J. D. Fielder

Digital Friction, Part II: To Tune in or Turn Off

I have a bizarre relationship with the analog and the digital.

I arise at 0445 sharp every workday so I have enough time to read the paper before going to work--yes, a real, ink-on-fingers newspaper--and a chapter or two of nonfiction brain food. I've practiced this ritual for so long that my grandmother coined a phrase for it: "time to find myself in the morning."

I repeat the ritual before bed, but with fiction. To hell with the people who say reading in bed before sleeping is bad for you--I can't sleep without it!

What do both rituals have in common? Hard copy. Physical pages. The smell of newsprint, used book, magazine gloss, and coffee all mixing together into a heady mix I wish I could bottle.

But, for good or ill, I spend the rest of my day like most other knowledge workers: eyes glued to screen, mouse and keyboard caressed like an old lover. An endless deluge of electronic news, military reports, scholarly articles, email, and the occasional click on the Wikipedia "random article" link.  For an information junkie, this should be paradise.

Then why am I so weary?

First, there's just. So. Much.

Being paid to read is fan-friggin'-tastic. That, and in my line of work there's nothing worse than answering "no" to the question, "did you read about...?" (my wife considers it a win when she outscoops me on the news).  Yet, reading isn't the same as producing. One the one hand, I must step back and write my own work products. On the other hand, there's always that nagging suspicion I forgot something. That I didn't read just one more article.  Alas, who really has time to read all day?

Second, I agree with the oft-cited Atlantic article that Google is making us stupid.

In Internet time, the article's a bit long in the tooth. However, it dovetails with the more recent publications The Tyranny of Email and The Shallows... which I read in hard copy, no less.  The gist is that electronic content discourages deep reading and fosters skimming. I'm also not a ran of reading long articles on a backlit screen. In the era of the paperless office, I long for a pile of printed PDFs. (Study Hacks also recently posted a great piece on deep work).

Third, my rituals and 24/7 connectivity don't mix.

Facebook, Twitter, reddit, RSS feeds... there's only so much time in a day.  Yet, Twitter appears to be some people's full time job. I can't imagine posting tweets all day and still having enough critical thinking reserves left over.

I've also no desire to spend all my free time in front of a screen. This, of course, is an ironic statement by a gentleman who claims to study how people use information technology to make political decisions. But when it comes down to it, when I die and my life flashes before my eyes, I'm not sure I want to see a lolcat or status update.

I'm posting a problem without a generalizable solution. I know that for me, I simply must disconnect on occasion, and that simply won't work for some people.  Given a choice between tweeting or reading a book in my favorite chair, the chair often wins.

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Digital Friction, Part I: A Crack in the Seamless Environment

Not a day went by in grad school where I didn't wonder how students finished PhD's without Goggle Scholar access.

For three years, my professional life existed on this very laptop I'm writing on. The world was my office, although I favored a handful coffee shops and bookstores strategically placed throughout Iowa City (I dare say I deserve honorary plaques at Capanna Coffee and Haunted Bookshop).

As this essay title suggests, it was a seamless experience. I'd exchange emails with professors on my iPhone, save files to Dropbox for easy multi-platform viewing, engage with like minded individuals on Twitter, coordinate with friends on Facebook, tap into the research paradise that is JSTOR, and ultimately share ideas using the ultimate social media platform: meeting colleagues and teachers for a few beers at Joe's.

Frictionless access to information, in my assessment, dramatically improved my work output. I could work anywhere at anytime, from reading PDFs during my bus commute to class to occasionally travelling "naked" to class with just my iPhone notepad function or a good old fashioned paper notebook.

Needless to say, my transition from academic savage back to military security and hierarchy was a painful experience.

Before I seemingly dog out my employer, keep in mind that I love my military job: I'm basically paid to read, write, drink coffee, and occasionally spout my mouth off, which is a gig that never gets old. Additionally, I'll forever praise the military for paying for almost my entire education, from BA through two MAs and a PhD. That, my friends, is priceless.

Finally, I'm theoretically cognizant of the military's network security requirements. I remember observing the first time I used a Top Secret system, "man, someone with a CD/RW and a grudge could really clean us out."

I present to you Exhibit A.

What does this mean for a secure military network user? Imagine a world without cloud storage, USB drives and unrestricted software availability. Imagine losing access to most social media sites and many research websites. Imagine being unable to take your cellphone or MP3 player to work. Theoretical understanding isn't the same as practical experiences.

Some decisions are for the best. Do we really need Twitter access? While I find it a useful tool, I really shouldn't waste my duty hours using it. Typepad service? Same thing. And there are compromises: Pandora is blocked, but Youtube and Live365 are not (I think because Live365 uses less bandwidth than Pandora. Doesn't explain why Youtube is allowed, though).

Still, my first day back on a military network sucked. No JSTOR access, no STATA, and no easy way to transfer three years of research to my work computer. Let alone my work was now divided between personal and government owned systems (that, and my colleagues rarely meet for a beer at the end of the week... but that's another topic).

I'm authorized to pursue academic research at work, because A) that's why I was hired by my current unit, and B) because it reflects well on the Air Force. But my civilian data source access is dramatically reduced. My worst moment was spending three hours trying to cite a data point because every site I visited was blocked by the military network filter. I also had to look up a Google data scientist who happened to have the same name as a pr0n star... I'm still waiting for a visit by men in black suits and spats over that search.

In short, a switch from a seamless to a barricaded data environment. I wouldn't be so frustrated if it weren't for that fact I was hired to conduct PhD-level research!

