{"id":21503,"date":"2016-08-16T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=21503"},"modified":"2016-09-21T13:56:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T17:56:38","slug":"the-worry-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2016\/08\/16\/the-worry-piece\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worry Piece"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"worry<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m the first to admit that coming up with new material to write on a regular basis can be really tough. I also think that important arguments bear repeating. So I\u2019m not mad when I see multiple versions of essentially the same story pop up in op-eds and essays. But I do feel the need to step in when stories that repeat themselves, repeatedly get something wrong<\/a>. Such is the case with what I call the worry piece<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The worry piece is a particular brand of techno-skeptism. It addresses technology as an overwhelming force that on balance, changes people and relationships for the worse. It is concerned with the very nature of humanity and saturated with visceral anxiety. It is personal, and meant to shame you, but in a collective-we-should-all-be-ashamed kind of way. One can (and should) be skeptical and critical of technology for a host of reasons\u2014mostly with regard to patterns<\/a> of <\/a>exploitation<\/a> from its production, distribution, and use. The worry piece is less concerned with these structural issues and instead, occupied by the loss of dinnertime conversation and the influx of content to which readers can presumably pay only fleeting attention. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The worry piece has a\u00a0standard formula and predictable conclusion. It begins\u00a0with a personal anecdote, cites Sherry Turkle, metaphorizes media consumption as food consumption with a tie to health and morality (McDonalds often ends up on the losing side of the metaphor, despite their nugget makeover<\/a>), the author confesses hir own \u201cunhealthy\u201d technological practices, nods to technologies\u2019 benefits, and ends reflexively with some comment on the likelihood that the article itself is probably too long to keep readers\u2019 attention. Columbia Journal Review recently published<\/a> a worry piece that is conveniently meta, citing many of the existing worry pieces that have been popularized over the last several years.<\/p>\n

The point of the worry piece is twofold: to discern the etiology of technology overload and provide practical advice for managing its effects. It places\u00a0blame in some interrelated combination of technology companies, the media industry, and individual users. It tells\u00a0\u00a0us that technology companies are invested in keeping people tethered to screens, which we regularly need to upgrade to keep up with new advancements. Media industries fight for eyeballs in a crowded attention economy and prioritize content quantity over quality. And individuals are weak and insatiable, addicted to the constant stream of information and attention. The advice is almost exclusively aimed at individual practice\u2014log off, be intentional, detox, read a book. The worry piece fear mongers for several thousand words before placing the onus on the reader to push back against what the author has depicted as an unstoppable machine.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the worry piece speaks to some experience that resonates with readers. Big outlets keep publishing them and people keep sharing them. But from my own recent slate of interviews with social media users, I think the worry piece resonates more with an ingrained, abstract, and habitual idea <\/em>of technology, and less with people\u2019s actual experiences with technology in their everyday lives. In this way, the worry piece contrasts markedly with what people tell me when they talk about their own relationships with platforms and devices.<\/p>\n

I have been studying new and social media for almost 10 years. I collect data every few years, which lets me identify trends as they develop, and practices as they evolve. I am currently collecting new data. What stands out about this round of data collection is a general decrease in passion among participants. Their opinions are more fully formed but also less adamantly held. Things annoy them but don\u2019t infuriate them. They laugh about the potential for distraction, but then elaborate on how they manage this for themselves. They know how to use privacy settings, they know how to navigate large content pools, they know how to hide, seek, tune out, turn on, and generally curate information and notifications.<\/p>\n

In 2011, a woman I interviewed slammed her hand on a table and swore prolifically when describing a Facebook Friend who posted too frequently. It ate at her. Today, people mostly roll their eyes and laugh, then say that they hide those Friends who clog their feeds, generally qualifying their decision with a \u201cyou do you\u201d kind of statement. \u00a0In previous iterations of data collection, people agonized over the ways the internet only showed people what they wanted to see. They feared the filter bubble<\/a> and its effects on democratic discourse. Today, participants acknowledge the echo chamber and embrace their role in maintaining it. \u201cFacebook isn\u2019t where I go to learn things about \u2018the other side,\u2019” said one participant. \u201cI can find what I want on my own.\u201d In 2008, people talked about \u201cgoing online,\u201d as though it were something separate, something distracting. Today, people talk about how being online is part of their workday, social engagements, news consumption, and entertainment. Platforms and devices are how they communicate, as a matter of course and convenience.<\/p>\n

Some participants still worry that people don\u2019t talk as much or don\u2019t connect as well, but the vast majority think we are both more widely connected and also <\/em>maintain the deep connections we have always had. Even those who are concerned about the loss of social connection also feel generally confident in the strength of their own relationships\u2014isolation is something that happens to other people, mostly teenagers who haven\u2019t learned the skills that these participants have presumably mastered. Some people talk about the struggle to keep up with news and content, but most have systems that they imperfectly employ\u2014lots of open tabs, RSS feeds, apps, dropbox folders\u2014 which they are generally\u00a0comfortable neglecting.<\/p>\n

This round of interviews is bearing out a relationship to technology that is decidedly settled. New platforms emerge, but this too is ordinary. A frequently changing technological landscape is expected and does not elicit panic. The older participants sometimes ask about “that Snapchat thing”, and a smattering of participants from varied age groups admit that they \u201cdon\u2019t get\u201d Twitter, but they also report that they don\u2019t feel like they are missing out. The participants in this round of interviews engage with social media, but don\u2019t feel compelled to engage on all social media, nor do they fear that the world is passing them by. Participants\u2019 responses\u2014both about themselves and about the place of new technologies in society\u2014are tempered, nuanced, and quiet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that worry pieces aren\u2019t tapping into anything, it\u2019s just that they are tapping into an affective sensibility that\u2019s on its way out.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the continued prevalence of the worry piece is most certainly a product of some of the very patterns that the articles worry over\u2014a 24hour news cycle, a competitive attention economy, and the need to produce new content, regardless of whether an outlet and its writers have something meaningful to say.<\/p>\n

Jenny Davis is on Twitter @Jenny_L_Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

Headline Pic Via: Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m the first to admit that coming up with new material to write on a regular basis can be really tough. I also think that important arguments bear repeating. So I\u2019m not mad when I see multiple versions of essentially the same story pop up in op-eds and essays. But I do feel the need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967,892],"tags":[36504,118,10111,36501,36503,27463],"class_list":["post-21503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-essay","tag-dystopian","tag-journalism","tag-sherry-turkle","tag-technoskeptism","tag-the-worry-piece","tag-worry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21503"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21640,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21503\/revisions\/21640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}