I'm currently at the 2011 ICABEEP/SABE Conference in Exeter to see what's happening in the fields of experimental psychology and behavioural economics. Presentations as well as the weather (in the UK, nonetheless!) have been good so far. One of the keynote speakers, Russell Belk, gave a very inspiring talk on the digital consumer this afternoon. He described the lifecycle of a digital innovation as a transition from something new and magical to a common good. When it's at the magical stage, a well-marketed innovation becomes the subject of a furious discussion between various ideological perspectives. These ideologies, which in one of the talk's reference papers are categorised as technotopian, work machine, green luddite and techspressive, give rise to stories of both utopian ("social media made the 'Arab spring' possible") and dystopian ("excessive use of the web leads to social isolation") ilk.

As with any good talk on innovation, the speaker notes many similarities between people's response to new digital technology and previous generations' response to innovations of their time. He highlights Plato's description of a dialogue between Phaedrus and Socrates, in which Socrates criticises the practice of writing things down as a memory aid, arguing that when wisdom is contained in books, people will be dumber for it. This, of course, sounds a lot like the idea that Google is making us stupid. Well, perhaps Socrates would be delighted to hear that schools in Indiana have finally taken his advice on board and have stopped teaching cursive handwriting.