestled my unusual gift onto a convenient concrete pad.  Today, years later, he stares balefully at anyone who passes by. 

In recent decades grotesques have become amazingly popular. Their shock value has diminished, but their entertainment value has skyrocketed.  They show up as Disney cartoon characters or beings that invade from other planets.  My favorite classic horror show is the 1984 “Ghostbusters”, starring actor Bill Murrey and friends. Two mythical figures, the keymaster and the gatekeeper, combine evil forces to occupy a city rooftop and unlock the gates of hell.  Like many other chimeras, the keymaster’s “terror dogs” break out of their shells and raise havoc.  Ultimately, they are exploded by the laser guns of the ghostbusters who rescue the city.  After four iterations, ghostbuster movies have become a cultural phenomenon.

From Gondor to Ghostbusters, the popularity of grotesques begs the question, why has it become such a thrill to scare us out of our wits? Monstrous characters have almost become our heroes and friends.  The spiritual message of repenting in the face of horror has worn off.   Words like enticing, mesmerizing, and addictive come to mind.   We have gotten used to real and fictional grotesque happenings all around us.  Still, we take comfort in knowing that Gondor is alive and watching for evil invaders.  

 

 

Reading To Children Is Time Well Spent

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

At three years of age, I spent hours on my grandmother’s lap mimicking the nursery rhymes she read aloud.  Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, and the cow who jumped over the moon became my earliest childhood friends as she helped me trace the words and pictures on every page.  My dad tape recorded those expressive recitations.  The memories have endured for years.

I marvel at the influence of those early oral reading experiences. I was fortunate to have a family who appreciated reading aloud as a critical tool for developing literacy and for pleasure. Recently, a nationally representative sample survey of nearly 10,000 four-year-olds found that 25 percent are never read to, and another 25 percent have this experience only once or twice weekly. Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly endorses the practice in early childhood because it “builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.”

The joy and value of listening to someone read aloud is well understood by teachers, but in elementary school it gets crowded out by the “science of reading.”   Over the last decade 37 states have passed laws and policies that call for “evidence-based” literacy instruction. The term has become a slogan that applies to many different scientific elements of reading proficiency.  Few teachers are prepared to make field-tested measurement-driven methods work in their classrooms.

Our state’s current executive budget proposal includes $10 million for districts to train 20,000 teachers in the science of reading. Governor Hochul is embracing a politically appealing dedication to phonics instruction.  In other words, first teach children how to decode, that is to connect letters with sounds, and to translate sounds into speech. Spelling and word meanings play an important part.  The Governor is not wrong, but a balanced approach to literacy must also incorporate comprehension.  

Surely it is important for children to develop a vocabulary, but applying it calls for hitching it to knowledge and understanding of content. A child may be able to read words perfectly and not be able to tell you much of anything about the story behind those words. The skills and strategies of reading are strengthened when attention is given to comprehension which enables children to grasp meaning and fit it into new situations.   

We have many reasons to worry about children’s declining reading skills. The pandemic chronically disrupted classroom instruction. Reading proficiency scores hover at an all-time low. The same is true for math, for which reading literacy is also vitally important. Hours spent on screen time and segmented electronic content add to children’s loss of concentration and sustained reading stamina.

 Elementary teachers highly value the time they spend reading from books rather than so-called basal readers.   Instead of relying on packaged anthologies with disconnected exercises and workbooks, teachers who link their curriculum for science or social studies to oral book chapters of nonfiction find their students are more engaged and motivated.  With copies in hand, the children can read along with their teacher.  Often, they are inspired to find and read books on their own, something every school media specialist appreciates.

Parents and grandparents of preschool children can enrich their children’s almost intrinsic love of stories and their amazing absorption of vocabulary long before kindergarten.   Nursery rhymes were my introduction to literacy.    Years later, my wife and I spent many hours reading stories to our children from books like “Blueberries for Sal”, “Barbar the Elephant” and “Curious George,”. There is a reciprocal benefit to reading with your child or grandchild.  Not only does it grow their vocabulary and awareness of the world, but it reinforces parenthood in ways that last a lifetime. 

