What does it mean to be human in an age of electronic mob fashions?

I was intrigued by an article on Huffington Post, written by Andrea Learned (“Question External Expectations”), which questions why so many people seem blindly to do what they feel they should should over doing what they really want.

A good deal of the article is about the way the Internet is reshaping social contacts. To me, this is less important than the writer suggests. It’s easy to blame technology for things we maybe don’t want to face up to in ourselves: our sheep-like willingness to stick with the herd, rather than go it alone and state our views openly; our tendency towards finding it easier to let others do our thinking for us, rather than make the effort ourselves.

In the end, Ms. Learned comes down on the side of detachment:

This line of Siegel’s [Lee Siegel, author of the book Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob] tells it like it is, and can perhaps be a mantra for those of us who need a little reminder to say the occasional “no”: “Critical detachment, not the multiple diversions and distractions of information, is the guarantor of a free society.”

Ah… detachment. That’s when you are able to step back and evaluate your thoughts and opinions, and make your decisions as responsibly as you can (which is all anyone can strive for). . .

I think what she is meaning here is being objective and refusing to let others make up your mind for you. If that’s so, I suspect she has it right.

One characteristic of our age seems to be a loss of hope in the power of the human mind to solve human problems. Whether we turn to religion or science instead, the result is much the same: a handing over of our decisions to some body or institution that, we hope, knows better than we do.

Critical detachment (my emphasis) is more than detachment alone. It implies being willing to question and explore with an open mind; to criticize and be skeptical of all assumptions, claims and assertions. That may not make it easy (or popular with some people), but it will likely make it more effective in dealing with the problems we all face.

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