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A review by ohnonero
Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age by Douglas Rushkoff
2.0
Program or Be Programmed has some serious "Old man yells at cloud" energy, and you know, that's fine, understandable even - every now and then I was totally willing to yell at the clouds with him, but aside from those moments, this book is... questionable. Now, I am aware that it was written and published in 2010, but not all of his takes just aged badly, some of them were awful to begin with.
The Good
Rushkoff rightly identifies many of the issues that plague society and its individuals in this era of technology. Small businesses are falling prey to giant online retailers, consumers have become the product, online anonymity brings out the worst in people, the stealing of all things ranging from intellectual property to personal data has become commonplace, we are often neglecting the here and now in favor of doing things on our phone, the constant onslaught of terror, violence, war, death, catastrophe that we're exposed to day after day is desensitizing us, and the nature of the internet is dividing and polarizing us.
The Bad
The whole premise, as can be deduced by the title and the book's last chapter, is that we should all learn how to program. I disagree. Can everyone learn how to program? In theory I'd say yes. It's possible. Should everyone learn to program? Definitely not. Learning to program beyond letting the computer print "Hello, World" in X programming language or stringing some HTML tags together takes time. A LOT of time. And that is what most people at this point in time don't have enough of, nor should they make the time to spend hundreds of hours learning how to program! Yes, having a general understanding of how the tech you use works, what it can do and what it does without you even knowing is incredibly important, but (as even Rushkoff concedes in the very last paragraph of the book) you don't need to be able to program to understand the gist of things. Using programs that someone else wrote isn't bad. It's a GOOD thing! Especially if you take the time to understand how they work.
The Ugly
No, Rushkoff, young people in 2010 did not "see the human species evolving toward a more collective awareness, [...] where we all know each other's thoughts through telepathy." (he mentions this supposed "development" twice even)
Rushkoff has no clue what a meme is. I was a teen on the internet in 2010 so trust me on this one - a meme is not just "an idea that spreads". "And since big companies, nations, and organizations generally produce things that affect a lot of people, the memes they release will tend to have more relevance and replicate better." I just... no. Do I have to say anything else?
"May the best meme win." Hi fellow kids.
"Imagine having to choose your college major before taking a single course." Oh no, how terrible, it's not like that's how it works in most countries that aren't America.
Aged like milk: "Likewise, Philip Rosedale - the quite sane founder of the virtual reality community Second Life - told me he believes that by 2020, his online world will be indistinguishable from real life." Lol.
The Good
Rushkoff rightly identifies many of the issues that plague society and its individuals in this era of technology. Small businesses are falling prey to giant online retailers, consumers have become the product, online anonymity brings out the worst in people, the stealing of all things ranging from intellectual property to personal data has become commonplace, we are often neglecting the here and now in favor of doing things on our phone, the constant onslaught of terror, violence, war, death, catastrophe that we're exposed to day after day is desensitizing us, and the nature of the internet is dividing and polarizing us.
The Bad
The whole premise, as can be deduced by the title and the book's last chapter, is that we should all learn how to program. I disagree. Can everyone learn how to program? In theory I'd say yes. It's possible. Should everyone learn to program? Definitely not. Learning to program beyond letting the computer print "Hello, World" in X programming language or stringing some HTML tags together takes time. A LOT of time. And that is what most people at this point in time don't have enough of, nor should they make the time to spend hundreds of hours learning how to program! Yes, having a general understanding of how the tech you use works, what it can do and what it does without you even knowing is incredibly important, but (as even Rushkoff concedes in the very last paragraph of the book) you don't need to be able to program to understand the gist of things. Using programs that someone else wrote isn't bad. It's a GOOD thing! Especially if you take the time to understand how they work.
The Ugly
No, Rushkoff, young people in 2010 did not "see the human species evolving toward a more collective awareness, [...] where we all know each other's thoughts through telepathy." (he mentions this supposed "development" twice even)
Rushkoff has no clue what a meme is. I was a teen on the internet in 2010 so trust me on this one - a meme is not just "an idea that spreads". "And since big companies, nations, and organizations generally produce things that affect a lot of people, the memes they release will tend to have more relevance and replicate better." I just... no. Do I have to say anything else?
"May the best meme win." Hi fellow kids.
"Imagine having to choose your college major before taking a single course." Oh no, how terrible, it's not like that's how it works in most countries that aren't America.
Aged like milk: "Likewise, Philip Rosedale - the quite sane founder of the virtual reality community Second Life - told me he believes that by 2020, his online world will be indistinguishable from real life." Lol.