Simplify, simplify, simplify
The following is an excerpt from my School of Information application essay:
Our society is inundated with information. We crave it. We're addicted to it, and we know it. Blackberrys are called CrackBerrys, some states have found it necessary to make it illegal to check email while driving, and I was personally disappointed to find out that my preferred RSS feed reader can update no more frequently than twice an hour. Too many of us live in a state of "continuous partial attention," never fully applying ourselves to a given task because one eye is always on the inbox or browser window. The societal issues this causes — car accidents, reduced productivity, inferior workmanship, loss of true interpersonal connection — dictate that information professionals must play a role in addressing this epidemic of information addiction. Technology alone cannot solve these problems; indeed, while the problems I describe have been exacerbated by technology, they predate electronic information technology, as related by Henry David Thoreau in his 1854 classic Walden: "Hardly a man takes a half hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, 'What's the news?' as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half hour, doubtless for no other purpose. After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast." Just as technology helps feed this craving for information, so, too, can technology help reduce the craving.
You wrote: "...so, too, can technology help reduce the craving"
I'd love to hear some examples and suggestions.
Rick Dinitz on March 15, 2011, 16:54
I think in the last two years or so, designers have started to realize that more isn't always necessarily better. We're starting to see software that is deliberately simple, with relatively few features. WriteRoom is a great example of this (though it's older than just a couple years).
There's a growing demand for this type of thing in our devices, too. People loved the original Kindle because it didn't have a web browser. (Newer versions do, unfortunately, and I think that detracts from the device.) NoteSlate has been garnering a lot of interest lately, again, because it's so simple. A previous version of their website even boasted "No internet connection" as a feature.
Finally, there's a genre of software that has been coming out to save us from ourselves. Fred Stutzman's Freedom and Anti-Social apps are prime examples, as is the open source SelfControl.
Noah on March 15, 2011, 22:32