Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Alex Trebek on Technology



"If you can't be without that piece of equipment, I think that's sad. We're becoming too attached to our technology. We need more time to ourselves, more time to sit and think and be quiet, instead of constantly being accessed. And as far as Twitter goes, are we so insecure that if we're not connected to somebody else every moment of the day, we're in a panic? What happened to the days of contemplation? The days of being self sufficient? Enjoying ourselves instead of being in contact with everybody else?"[1]

O.

REFERENCES

[1] From an excellent interview with him on Time Magazine's "Techland" site: Doug Aamoth "Techland Interview: Alex Trebek" Techland.Time.Com (Sept. 21, 2010)

[*] Another great interview with him on the recent (2/14/11) IBM-Watson vs. human champions on Jeopardy is here.

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2 Comments:

At 1:19 PM, Blogger CRJ said...

I agree. We're going on a cruise next month. No phone, no computer, no Twitter or Facebook. Just rest and relaxation and maybe contemplation. A time to enjoy family and God's creation.

 
At 12:53 PM, Blogger woofmutt said...

"...As far as Twitter goes, are we so insecure that if we're not connected to somebody else every moment of the day, we're in a panic?"


That might actually be the case with the younger generations who are growing up plugged in every waking hour. I've wondered if during some extended major power outage situation with no access of any kind if there will be people who experience incapacitating panic.

Trebek's comment about Twitter is typical of people who assume 140 characters or less can only be used for tweets like "Picked up dry cleaning, had 15% off coupon...AWESOME!"

Just because it's a "tweet" doesn't mean it's pointless noise. Clever or interesting thoughts can be expressed in 140 characters or less.

 

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