Are You Stupid?

What is stupidity?

Acording to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of stupid is "lacking in power to absorb ideas or impressions. Stupid implies a slow-witted or dazed state of mind that may be either congenital or temporary."

According to Andrew Keen and Doris Lessing the Internet is making us stupid. And it is...although not in a necessarily bad way.

Just like Nicholas Carr wrote in his infamous article "Is Google Making us Stupid?", the Internet is shaping our brain in how we digest information and knowledge. Before we would be able to read lengthy articles and thick books, understand what Nieztche had written after a few re-reads of his ideas and enjoy Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Now a days we just skim over articles, pinpointing and retaining what we think is the most important part. We read simplified version's of Nieztche's ideas and think of Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" instead of Lewis Carroll's. Does that make us stupid? Not really, it just makes us dependent on a computer. If we need information we will Wikipedia it or Google it. We won't retain details, we retain the main concept.

The way we think is different. We won't be specialized in only one field of knowledge because thanks to the Internet we can be Jacks of all trades!

Actually, I think that now we know MORE than we used to. The only problem is that the way we communicate our knowledge is different. For people like Lessing and Keen, our language has deteriorated, so in the process of communication they might think we are stupid. But we aren't all Shakespears or Jane Austens, our language is more simplistic, but our ideas can be just as sharp.

The only thing I beg of you is please don't use Sparknotes to tell you what a piece of literature meant. Use your brain. Sparknotes is just one opinion and not necessarily the correct one.

Your Idea is Now Everyone Else's Idea

Crowdsourcing. When you read this word what do you think? Jeff Howe thinks that crowdsourcing is the new way of making business. And it is, in a way...
[Check out his YouTube video on Crowdsourcing]

With the Internet and all it has to offer, especially in terms of ideas and creative content, people might be less compelled to buy tangible objects, for example newspapers. Now, how many of you still buy newspapers? If you do you are part of extinct race. Most of the younger generations and some of the older ones are just checking for their news updates online. Why buy newspaper when we can do something ecological and money-saving by accessing a whole database of information online that is constantly being updated everyday? And it's totally free too! A newspaper journalist might have something to say to that, though. You see, internet to a person who creates things, like an article, is both good and bad.

If I wrote this article in Wikipedia (and it actually stayed there instead of being ripped off by some unidentified Wiki person), later on someone might come and modify it and that would mean that my idea is no longer mine but also someone else's. As Dan Woods said in his article The Myth of Crowdsourcing, the "crowd" is the one that now getting the praise for the work of the individual. In other words my idea is now everyone else's.

And just to leave you thinking, do you know how this affects business? Well, as John Perry Barlow said in his article Selling Wine without Bottles: The Economy of Mind on the Global Net, what brought in the money was the tangible object, in other words you pay for the newspaper not the article within. Now with open source networks there is no newspaper - only articles and ideas.

Business based on materialism is now ceasing to be. So how are we going to make money now?

What is Social Networking?

Have you ever asked yourself what's a Social Network? You probably have a vague idea of what it might be. If you've come across Hegel, Nietzche, Smith, Marx or Kaufmann you'd probably have a notion of how social herarchies work. But what about the social structure? What role do you play in your network of friends, in your workplace or in your family? Have you taken into consideration how communications are transmitted between the members of your social network?

Alexandra Marin and Barry Wellman's Social Network Analysis: An Introduction presents social networks as "a set of nodes (or network members) that are tied by one or more types of relations" [to see the article click here]. For example, the first relationship you'd have within an organization would probably be with the unknown person you're interchanging e-mails with from the human resources department. Then you'd meet the person, who'd introduce you to the rest of the company and then you'd become "X-person: the intern" whose role is to make photocopies and serve coffee to your cubicled collegues. But is that all there is to it? Is that your only role in the business?

As I have found out, the answer is a big chubby NO. Human relationships and social networking is much more complex than that. First of all there's the way we communicate with the other members of our networks, our relationship with them, the value we give to each individual and the informal roles we take on within a network. That means that even though we may be officially "X-person: the intern" within an organization, to Jerry we might be "X-person: the one who I can depend on to do all the fetch-and-carry work" and to Jane we might be "X-person: the main source of the office gossip".

In Rob Cross and Laurence Prusak's "The People Who Make Organizations Go - or Stop" the informal roles within a company are sketched out and analysed [check out the article here]. If you come to understand the inner threads of your network then communication and tasks would run more efficiently. Actually this knowledge is rather powerful and if you wield it correctly you might find yourself climbing to the higher echelons of your network. In this case you would be able to apply the saying, "It's not a matter of what you know but of who you know." In a way it's sad, but at times this statement rings true. Why do you think there are lobbyists? What do you think politics is? Why did do you think the girl in the miniskirt got into the club first when you've been waiting in line longer than her? Connections, people, connections.

You can compare this example to other contexts, like within your family or your circle of friends. I find it amazing that there is such a thing as an analysis of our functions within society. It's like I know I breath because I need air to live but now I know that the O2 I inhale into my lungs is interchanged by my capilaries for CO2 and used to make my cells function correctly so that my body may keep on moving and thinking efficiently.

Hm. Seems like I retained something out of my biology lesson. Cool.

All this said I guess that means that social capital is just as important as monitary capital within the business world, huh? Maybe that means that my time spent on Facebook is actually productive and will bring me a job in the future...???

Ciao!

Ciao everyone!

Welcome to my blog. My name is Alexandra and I'm a student from Italy using this blog for my Social Networking and Business class.

I won't say anything intelligent or ground breaking in this first post (and maybe in none of my other posts...:P) but I hope you find something of interest in my writtings that you can relate to the subject.

Oh! And my blog title means SPEAK TO ME in Italian. *hint hint* By the way, anything on this blog was created by me, written by me and whatever by me.

Cheers!

-Alexandra