Stephen Downes

This was Neil Postman in 1985, long before Zoom - or for that matter, the internet - was really a thing. "In courtrooms, classrooms, operating rooms, board rooms, churches and even airplanes, Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, authenticity and celebrity." So while I appreciate Todd Conaway arguing here that we should be thinking of more in-person things we should be doing, I would argue that this doesn't solve the problem it's supposed to be solving. If I had to put it in a nutshell, what happened is that (with the rise of suburbia) connection became privilege. Being 'in the room' became the mark of the elite. And online media - at least from my perspective - became a way to push back against that.