The internet and computer use can drive people to multitask which is a great time and productivity waster, as well as reducing the intellectual drill-down required of intellectual thought. As a software developer, the ability to focus for long periods on single aspects is important, as is the ability to think about systems and to choose the correct solution. The focus on internet media, as well as the supposed tendency for youth to multitask, seems more harmful than good, at least in terms of smarts, or at a minimum, productivity. It's not that something positive can't arise from a reduced multi-target focus, but...
In response to an Ender's Game discussion (Goodreads), with a link from Reddit, I posted the following: Much of the Reddit stream seems to focus on military tactics, or the lack thereof, used by the Ender, but who reads Ender and thinks it about military tactics, except the 20-year old grunt that started the thread? For a book written in the 80's, then edited in the early 90's, it seems more prophetic, with its use of game immersion, remote military operations and portable computing. Then when you think about the use of children in military games, one can think somewhat more deeply about sociopolitical indoctrination. The series itself becomes a broader exploration of empathy and foreign culture. The criticism seems more like the problem of a man with a hammer, who thinks every problem is solved by hammering, but even worse, every problem is about hammering. An additional post, regarding suspension of disbelief: Some people commented on the suspension of disbelie...
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