MIT Psychologist and longtime technology researcher Sherry Turkle published a thoughtful opinion piece in the New York Times Sunday Review this week. In the piece (“The Flight From Conversation“), Turkle reflects on the ways in which mobile technologies are shifting the types of exchanges we have. Tired of connecting, she wants to stand up for real, long-form conversation.
All posts tagged gadgets
Where’d Everybody Go?
As a quick followup to the Apple/Nike piece, consider Nick Bilton’s recent blog post over at the New York Times. It is entitled “Disruptions: Too Much Silence on Working Conditions.” In the wake of Apple’s troubles with worker issues at Foxconn plants, he notes the continuing silence of other tech companies that use Foxconn to manufacture their products.
In the last week I have asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some didn’t even respond.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/18/everybody-pile-on/
Apple’s “Nike Moment”
In their April 13-26 edition, the National Catholic Reporter published a piece that I wrote on the explosion of press about labor rights issues at the manufacturing facilities of Foxconn, the company that makes many of Apple’s most popular devices. The article compares Apple with Nike, which has had its share of labor problems starting in the 1990s.
As a brand, [Nike] evoked the best in American culture: commitment, achievement, competitiveness, cool, and a sense of fair play. But as tales of their rights abuses spread, Nike became a cultural symbol of everything that was wrong with capitalism and globalization.
Unlike Nike, though, Apple seems to have made it out of the controversy unscathed. But how? The piece reflects on some of the dynamics involved in the case, as well as some of the long term implications.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/18/apples-nike-moment/
Technical Fix to a Social Problem
Why is it that when your cellphone is stolen, someone can just register it with a new account and start using it? In order to get service, you have to provide a service provider with the electronic serial number of the phone. So, they already have massive databases of valid serial numbers. Why not just have an something in the database record that records that the phone has been reported as stolen? That way, it can’t be reactivated, rendering it useless to steal? Technically speaking, it’s a pretty easy thing. But it would be a great thing for cell phone owners.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 11, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/11/technical-solution-to-a-tech-problem/
Rewiring Virtue 