In chapter two of William Davidow's book, Overconneted, he discusses both positive and negative feedback in a society. Specifically, he talks about how positive feedback in an overconnected society can amplify the over connectivity, causing it to continue to compound. Thus, inevitably, the physical society will struggle to keep up with the over connection and collapse. On a smaller scale, we can see in our everyday life. Whether good or bad, the over connectedness seems to be compounding.
This broadcast news story discusses results from a recent study on the over connectedness of teenagers and young adults and what all of it will look like in 2020:
Are We Over Connected?
It's quite interesting to think about how all of this will look in 10 years. Researchers seem to think there are both positives and negatives. One of the negatives that sticks out strongly to me is that they note, "quick choices with very little information." I think that, as all of the overconnectivity compounds, this will be more and more the case.
Your highlight on 'quick choices with very little information' strikes a chord. We are a society with access to more information than ever before, yet the authors believe our decision making will suffer with the increased connectedness that facilitating. One thought might be that we have SO much information at our fingertips, that we get to the point that it's easier 'just to make a decision' rather than taking the time to research and make an educated decision.
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