Assignment #1 Takeaways on Douglas Rushkoff's Program or Be Programmed

#1 If anything, because our conversations were asynchronous, we had the luxury of deeplyconsidering what we said. The net became a place for doing the kind of deliberation and contemplation that couldn’t happen in the harried real world of jobs, kids, and automobiles.


It is an interesting point of view as lots of us today may see asynchrony online in a totally opposite way.  What used to be the luxury has become the new normal.  In this digital era, the advantages of the internet could certainly go both ways. We often enjoy more about immediacy and convenience instead of the deliberation and contemplation that Internet offers. Lots of people even misuse the convenience to harm others with their instant irresponsible response.


#2 Recognizing the biases of the technologies we bring into our lives is really the only way to stay aware of the ways we are changing in order to accommodate them, and to gauge whether we are happy with that arrangement.

It reminds me of the consistent debate of wether internet is good or bad. Essentially, it raises the question: should we let technology lead our way or we should take the control and direct technology? The relationship between human and technology is very interesting, and hopefully I'll gain some insights about it when I finish the book.