Cass Sunstein MomentsI call them Cass Sunstein
Moments in honor of his widely (and perhapsdeservedly) ignored book Republic.com.Perhaps they are better called Steven Johnson moments, for it mightjust be that Johnson's mild obsession with rebutting Sunstein'sargument that keeps it from sliding into utter obscurity. Whatever it'scalled though I had one this morning as I surfed the web for a hit ofnews and information. It was a pretty good read, food, fair trade,obscure Google and Yahoo hires, a font article and my favorite, a fourmonth old post on a decade old interfacewhich led me to Amazon and a used book purchase. Good surfing, nicewaves. Then came the moment, a hit of discord. "Isn't the middle easton the verge of war?" What the hell was I doing digging through ancient(by internet terms) design texts, when the world was peering off on theedge of hell and threatening to take the stock market with it? This isexactly what Sunstein is worried about in an internet era. Aworld of
people lost in their own little "Daily Me" of information andcompletely unaware of bigger issues and free of events that bringpeople together in the way say the Super Bowl or World Cup do. And fora
Moment I was there, off in some designer nerd crafted info bubble.Just a moment though, for bubble's like Sunstein's argument are proneto pop. For one thing I knew something was up in Middle East. The firstthing on my morning ritual, before even getting out of bed, is to readSlate's Today's Papers, a handy synopsis of what our old mediaestablishment think is important. I read it every morning cause I wantto know what other people are thinking, what other people are talkingabout. I don't think I'm alone either, people are social animals, asmuch as they may love their niche interests they also want to stay intouch with each other. As deep and detailed as your personal interestsget, most people are well aware that it's healthy to know what's goingon around you. Funnily enough it seems most people don't even need aNew York Times editor to remind them that a bit of perspective ishelpful from time to time. I may have had a Cass Sunstein moment thismorning. But it was just a moment, not some sort of permanent state,and it is that distinction that makes it so difficult to effectivelytake on his argument. Sunstein is right only in the broadest of senses,he has identified(and he's far from the only one to do so) a key
issue in our rapidlyexpanding media world. That in a world of intensely diversifying nichesit's possible to lose perspective on the broader connections and issuesin the world. You can't dismiss the issue, it's very real, but thedetails are so unformed so far that you can't even call it anythingmore than an issue. Whether it is even worth calling a "problem" isvery much up for grabs.
Sure there is enough news focused solely onyour favorite sports team or obscure literary genre that you can ignorethe drone planes smashing into warships off the coast of Lebanon. Andit happens for sure. But those happenings are only moments, maybe youare off in your "daily me" for an hour, maybe months, heck thereprobably people who will spend their whole lives in it. But will you?Probably not, quite simply because you probably don't want too(although if news stays as bad as it has the past couple days that maychange.)The world is changing, the media is changing, and with it comes adeep potential to get lost in the swarm. But will we? Humans have aremarkable ability to create problems for themselves for sure, but theyalso have a remarkable ability to solve them, to adapt and to evolve.I've given up trying to predict the future, I'll settle for justavoiding Cass Sunstein moments.