The Virtual Revolution - Homo Interneticus

Clarence Yates shared this prodigious post with another community we are both members of, and has kindly agreed to share it with the Ethos community. He has watched all of the 5 documentaries that he links to, and pulls out the key points from them all.

Who is this "Homo Interneticus"? This being exists due to “The Virtual Revolution.”
In a recent documentary titled The Virtual Revolution presented by a Dr Aleks Krotoski looks at how the World Wide Web is transforming every aspect of our lives. It also looks at the popularity of social networks and asks how they are changing our relationships. When I look at what we are doing in VPLD and the on line learning that we are all involved in then this documentary and the points it raises have relevance to us and especially the students we teach both now and in the future.

Image via Wikipedia

Virtual Revolution Video 1 of 5 Length 10:58,
Virtual Revolution Video 2 of 5 Length 9:37,
Virtual Revolution Video 3 of 5 Length 10:55,
Virtual Revolution Video 4 of 5 Length 10:67,
Virtual Revolution Video 5 of 5 Length 9:46

Summary: You may add adjust or correct the following

• Johannes Gutenburg Printing Press 1450 churning out books
• 500 years later on a leap- Information still distributed and shared however the big difference is that anyone can create information.
• 20years World Wide Web that created extraordinary access to information, yet to understand the impact it will have on our psychology. The effect and consequences on our relationships and on our brain
• Web effect on human beings then look at South Korea
  
  Image via Wikipedia

• South Korea the most wired nation and in this world most digitally enhanced country, 62% 3 to 5 year olds use net at 8hours per week that is twice that to the British. Internet addiction. Cases reported of 18 hours on line each day
• Offers a glimpse on our future
• Distorting students sense of reality
• Unease at students growing up in life on line
• Generation Web-Centered around computers
• Quotes from a family Using Chat-Face Book
• Communicate and look into other peoples lives
• Before web life was boring. What do you think they did before this-Read books
• To take away this will be like removing an arm
Image via Wikipedia
• 10,000 hours on line before reach adulthood
• Bebo, My Space and Face Book the largest
• If Face Book was a country it will be the 3^rd largest
• Key criticism of FB makes friendship meaningless and how true is this
• Have to understand why FB became so popular
• FB trying to achieve a Network Effect. Theodore Vail The Network Effect
• Comparison to the telephone-one by itself useless, however, add another then another and so on leads to more people to connect with then more people want to join.
• Self sustaining and self fulfilling
• Scale leads to scale
• Value of FB friends
• Is social networking changing how we have friends or not to be able to change our concept of friends
• Primate study on social bonding 50 to 60
• Dunbar bonds made can have Upper limit known as the Dunbar's Number 150. Seen all over human communities
• Has FB changed this limit of friendship
• However Nature is playing out as the average number is well below 150 and usually 5 to 6 in direct contact with each other
• So Face Book not changing our relationships Dunbar's Number and Face Book
• So something deeper is going on with relationships
• Relationships in the loop
• WW2 Anti aircraft study on overcoming the problem of missing their targets-Solution to this was the Loop
• FB innovated use of the Loop
  
• FB pioneered status update in real time
• A technical solution to social problems
• While web made information available people not aware it is there so Mark Zukerburg completed the Loop using News Feed
• Anything posted onto your site went automatically to others and vice versa. Culture of real time updating and being in the loop and not the number of friends
• Big shift in relationships
• Inspired imitation such as Twitter
• Initially feedback to this was mostly negative
• FB stuck to the loop
• Real time updating in the loop rather then number of friends
• Time on my own increasingly rare with online content both created and consumed
• Living in the loop slowly drowning
• Deeper change in how to use our brain in a different way
• Technology and the mind to work together
• Sherry Turkle
• relationship to technology Web feedback
• Web is like an exciting, innovative metropolis for our young people
• Extra ordinary vision in 1945 with an article published by Vannever Bush As We May Think where he identified Information Over Load
• He did not think our minds to be linear rather associative
• Linking information introduction of the web
• Hyper linking does it make us lazy
• Web Keeps our brain hopping and jumping
• Stops concentration
• Growing up expecting to be able to find information at a moments notice and what does it do to internalize information
• Question Are these just grumblings of an older generation?
• We used to be trained in Linear Thinking-Reading and Writing
• Even at University level get the reaction how much reading do we have to do and how long do we need to read this book?

• Skipping over the virtual sites, not staying at one site for long
• Linear Like hedgehogs like 1 idea, repeat and go back to the same source. Enjoy the peer evaluation environment
• Associative like foxes embrace all kinds of ideas pick things up bounce here and there
• Are young people becoming more fox like? The 12-18 year age group especially as they only know life with the web
• Evidence web changing our thinking
• Professor David Nicholas 40% people never visit the same web page again
• Hyper linked web of information converting us from thinking literally to associatively
• Confirm that Gen. Web are more fox like, remodeled by the web information over load associative thinking
  
