{"id":4480,"date":"2011-05-21T23:55:39","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T06:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2011-05-22T00:33:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T07:33:33","slug":"nyt-calls-it-a-twitter-trap-i-say-keller-needs-to-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/2011\/05\/21\/nyt-calls-it-a-twitter-trap-i-say-keller-needs-to-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT calls it a Twitter Trap. I say Keller needs to rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on Facebook, a friend<\/a> pointed to the May 18 article by Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times<\/em>: \ufeff\ufeff\ufeffThe Twitter Trap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keller wrote such a load of nonsense – my heart sank when I read it. A few thoughts on that story in a moment, but first: let’s recall that, Keller’s claim that\u00a0The New York Times<\/em> “has embraced new media with creative, prizewinning gusto” notwithstanding, The Times<\/em> has egg on its face regarding its claims to priority<\/a> regarding the Osama bin Laden story<\/a>. The Times<\/em> has been stumbling badly when it comes to dealing with new media, “prizewinning gusto” or not.<\/p>\n

So what does Keller say about Twitter (and other social media) in his opinion piece? It seems he wants to blame social media for making us stupider. It’s a by-now-familiar argument. You know the drill: Google is making us stupider because we don’t have to remember as much or as many facts (or factoids) as we used to. Keller repeats the argument verbatim:<\/p>\n

Until the 15th century, people were taught to remember vast quantities of information. Feats of memory that would today qualify you as a freak \u2014 the ability to recite entire books \u2014 were not unheard of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh sure, I bet every yokel you encountered at the local sty back in the day could recite …um, what, exactly?<\/p>\n

Middlemarch<\/a>, says Keller.<\/p>\n

Well, allow me a peasant moment: oy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

C’mon. You’ve heard these (tired) arguments by now, right? Back in the day, before we had all the new technology that provides our poor brains with crutches<\/em>, we were all veritable Atlases of erudition.<\/p>\n

Not.<\/p>\n

Where, I wonder, do people get the idea that people were generally so much smarter and better “back in the day”?<\/p>\n

But that’s not really my problem with Keller’s argument.<\/p>\n

It’s about Middlemarch<\/em> (which, full disclosure, I haven’t actually read) and it’s about taking facts out of context to make his case. Keller “blames” Gutenberg (that is: the invention of the printing press) for the death of the alleged ability to remember “vast quantities of information,” but here’s what he wrote:<\/p>\n

Then along came the Mark Zuckerberg of his day, Johannes Gutenberg. As we became accustomed to relying on the printed page, the work of remembering gradually fell into disuse. (…)<\/p>\n

Sometimes the bargain is worthwhile; I would certainly not give up the pleasures of my library for the ability to recite \u201cMiddlemarch.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wait… Rewind! Middlemarch<\/em>, dear Bill Keller, would not exist – much less be an object of your regret over mnemonic challenges unmet – if not for<\/em><\/strong> Gutenberg (“the Mark Zuckerberg of his day” – eww).<\/p>\n

As I wrote on my friend’s Facebook wall, Middlemarch<\/em> was written centuries after<\/strong> the invention of the printing press, and Keller not only would never have been expected to memorize it, he wouldn’t have had a chance to, since that literary format depended in the first place on the printing press for its emergence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No Gutenberg, no Eliot, one could just as easily argue. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Keller seems too married to his certainties to understand or appreciate formal innovations that actually create new content<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s plenty wrong with how we use social media – just as there’s a lot wrong with how we’ve used television (reality TV, anyone?), or any other media. But to sit around as the freaking executive editor of The New York Times<\/em> and kvetch about Gutenberg (thinly disguised as – fie! – a Mark Zuckerberg avant la lettre<\/em>!) robbing you of your chance to recite Middlemarch<\/em> just shows lazy thinking.<\/p>\n

I guess there isn’t yet an app for that.<\/p>\n

And for the record: if you’re the editor and can’t turn off the goddamn Tweetdeck (or whatever other intrusive \/ distracting app you’re using), then that’s your problem. Don’t go blaming the technologies for the time you’re wasting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over on Facebook, a friend pointed to the May 18 article by Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times: \ufeff\ufeff\ufeffThe Twitter Trap. Keller wrote such a load of nonsense – my heart sank when I read it. A few thoughts on that story in a moment, but first: let’s recall that, Keller’s claim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1002],"tags":[31154,31153,3261],"class_list":["post-4480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social_critique","tag-bill_keller","tag-new_york_times","tag-twitter"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4487,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions\/4487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}