How does this affect my work output? It's both demotivating and tiring. Demotivating in that I get frustrated at work for want of simple notes synchronization, and tiring in that my work life is segregated between systems (usually represented by disparate emails sent between work and home computers).  After working close to 12 hours in a data barricaded environment, I have little energy and will left to wrestle with my work at home. I recognize, however, that this is an excuse: I do need to overcome this if I want to finish personal academic projects.

All is not lost, thankfully. I've since learned that the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) website offers a secure (albeit clunky) cloud storage function accessible from both my home and work systems. STATA is on the USAF approved software list, so I *might* be able to source a copy. Finally, the AF Portal has a decent database section which the USAF regularly updates based on user requests. To that end, I'm petitioning the USAF to buy a JSTOR subscription. I certainly have nothing to lose by asking.

Additionally, I'm going to experiment with Blog posts by email. On one hand, I really should focus on work while at work; but on the other hand, I occasionally come across articles that I think my readers would find interesting (unclassified, of course).

My conclusion is this: if you find yourself suddenly in a data-rrestricted environment, be flexible. Rather than shaking my keyboard at the heavens, I squirreled out alternatives such as AKO and the AF Portal database section.  Now I just need to put my own advice into practice.

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(Abstract) Do Internet Users Have More Social Ties?

Zhao, Shanyang. 2006. Do Internet users have more social ties? A call for differentiated analyses of Internet use. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(3), article 8.

Abstract: Research on the impact of Internet use on social ties has generated conflicting results. Based on data from the 2000 General Social Survey, this study finds that different types of Internet usage are differentially related to social connectivity. While nonsocial users of the Internet do not differ significantly from nonusers in network size, social users of the Internet have more social ties than nonusers do. Among social users, heavy email users have more social ties than do light email users. There is indication that, while email users communicate online with people whom they also contact offline, chat users maintain some of their social ties exclusively online. These findings call for differentiated analyses of Internet uses and their effects on interpersonal connectivity.

Available at:

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

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Twitter Scroll Added

Since I'm quick to tweet but a slacker with posts, I figured I'd add a Twitter scroll on the right side.  This way, my readers (all five of you) can peek into my short attention-spanned brain at all times.

Of course, you can also follow me at @JDFielder.

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Trendsmap Twitter Mapping Site

Ooh, shiny!

"You start with a view of your region where you can see the trending topics. You can scroll the maps by dragging to another area, or zoom in or out using the plus/minus icons. When you see something that looks interesting click on that topic for more information such as graphs of the volume of tweets locally vs. worldwide, what the topic is most likely about, images, links, and most recent tweets. You can also see where else this topic popular by clicking on the topic within the detail display, or what else are people tweeting about at this location by clicking on the location name."

http://trendsmap.com/

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Infographic: The Day the Internet Stood Still

A good infographic tells a thousand words. Via Frugal Dad:

 

AP: No Wikipedia? What if the Internet went down?

From AP News. Interesting observation on how lack of online information encouraged Egyptian protesters to meet face to face:

"The government of Hosni Mubarak tried to stop protests in January 2011 by switching off the Internet. The shutdown halted businesses, banking operations and - at the height of the demonstrations - the ability of the protest leaders to organize and communicate with one another.

During the five days that the Internet was out, anti-Mubarak activists had to rely on help from abroad to spread their news and update Web pages. The outage harmed protesters' ability to organize or to counter government propaganda that portrayed them as agents of foreign powers, said Ahmed Saleh, who was in charge of managing the Facebook page that was credited with mobilizing thousands of Egyptians to take to the streets.

With the shutdown, the protests swelled as people unable to follow minute-by-minute what was going on took to the streets.

"No Internet meant that more people went down and realized that this was for real. The protests grew, and so did the anger against the government domestically and internationally," Saleh said."

CONTINUED

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(Video) The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?

Been reading and writing my @$$ off to get my dissertation prospectus done! Hope to defend the prospectus ~17 January.

Anyways, have an interesting video for you, courtesy of one of my professors:

"Does the internet actually inhibit, not encourage democracy? In this new RSA Animate adapted from a talk given in 2009, Evgeny Morozov presents an alternative take on 'cyber-utopianism' - the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely emancipatory role in global politics.
 
Exposing some idealistic myths about freedom and technology (during Iran's 'twitter revolution' fewer than 20,000 Twitter users actually took part), Evgeny argues for some realism about the actual uses and abuses of the internet."

 

Infographic: China's Answer to Social Networking

Image courtesy of G+ and Mashable.  I crops down a bit on this page, so here's another link for the infographic.

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(Abstract) New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging

Kahn, Richard, and Douglas Kellner. "New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging." New Media & Society 6, no. 1 (2004): 87-95.

Disclosure: the article does not include an abstract. This is a truncation of the last paragraph on page 88. - JDF

The global internet...is creating the base and the basis for an unparalleled worldwide anti-war/pro-peace and social justice movement during a time of terrorism, war, and intense political struggle. Correspondingly, the internet itself has undergone radical transformations during this time.  We will briefly examine how the internet has become steadily politicized in recent times, and how internet developments themselves have furthered oppositional politics generally. However, while our analysis will look to chart what we believe are some of the most interesting and powerful expressions of a politicized sensibility occurring today in new media spheres, our analysis is anything but another paean to ‘cybergnosis’ and the digital sublime. Rather, we believe that the internet activism of today is best perceived as informed by the spirit of the EZLN, the ‘Battle of Seattle’, and the diverse amalgams of social movements and subcultures that have matured along with the new media over the last five years. This is the internet as a living, historical force and one of the keys to understanding and shaping the political and cultural life of the present age.

Available at:

Richardkhan.org

Sage Publications