If you are curious about understanding
the present and predicting the future, then be sure to look for these two new non-fiction titles.
Invisible Influence is written by Jonah Berger, associate professor of
marketing at The Wharton School and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Berger’s work is subtitled “The Hidden Forces
that Shape Behavior" and is very easy to read, filled with simple
explanations or diagrams and plenty of examples along with memorable recaps such
as “Monkey See, Monkey Do” for a section on mimicry, imitation and peer
influence. Berger also includes chapters on differentiation and the tensions
between familiarity and novelty. Whether
he is explaining research with cockroaches, modern art, or college students, Invisible
Influence will appeal to our students with interests in decision-making,
psychology and the social sciences – turns out “conformity” is important and
not just to adolescents.
While Berger is seeking to explain why
we do what we do, Kevin Kelly predicts future technological trends in The
Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our
Future. Kevin Kelly, Wired founding executive
editor and author of 2010’s What Technology Wants, labels each chapter
with a verb (e.g., flowing, cognifying, and remixing). In “Screening,” he
devotes time to discussing the role of libraries. Kelly says that “the link and the tag may be
two of the most important inventions of the last 50 years.” Noting how reading
becomes social, he asks what will happen when “all the books in the world
become a single liquid fabric of connected words and ideas?”
I found myself starring
numerous sections and concepts. One
example (in Accessing) is when Kelly quotes a TechCrunch reporter: “Uber,
the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles, Facebook, the world’s most
popular media owner, creates no content, Alibaba, the most valuable retailer,
has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s
largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.” In yet
another section (Questioning), Kelly recounts his initial skepticism in regards
to Wikipedia, concluding, “Once you confront the fact that it works, you
have to shift your expectation of what else there may be that is impossible in
theory but might work in practice.”
Kelly raises some important points
for us as teachers and for our students who are learning to be researchers when
he says, “rather than receiving truth from an authority, I am reduced to
assembling from the liquid stream of facts flowing through the web.” He writes at length about how he actively
begins a project – being less contemplative and “doing things. I immediately
go. I go looking, searching, asking
questioning, reacting, leaping in, constructing notes, bookmarks, a trail – I start
making something mine.” That is a mindset and pattern of behavior we need to encourage
– not stifle - in our classes. I often tell students that it is so important
how you ask the question and Kelly concurs, saying “answers become cheap and
questions become valuable.” The
Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our
Future includes extensive notes and
is most definitely worth reading and pondering as we try to anticipate how technology is impacting our current and future behaviors.
DROP BY DROP by Morgan Llywelyn is based on an intriguing
premise: everything plastic is melting so modern necessities – like ATMs,
medical devices, computerized navigation and communications, even plastic pens –
all stop working. This, of course, results in a catastrophe and Llywelyn then intermixes
that with the personal struggles of several small town inhabitants. However, the story itself does not seem to
really hang together. The time period is unclear, too, with references to Adolf
Hitler as if he was a contemporary leader while also describing AllCom, a device
that could be considered advanced even in our time. Overall, this is a confusing read.
