Copyright 2018 Michael Bugeja, Interpersonal Divide, Oxford Univ. Press 

#1: IMPORTANCE OF SELF over others
Example: The rise of the selfie in the front-facing camera, iPhone 4. Result: The more corporations datamine the self, the more products they can sell you and your designated “friends.”

#2: BOREDOM over attentiveness
Example: Any free moment, including in cars or at lecture in class, is boring, triggering urge to check smartphone or social media. Result: Dulling of conscience, splitting of consciousness.

#3: OVERSHARING over privacy
Example: What we tell others, including friends of friends (often utter strangers) on social media. Result: “If everything is public, nothing is secret. If nothing is secret, nothing is sacred”—Author Wendy Shalit in Return to Modesty

#4: ENTERTAINMENT over knowledge
Example: 63 percent of U.S. households include at least one frequent gamer; 65 percent of homes own a video game-playing device. Result: Among other things, including health and propensity toward violence, loss of critical analysis of news and impact on society.

#5: INTERRUPTION over sustained interaction
Example: Digital notification for insistent connection. Result: Tech companies keep you online, away from company of others in real community, the more they can sell and datamine.

#6 DISTRACTION over concentration
Example: Human attention span shortened from 12 seconds to 8 seconds in more than a decade. Result: As early as 2012, 87% of teachers said technology created a distracted generation.

#7: INCIVILITY over empathy
Example: 75% see incivility at “crisis levels” and 73% feel that the U.S. is “losing stature as a civil nation.” Result: Technology is omnipresent, so any interpersonal interruption is considered an intrusion and personal affront.

#8: AFFIRMATION over information
Example: Social media is programmed to affirm our psychographics. Result: Among other things, including health and propensity toward vulgarity, loss of critical analysis of news and impact on society.

#9: BELIEF over fact
Example: 41 studies of partisan bias found conservatives and liberals show same levels of belief over evidence to the contrary. Result: Technology affirms belief no matter how biased to connect us to groups or individuals of like minds, again associated with sales.

#10: ON DEMAND FANTASY over intimacy
Example: 40 million regularly visit porn sites; 35% of all internet downloads; 25% of all search engine queries; 33% women viewers. Result: Loss of intimacy via tech addition and overuse.

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