4 ms·

“WITH iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations—none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rath

“WITH iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations—none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment.” Anyone got a pointer to the context of this quote? This piece relies heavily on it and it reads to me like it may well be innocuous.

deleted 16y ago
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gizmo 16y ago
It's absolutely ripped out of context. Obama argues that when you're drinking from the information firehose you may lose track of more important things. A completely obvious and very dangerous trend. Full transcript here: http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-obama-hampton-address-transcript,0,7478536.story http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-obama-hampton-address-transcri...
- mynameishere 16y ago
  His real problem is that the media is no longer centrally controlled. And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. "Some" of which don't. And "some" of which do, which is the real problem. The fact that he is objecting to "all kinds of arguments" whatever their content might be, is a giveaway. information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment Well, if you're old enough to remember when there were 3 channels and 1 local paper, you know that "information", such as it was, was a sedative at best. Sit in front of the TV, believe every sugary bit of crap on the 11 o clock news, go to bed. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was ever "empowered" by the media configuration as it existed through the 20th century. But for a centralized government, it was ideal--very empowering.
  - yardie 16y ago
    "His real problem is that the media is no longer centrally controlled." No longer centrally controlled? You know we are down to 5 distributors that control an overwhelming amount of the music and films that we listen to or watch. Add the fact that Comcast just bought NBC Universal and you can assume the media is more concentrated by a few more than ever. But as long as we have 1000 blogs carrying the exact same message than it doesn't appear that way. Which is worse 10 independent newspapers or 1000 blogs, financed and controlled by 10 people.
jgrahamc 16y ago
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-hampton-university http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-o...
protomyth 16y ago
It is a small part of a larger point, but the speech writer had to know it was a provocative, quotable line. I have some problems with this line that I mentioned in the other thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345882 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345882

deleted 16y ago

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gizmo 16y ago

It's absolutely ripped out of context. Obama argues that when you're drinking from the information firehose you may lose track of more important things. A completely obvious and very dangerous trend. Full transcript here: http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-obama-hampton-address-transcript,0,7478536.story http://www.wtkr.com/news/wtkr-obama-hampton-address-transcri...

mynameishere 16y ago
His real problem is that the media is no longer centrally controlled. And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. "Some" of which don't. And "some" of which do, which is the real problem. The fact that he is objecting to "all kinds of arguments" whatever their content might be, is a giveaway. information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment Well, if you're old enough to remember when there were 3 channels and 1 local paper, you know that "information", such as it was, was a sedative at best. Sit in front of the TV, believe every sugary bit of crap on the 11 o clock news, go to bed. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was ever "empowered" by the media configuration as it existed through the 20th century. But for a centralized government, it was ideal--very empowering.
- yardie 16y ago
  "His real problem is that the media is no longer centrally controlled." No longer centrally controlled? You know we are down to 5 distributors that control an overwhelming amount of the music and films that we listen to or watch. Add the fact that Comcast just bought NBC Universal and you can assume the media is more concentrated by a few more than ever. But as long as we have 1000 blogs carrying the exact same message than it doesn't appear that way. Which is worse 10 independent newspapers or 1000 blogs, financed and controlled by 10 people.

jgrahamc 16y ago

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-hampton-university http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-o...

protomyth 16y ago

It is a small part of a larger point, but the speech writer had to know it was a provocative, quotable line. I have some problems with this line that I mentioned in the other thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345882 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1345882