• Society always looks back at the preceding age not the one we are li ving in.
• In the 1960s predicted real time chat Marshall McLuhan
• Measure new media by old media
• Compare to passively consumer type i.e. movies and sitcoms a waste of time as compared to say You Tube. Creative, Sharing rather then just a visual production Brings more people in
• Viral culture people much more engaged
• Direct impact on the world
• You Tube My Space Twitter FB
• Impact in Politics Gen Web engaged done it and done it differently
• Feedback Loops
• Associative Thinking
• For better or worse using web
• Being used by young people today
• Power of the web to connect and collaborate
• Positive impact is that collaboration is the key driver of human progress
• Back to South Korea
• Regularly tops World League Education Tables
• especially in Mathematics and Science
• Not only due to the Education system but connected to the web
• At an early age interact and work together
• Claim that the Gen Web will be more intelligent when compared to the older generation
• Recognize the importance of communication and helping each other solve problems.
• Collective intelligence

Related articles

• Have you got too many Facebook friends? (eventsnorthern.wordpress.com)
• Even With Social Networking, Do Our Brains Limit Our Number Of Friends? (psychologytoday.com)
• Validation of Dunbar's number in Twitter conversations (paul.kedrosky.com)

Toxic, Tough, or Feeling Threatened? (Guest blogger of the month - February 2011)

Image source - by Dreamstime

This word ‘toxic’ is being bandied around a lot and used to describe people or systems that are challenging for various reasons. It appears to be almost commonplace in the academic, health, and local government sectors, where psychological harassment (or ‘bullying’) is more prevalent. The University of Auckland Business School is even offering a short course on ‘Toxic People’ in March. Nevertheless, using the word ‘toxic’ is sensationalist, it demonises individuals, and does nothing to help address the harm caused by the behaviour, or the system that allowed it to flourish.

We may also describe these individuals as ‘tough’ - they will fight their way to the top - or as ‘sociopaths’ who just want to make everyone’s life hell. A friend of mine, Laura Crawshaw, who has spent the last fifteen years working with what she calls ‘abrasive managers’ in the States refuted this approach in a recent email: “After having coached over 400 abrasive bosses, I would say that only one might possibly have fit the criteria of sociopath. And I’m clinically trained to recognize these things.”


So, if these people are not truly ‘toxic’, ‘tough’, or ‘sociopaths’, what are they? And why are they behaving like this? Well, firstly, we need to make the distinction between the individual and their behaviour: focus on the problem, not the person. You may have seen this illustrated by the ALAC adverts on TV – “We’re mates right, but you just gotta ease up on the drinking”. These ads also demonstrate that we need to be specific about the actual behaviours which cause the harm, not just ‘He/She rubs everyone up the wrong way’.

Image source - by Dreamstime
There may be all manner of reasons why these people choose to behave in such an upsetting or aggressive way, but Laura Crawshaw’s research points to a common theme – they feel threatened. Now this may be a surprise to some of you, who are thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, this person is threatening and upsetting me, and now you want me to feel sorry for them!?’ Let me just quickly say that no-one is asking you to feel sorry for them; what we are needing is a little empathy. This will not only help us to address the behaviour, but it will also help you to regain your own power in choosing how to react. If you think about how you would normally react when you perceive, for example, that your safety is threatened – it triggers the fight, flight, or freeze response (tend and befriend are additional options for women). Somewhere along the line, these people have learned that to come out fighting gets the best results. They may have seen it work for someone in their previous workplace, or their parents may have modelled it during their childhood. No matter where they learned this behaviour, they sincerely believe that it is the only way to achieve the desired results.


Since these people are also usually blind to the harm they are causing, I hear you ask ‘What can be done, and by whom?’ Firstly, you can communicate your own discomfort directly to the person, either at the moment of the behaviour, or when you have had a chance to gather your thoughts; and secondly, you can engage the support of your boss, or of the Human Resources team in dealing with this. However you decide to proceed, there is a process to follow to assist the other person to evolve their behaviour:

• What?: The specific negative behaviour needs to be highlighted;
• Why?: Clear reasons must be given for change; and
• How?: Behavioural expectations need to be discussed.
  

Image source - by Dreamstime

If you are unsure of how to do this in a way that will not trigger the ‘threatened’ defensive reactions in the other person (and escalate the situation), you may wish to call on help from inside your organisation, or from outside – someone who specialises in constructive communication. Furthermore, raising your awareness of exactly what it is that triggers your own defensive reactions will assist you to manage conflict situations more competently.


Remember, choosing to ignore negative behaviour is to condone it; shining a light on it transforms it into a learning experience.

With special thanks to Ken Cloke – mediator extraordinaire, and Laura Crawshaw – The Boss Whisperer – for their inspirational work.

Useful links

Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
NVC Practice Groups in New Zealand

 

Fiona White

Fiona White has the ideal manner for a conflict resolution practitioner – calm, patient, and a very good listener. She asks just the right questions to empower her clients to find their own solutions.

With over 20 years professional experience in education, management, commerce, industry, recruitment and customer care in the UK, France and New Zealand, Fiona has a great understanding of the costs and benefits of conflict. Her mission is to share her conflict resolution knowledge and skills as widely as possible. Fiona is based in East Auckland, where she has her own Mediation and Conflict Coaching practice - Mediation Matters - and holds a clinic one day a week at the local Citizens Advice Bureau.