You are either a product of your circumstances or an observer of your circumstances.
Genuine observers are scarce and difficult to find since they do not seek the limelight. They are also very happy, resilient people. Keep reading to learn about why we need more observers.
2 Comments
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Our entire known universe is interconnected.
Feedback is all around us. It can arrive in the form of verbal comments from a trusted friend. It can be cells in our bodies interacting with each other via biochemistry. Or, on a grand scale, it can be biodiversity in action as one species ensures the survival of another in a very obscure way. Why is it so hard for us to notice and interpret feedback all around us? What happens when feedback is manipulated artificially? “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan
What are you thinking about right now? What were you thinking about 5 minutes ago? A month ago? Our attention is our most precious commodity. It determines how we spend every minute of our day. It is also the target of companies operating in the Information Age. Evil never presents itself as evil. There are no corporations standing on street corners twirling their proverbial mustaches.
There are lies and deception. There is whitewashing. And there is technology forced on society without full disclosure. This is a wolf in sheep's clothing. What is a common theme in the tech marketing you will hear? “This technology is helpful!” Who likes making mistakes? Societal institutions and attitudes punish those that make mistakes. Mistakes are forbidden. This is why we hold acts of forgiveness in such high esteem.
I am not advocating that we intentionally make mistakes. I am suggesting that we need to change how we think about and act on them. Dr. Montessori was on to something when she believed that children need to make mistakes. Adults need to make mistakes too, but with a caveat. Did you see the recent ad suggesting that your family might be drowning in tech? That you should buy less to be happier? Yeah, I didn't see that ad either.
Tonight's post explores how technology – and toward the end of the post, how Jade – affects our most basic social unit in the fabric of humanity: the family. Keep reading... Some time ago, our glowing rectangles used to provide very low-resolution images. Pong. Space invaders. You know what I'm describing. From a neuroscience perspective, these extremely simple graphics forced us to use our imagination. Using your imagination develops your creativity.
Technology moved on to 32x16 and 40x25 text screens. The medium is the message; any technology is a medium and innately affects the message it carries. (You can verify this yourself: write the same thought on a primitive technology like paper, as a social media message, and then as a unrestricted-length text document on a computer. Compare and contrast.) How did the message change? We are told that learning outcomes are the output of a teacher, a student, and a prepared input. (The prepared input is an assignment, job, take-home worksheet, some edtech, etc.) This output is quantized as a fixed assessment: a grade or percent.
The advance of neuroscience is increasingly casting an ominous shadow on the validity of these assessments: they are not measuring what conventional belief says they measure. Keep reading if you want to understand Shift Sight’s compass for navigating these waters. Due to lengthy website rework compounded by our relocation, I have decided to resume writing the company blog. It was one of our most popular features, and it has been neglected for too long.
While working through our website updates, I kept wanting to write that Jade is a sustainable tool for creating a sustainable future. Tonight, I want to reflect on this sentiment. [I hope that you enjoyed reading about Jade! If you missed the reveal and are only joining us now, please take a look.]
The same story has repeated itself throughout history. A new technology is developed, and we become dependent on it. Society's current tech trajectory demands infinite electronics because what we have “is never fast enough” or “is never big enough.” The result is e-waste. Shift Sight intends to bend the tech trajectory at its source. Our current dependence is not sustainable. |
Author
Ty is a Founder of Shift Sight, LLC. Archives
June 2019
Categories
All
|