LyrArc Article Gist
Twitter has grown since its founding in 2006, to emerge as a social media platform by 2012. Its growth is during the same period that the smartphone made its entry- the iphone in 2006 and the android phone in 2008. The short form of 140 characters works well on a mobile smartphone. It was much easier to type in the 140 characters into a smartphone than into earlier phones. Its adaptability to the smartphone and the spread of smartphones everywhere gave it tens of millions of users.  Jack Dorsey who founded Twitter tries to develop a longer form through a startup Medium and does not himself believe that the short form provides a medium for thoughtful expression. By 2016 it forms the basis of president Trump's campaign against both the establishment in the Republican and Democratic parties.  By the time of the Joe Scarborough fact check of president Trump's comments on Twitter in May 2020 so much has become muddled up that the WSJ editorial while calling the comments nasty, says the fact check itself has bias. Mr. Trump says conservative voices in the Republican party are silenced.  By institutionalizing the short form the tech platforms and tech companies have built their own structures on the decline in cultural and other literacy in America, Europe and in other countries.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Joanna Stern of the WSJ uses the original iPhone that came out in 2007 for one day in June 2017 and sees how it felt to use the introductory version. The original one worked on a 2G cellular network. It took about a minute for the president's Twitter feed to fully load in the old phone's Safari browser, it now takes 5 seconds. A lot has changed with the smartphone revolution in ten years. Lunch spot search results, Stern points out, might take longer than the time to eat lunch in the Maps App with that old phone. No emojis, predictive text, no Siri, and no third party apps, no Apple Music or Spotify, all that came later. The 2 megapixel camera took decent shots but not without good light. What is useful in Joanna Stern's little experiment is that it makes one reflect on how quickly people forget, how so much is now taken for granted as smartphones change the way people live their lives and interact with technology on a daily basis. Not mentioned here is how common smartphones have become with the Android versions made in China offering so much more for the budgets of ordinary people. And how it has changed the lives of billions of people in China, India, other parts of Asia and Latin America, bringing them into contact with the outside world. What is also interesting in this sense is that what took a huge effort over many years and many disappointments- the idea of a touchscreen that works- shows what an idea and the courage to persist in the face of innumerable hurdles can accomplish. See the link to how  Steve Jobs accomplished this. Daisuke Wakabayashi talked with Apple engineer Greg Christie in his article-"Apple Engineer on iPhone's Birth," Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2014. Christie had worked on a digital personal assistant at Apple in 1996, one that had tried the first touch screen Apple made. The device failed in the market. In 2004, eight years later the touch screen is the idea Jobs had Christie work on again. Many frustrations and obstacles later the first smartphone was developed by 2007. It took 10 years and undaunted effort which is the Apple story under Jobs. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The book that is The Times and Sunday Times best thought of book of the year 2024 is Jonathan Haidt's Anxious Generation. It shows how teenagers instead of playing with their friends and doing activity outdoors, are isolated in their rooms scrolling through smartphones and deluging their minds with information that is very often toxic. Life was simpler and physically active before Steve Jobs smartphones and social media of facebook, twitter and tiktok. Quality of life has deteriorated not advanced with these technologies. Born to Rule by Friedman and Reeves is about the British Elite. The puzzling thing about the people in it is that they want to pass themselves off as relatable and normal, says The Times. None of the powerful and influential will admit to being in the elite or establishment it says and asks why are they so embarrassed? The same could be said for the American elite or establishment who will pass themselves off as normal and relatable too and don't think of them as part of this group.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Carr's account of the distraction promoted by the Internet, services like Google and Twitter in a book called "The Shallows." He says Google is in the business of distraction and Twitter is neurological heroin. His account is very well informed and researched say reviewers of his book. Research is cited frequently. a neuroscientist is quoted by Carr that our brains are being trained to pay attention to crap. And scarier still, Carr shows what this does to humans ordinary tendency to relate to others, empathy and feeling the emotions of compassion for others. The more distracted we become we don't experience these emotions in the same way. He shows how the working memory has room for only a limited number of items 2-4 items, and whereas a book reader can take his own time to process, the web can lead one to do this speedily and in a scattered way. So the manner in which previous generations absorbed information is now disturbed, making it harder to concentrate. The emphasis, as it is for any new technology, is how to use it wisely, and avoid its misuse. The statistics show Americans spending an average of 8.5 hours per day using the PC, TV or Smartphone, and checking their emails 30-40 times per hour, and teenagers receiving or sending 2,272 monthly text messages, which may suggest that things are beyond a wise limit....