M.S.: Well I'd say for older people, yes. And now for younger people this is becoming the norm. So what is a dysfunction and when we lose my generation, there's not going to be anybody around to really share what is normal. So what is the new normal going to be in 100 years? I don't mean to be doomsday here but I'm just going to go to some of the positives you mentioned in terms of how it provides connection. There's nothing better in terms of a distal relationship, people go on holidays and they meet people and they become friends on Facebook and keep up contact and then the next perhaps they're on vacation together again. Families that live across country, kids can Skype with her grandparents, long-distance relationships now are much more successful.
Rob: Ok, so you have listed a couple of different ways or a number of different ways that the Internet is positive but you talk about integration versus interference and I think this is a key aspect of what your book starts with.
M.S.: Yep. Essentially interference is when the Internet overrides or eclipses a developmental phase, or traits and states in persons that are positive. I talked a little bit how it can shift us towards autistic like features-- that's an example. Another Interference would be in adolescence. So, for example, adolescence is a horrendously awkward phase of development. It's meant to be. It's where we learn the new rules of adult engagement and what's happening now is adolescents are bridging this with their phones, meaning they're communicating by digital interface. Now what's happening, I'm finding, is they can't communicate in person anymore, so this is where digital interface is overriding the developmental phase. So some people are coming out of adolescence and they haven't learned how to communicate face-to-face, heart-to-heart.
Rob: Yes I had a conversation with the manager with an Apple Store and she told me that one of the ways that she evaluates potential employees is some of them, and these are mostly people in their 20s, they don't look face-to-face, they don't make eye contact. They look down, as though they're looking at their phone.
M.S.: Yes, they can't because they have not sustained that in prior relationships. They haven't gone through the awkwardness, which everybody needs to do. It's a key transition from childhood to adulthood, absolutely key. Now integration is essentially when it's used positively. I just mentioned the positive social uses. If you want to look up a term, spellchecker. I mean I can go on and on about many positive things that can be very efficient in terms of work and the like as well, but it's one of the other lines is essentially have is, it's not if we do or don't use the technology, it's how and why we use it. And again this is generation, sometimes it's generation specific. If we're hiding behind it due to a social anxiety, let's say somebody is 55 and had a social anxiety versus a we just talk about an adolescent who is using it as a tool to bridge anxiety but thereafter it affects development.
Rob: Now, you talked about three types of transformation, three forms of psychosocial transformation, can you talk about them?
M.S.: I would actually have to look that one up.
Rob: I have it in front of me here. The first form is negative application in digital media, it involves the medium facilitating accentuation or acceleration of a negative or previous neutral behavior.
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