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"The naive optimism of the 18th century led some people to believe that technological progress would lead to a kind of utopia in which human beings, freed from the need to work in order to support themselves, would devote themselves to philosophy, to science and to music, literature, and the other fine arts…Instead of using their technological means of production to provide themselves with free time in which to undertake intellectual and artistic work, people today devote themselves to the struggle for status, prestige, and power and to the accumulation of material goods that serve only as toys. In effect,Americanall popular culture has been reduced to mere hedonism, and hedonism of a particular contemptible kind."
Edit mine.
This is definitely something interesting to think about deeply . While the author didn't believe so, I think technology is overwhelmingly a net positive. But the relevant word here is net.
Is there, for lack of a better word, a trap? Have you fallen into it? Did you climb out? Obviously, things such as Facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc. immediately come to mind. Even though I am not a frequent user of these services, I have found some merit in them. But only some.
And to go even further, is NT, as a whole, a part of the opined and maligned hedonism? Overall, I say yes.
Here is the essay in which I read it: http://thewirecutter.com/2012/01/happiness-takes-a-little-magic/ (The gist is that technology, primarily the web, often weighs us down instead of lifting us up, which it is quite capable of doing. A recent Stanford study provoked the essay.)
Do a little digging within to find out who wrote the quote.
The new book, The Information Diet, concerns the role of technology of our lives. Def need to pick it up. If anyone else has other books, essays or videos to offer, please post them.