[Publib] "Is Google making us stupid?"

[Joe Schallan]

On Monday, 6/16/08, Marianne Follis <Marianne.Follis at cityofcarrollton.com> wrote:
 
> And I have to say I think longing for the good old days
> will get you no where.  Didn't the adults of the 50's
> think that Rock n Roll was going
> to lead to the downfall of our nation's youth?

Hmmm. Even as I wrote my post, I thought that it was only a matter of time before someone dragged out the old-fogey card and played it.

This is very close to Godwin's Law, and I shall take credit and call it Schallan's Law -- whenever someone expresses skepticism about technology, meaningful discussion ends when the skeptic is implied to be an old fogey, resistant to change.  Library managers, freshly back from conference with New Ideas to complicate our service to our patrons, regularly employ Schallan's Law to put the kibosh on closer examination.

I have reread my posts, and nowhere do I express longing for the good old days. In my case, those were the 60s, and I think I made it clear that I think though they now be old days indeed, they were never very good days.

 
> Please don't tell me you don't like rock!


I don't like rock.

I find it hopelessly short form and infantile, written expressly for the attention-challenged and fatuous. In a nutshell, Sinatra sings for adults; rockers sing for juveniles.

Though no one should take offense at my opinion. De gustibus non disputandum est.

How I came to dislike rock is interesting insofar as it relates to Carr's thesis that the style in which information is delivered can reprogram our brains for better or worse.

Having come of age in the 60s and early 70s (my dad even putting the kibosh on my scheme to take his truck/camper across country to attend Woodstock), I was a guy who loved rock. Among my favorites: Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and the Doors, the Stones, Cream (Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire), CSN&Y, The Band, Led Zeppelin, Buffalo Springfield, Jethro Tull, and many others, and most of all, Bruce Springsteen.  Interestingly, I especially liked "long-form," thematic rock, and thus Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, Tommy. The seven-minute "Light My Fire" was the only version that interested me.

And then, late on, I discovered opera, and I have to say it killed most of rock for me, as well as most of orchestral classical music, although not jazz, Sinatra, or some country.  I just didn't hear the stuff like I used to, and could not believe that I had ever taken it seriously.

So when Carr says a medium has the ability to reprogram our brains, the point resonates with me.  A style of music sure as heck reprogrammed my brain.

I would go on to a passioned defense of deep reading, but Karen has already done it eloquently, and I again refer you to Freerangelibrarian.

How does Carr's thesis relate to what we do as librarians? It relates to what we promote and endorse. For my part, I will be a long-form evangelist, and try to make converts. I will have no part in programming that makes war on reading.

What we do isn't a profession; it is a calling. We must carefully consider what we are incentivizing with the limited resources at our disposal. We aren't removing gallstones or laying pipe; we are ministering to minds.



Brothers and sisters, you may now take your hands off the computer.

Joe Schallan
Phoenix