Clive Thompson
Clive Thompson
compare people public
There is something about the ability to externalize our thoughts and compare them with other people in a public way that is really transformative for the average person.
people tools computer
More than any other modern tool, computers are a total mystery to their users. Most people never open them up to fix them or to see how they work.
book people online
As Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman document in their book Networked, people who are heavily socially active online tend to be also heavily socially active offline; they’re just, well, social people.
thinking knowing people
Ambient awareness is the experience of knowing what's going on in the lives of other people - what they're thinking about, what they're doing, what they're looking at - by paying attention to the small stray status messages that people are putting online. We're now able to stitch together these fantastic details and mental maps of what is going on in other people's lives.
almost brains came help internet people problem remember syndrome terrible
Tip-of-the-tongue syndrome is when people almost remember something but need a computer, or someone else, to help them find it. The problem is, our brains have always been terrible at remembering details. They were like that way before the Internet came along.
people
We're dumber and less cognitively nimble if we're not around other people - and, now, other machines.
business develop firm goal interrupt love media models people selling social stare
Personally, I'd love to see more social media firms develop business models that aren't reliant on advertising. If you're a social media firm selling ads, your goal is to get people to interrupt what they're doing all day long so they come and stare at your service as much as possible.
answering engaging people productive tend themselves thinkers
The people who tend to get the most out of being social thinkers are the people who themselves are helpful. They're always talking or answering people's questions or engaging in productive conversations. They're not being trolls. They're tamping down other people that are being trolls.
people
The amount of writing that people do online is astonishing, and historically unprecedented.
best biases close digital harder judge minds people search work works
Transactive memory works best when you have a sense of how your partners' minds work - where they're strong, where they're weak, where their biases lie. I can judge that for people close to me. But it's harder with digital tools, particularly search engines.
cities cultural deeply dynamic fantastic flock nor people replaced seductive sorts useful
I don't think the Internet has replaced cities in any significant way, nor really could it. Cities are dynamic - and deeply seductive for the people who flock there - because they broker all sorts of fantastic and useful connections, cultural and economic and social.
argue attempt begun main message people technology ways
The main message of 'Smarter Than You Think' is an attempt to look at the productively new and interesting ways that we have begun to learn about the world, to think about what we found, and to mull it over and argue about it with other people as we use technology.
age delightful kids screens split time
The things kids can do on screens can be really delightful - if they are age appropriate. But no, they shouldn't spend all their time on a screen; they should split up their time doing multiple, different things.
computer consumers files requiring tiny
Software is now so complex - requiring so many gazillions of tiny files all over your computer - that most consumers don't want to bother to know what's really going on.