US president Barack Obama has criticized the iPad and Xbox 360 for transforming relevant information into a “diversion” and putting “new pressures” on democracy.
“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, – none of which I know how to work – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama claimed in a speech at Hampton University quoted by AFP.
“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter.”
According to Obama, “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” if promoted by certain blogs and talk radio stations.
“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy…We can’t stop these changes…But we can adapt to them…Education [can] fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time,” he added.
