Anyone who’s directed away from social interactions has a head start on turning out weird … Computers teach us to withdraw, to retreat into the warm comfort of their false reality. Why are both drug addicts and computer aficionados both called users? Thanks to television, huge numbers of Americans have become nocturnal zombies who spend their evenings inert before cathode-ray tubes. Computing is equally nonholistic: a motionless consumption of the mind … A generation of network surfers is becoming adept at navigating the electronic backwaters, while losing touch with the world around them.
Predictor: Stoll, Clifford
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Silicon Snake Oil,” writer Clifford Stoll shares his take on the Internet’s future implications for children: ”Anyone who’s directed away from social interactions has a head start on turning out weird … Computers teach us to withdraw, to retreat into the warm comfort of their false reality. Why are both drug addicts and computer aficionados both called users? Thanks to television, huge numbers of Americans have become nocturnal zombies who spend their evenings inert before cathode-ray tubes. Computing is equally nonholistic: a motionless consumption of the mind … Alone behind a computer, a user needn’t interact with anyone in the room. Since keyboards can’t be shared, social interactions increasingly take place over the wires. In turn, children feel less connection to their neighborhoods. Hardly surprising that a generation of network surfers is becoming adept at navigating the electronic backwaters, while losing touch with the world around them.”
Biography:Clifford Stoll was an astrophysicist who also wrote the influential books “Silicon Snake Oil” (1995) and “The Cuckoo’s Egg.” A long-time network user, Stoll made “Silicon Snake Oil” his platform for finding fault with the Internet hype of the early 1990s. He pointed out the pitfalls of a completely networked society and offered arguments in opposition to the hype. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Silicon Snake Oil
Title, headline, chapter name: On Classrooms, With and Without Computers; Some Basic Astrophysics for the Intrepid
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 136, 137
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney