I am going to tackle this one from two fronts.

US PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES - 2012

First, the election 2012 debates.  In my earlier post, I thanked media (new media) like ABCNews and YouTube for their joint initiative to stream the US Presidential Debates on October 3rd.

For the first time, I watched the entire debate through broadband access via ABCNew’s iPad App in live-stream format but also shifted to YouTube’s live-stream via the Mac.  Honestly, a different experience with the heavy integration of social traffic from Twitter embeds on YouTube to Storify embeds via the ABCNews iPad app.  Technically, the delivery was flawless BUT…

…BUT

The post-debate analysis was an absolute disaster!  For the first time ever, the post-debate analysis came down to thing: pitch, form, function and delivery.  Verus real facts. Every single “analyst” focused on why Obama didn’t show up with his “A game”.  No where in the 45+ minutes of post-debate coverage did I see anything about FACT-CHECKING!  Where are the facts that need to be checked?!  For a fact, many claims made by Romney and Obama required fact-checking and no single guest analyst had anything worthwhile to say!

If we’re going to seek value through broadband-driven broadcasts, ABCNews and others will need to bring forward their “A Game” folks to provide anything of real value.  Undoubtedly, we’ve been Jersey-Shored by the pathetically weak ABCNews panel available to us on YouTube and the ABCNews iPad app.  What a pathetic disgrace!

An ABCNews panelist even had the nerve to ask, “Do we have a sense of who was _winning_ based on twitter volume?”  God Lord. 

We’re doomed.  Where has the strong journalism gone? 

Heck, ABCNews even had a “spin room” and sadly, the spin was to avoid hard fact-checking. Absolute garbage.  ‘Nuff said.

THE FOURTH SCREEN AND EXPERIENCES

Earlier today, while reviewing my twitter stream, someone oddly tweeted (paraphrased):

My first screen is my iPad or iPhone

My second screen is the television

My third screen is the balcony door and window

I replied to that tweet and said, “My first screen is the balcony door and window.” 

Personally, I cannot believe someone is prepared to give up reality, life and experiences for technology.  Sorry, but as someone that works in the technology sector, this is plain wrong. 

NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING replaces real life experience.  Yes, thank you Steve for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV and iCloud.  Thank you.  But no, this doesn’t replace reality and life.  

Philosophically, technology is a double-edged sword because it has given us great freedom, efficiency and convenience but at the same time (I believe this) has complicated our lives in so many other ways that have led all of us towards complexity vs. simplicity.

We are at a pivotal moment in humanity’s evolution where old world infrastructure is being displaced rapidlyby new world technologies and delivery platforms which shift our behaviour, our consumption and how we interact with media, technology and fellow humans. 

We are on dangerous ground when people are prepared to give away real life experiences, human interaction, and “special moments” for a tweet, an Instagram upload or a Facebook comment.  We’re dangerously close.  Even I have fallen victim to the ecosystem of “iDevices” which are available to all of us - sure, we can easily shut them off and go on a typical i-Diet, so to speak. Sure - make no bones about it, we don’t need to be controlled by “i-Devices” but there is no doubt their influence has affected how we live and interact.

Just today, a younger soul that should know better made an independent decision to save us the grief and hassle of paying for a school trip (a two-day camp) so that he could stay home and um, do what? Play Xbox? NOT COOL!  Kids today need extra and vigorous surveillance against the total flood called “access and distraction” to grow and “experience” real life.  We immediately delivered a lecture and are in motion to ensure that the young offender is on a two-day camp trip so that he’s on his “A game” in the real world versus the virtual world.

If you’re reading this and have children in the critical early teen years, it is absolutely essential to manage their time (for school work), time around technology (Xbox, Internet, i-Devices) because it is simply overwhelming!  We make a personal effort to buy physical books that can be read “with focus” like I used to do when growing up.  No child should ever be displaced from a field trip, camp visit, or regular trip in return for Xbox gaming — unless the reason is “economic”. 

I never thought I’d ever see the day when I’d take a negative position as someone who grew up with the early days of Silicon Valley, Atari 2600 and old Apple II games.  Back then, we had console games and televisions built on Nielsen family rankings.  But we still had a mix of options which included extra-curricular activities like sports,  movies, parks and science centres that competed with technology. Parents - please pay attention.

While the Fourth Screen brings great wonder, joy, knowledge and access, it can also take us away from the much finer things in life that include much of the human interaction we grew up with.  Dangerous. 

We must defend the human soul as much as possible even as technological advancement continues unabated to encircle our daily lives at a rapid clip!