 

The Crisis of Misbelief

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

Lately it seems as though we are drowning in daily tides of misinformation and deceit. Our daily newspapers and social media seem to compete as they flirt with conspiracy theories. Outlandish distortions of fact are now repeated with gusto. The topics typically highlight the suspected evil intentions of federal agencies and elected officials. The frame factors usually include politics and litigation. Topics include COVID and health issues, insurrection and stolen elections, immigration chaos, terrorism and warfare, environmental abuses, sexual crimes and sundry coverups.

History and science have become propaganda in the hands of individuals who invent either past or current evidence of misdeeds by powerful and secretive groups. Not long ago I used to marvel and chuckle at the outrageous headlines of trashy newspapers posted at the grocery checkout counters. Nowadays, much to my chagrin, the claims have become the grist of national news from all kinds of respectable outlets.

As the extremes of opinion have grown into screams of injustice, I worry that repetition may erode the ability of our systems to solve problems. How did we arrive at this sorry junction? What can we learn from the dilemma, and what can we do about it?

Troublesome obstacles come to mind. First, when differences of opinion grow extreme, often we ignore or suppress them to avoid conflicts. Long ago we found that national politics can no longer be discussed freely without alienating friends or family. Second, people stubbornly resist changing their basic beliefs even when proverbial writing is on the wall. Instead, they distrust advocates and their motives. Finally, the relentless static of egregious rumors and exaggerations undermines our trust in people and institutions.

 Psychologists are constantly trying to untangle the roots of misbelief. The problem exceeds just accepting falsehoods. Rather it is a mindset or a process that can lead us astray with potentially disastrous results. Dan Ariely, a Duke University professor who has studied reasons why rational people behave irrationally, compares the process to a funnel. At one end it starts with a few nettlesome questions but once captured at the other end we willingly embrace terrible conspiracies. Ariely admits we all share misbeliefs because we are skeptical, recognize bias, and have significant questions about untested claims. However, what overcomes our suspicion is the cumulative drum beat of unchallenged contradictions. 

Misbelieving can be categorized as emotional, cognitive, personality, and social, according to Professor Ariely. Emotional sources center on stress and fear. An example is anxiety about the negative consequences of vaccines, particularly COVID. To regain control, stressed out individuals may latch onto a scapegoat like China.

Cognitive elements come into play when an event or situation becomes so confounding that we forfeit reality and default to conclusions we want to come to. As the saying goes, do not confuse me with facts.

As for personality, a helpful index for me is a zero-sum bias. The idea derives from game theory, but when applied to personalities, it describes individuals who feel they always must win, while others may lose entirely as a result. Winning halfway is not enough.

The social dimension of Ariely’s funnel involves the power of social networking. Many of us depend on such networks to share and reinforce our beliefs. Especially when ostracized by a group, if we crave acceptance strongly enough, we are apt to cave in. Nothing breeds wrong-headed thinking more effectively than depending on the power of us-versus-them.

There is no cure for chronic misbelieving. However, you may want to consider the following bigger pictures:  

Choose sources of information for consistent reliability and ample proofs. Another is to join with others whose declared purposes are to cooperatively reverse well recognized injustices with specific, reasonable steps.

 Make efforts to understand how institutions get things done. An obvious example is exercising our rights and privileges in a democracy by voting, communicating opinions via legal and sanctioned channels, and then accepting the outcomes.

 Develop an understanding of why we rely on institutional policies and procedures and rules, with an accent on how they can be changed for the better. It is tempting to condemn bureaucracy for what it seems to prevent; however, a different picture develops when we consider how bureaucracy can ensure fair and equitable practices and effectively generate positive outcomes given patience.

 Here are a few specific strategic recommendations:

·        ask questions and hypothesize based on solid research instead of simply declaring and affirming assumptions;

·        practice balanced reasoning by thinking through both pro and con sides of an issue;

·        stop believing we know more about an issue than we truly do;

·        avoid the use of labels such as conservative and liberal;

·        choose credible heroes rather than blaming villains;

·        opt for face-to-face listening rather than impersonal electronics;

·        separate and weigh intentions rather than jumping to conclusions.

And finally, to preserve sanity, focus on your own mental health and evaluate it carefully in others.