Cognitive Surplus
Encyclopedia
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age is a 2010 non-fiction book by Clay Shirky
. The book is an indirect sequel to Shirky's Here Comes Everybody
, which covered the impact of social media
.
. It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States. He sees compulsive television viewing as the modern equivalent of the Gin Craze
, presenting both as maladaptive and self-anesthetizing responses to epochal social disruptions. The mass bingeing, stoked by nightmarish urbanization during the Industrial Revolution
, ended when English society evolved "new urban realities created by London's incredible social density, [...] turn[ing] London into [...] a modern city, one of the first."
in The New York Times
for being too academic and for cheerleading positive examples of the online use of cognitive surplus. Author Jonah Lehrer
criticized what he saw as Shirky's premise that forms of consumption, cultural consumption in particular, are inherently less worthy than producing and sharing.
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at New York University as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New...
. The book is an indirect sequel to Shirky's Here Comes Everybody
Here Comes Everybody
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations is a book by Clay Shirky published by Penguin Press in 2008, which evaluates the effect of the Internet on modern group dynamics. The author considers examples such as Wikipedia and MySpace in his analysis...
, which covered the impact of social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
.
Summary
The book's central theme is that people are now learning how to use more constructively the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaborationCommons-based peer production
Commons-based peer production is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of socio-economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated into large, meaningful projects mostly without traditional hierarchical...
. It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States. He sees compulsive television viewing as the modern equivalent of the Gin Craze
Gin Craze
The Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London...
, presenting both as maladaptive and self-anesthetizing responses to epochal social disruptions. The mass bingeing, stoked by nightmarish urbanization during the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, ended when English society evolved "new urban realities created by London's incredible social density, [...] turn[ing] London into [...] a modern city, one of the first."
Chapter list
- Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus - comparison of the Gin CrazeGin CrazeThe Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London...
to contemporary television viewing habits, and speculation on what people would do if not watching television - Means - discussion of protests on United States beef imports in South Korea as organized by fans of boyband TVXQTVXQTVXQ, an acronym for Tong Vfang Xien Qi , is a South Korean pop group formed in 2003 under SM Entertainment. In South Korea they are known as Dong Bang Shin Ki , often abbreviated by international fans as DBSK; they were later introduced in Japan as Tohoshinki under the Avex sub-label Rhythm Zone...
, and more generally the ability of anyone to publish online - Motive - gives case of Josh GrobanJosh GrobanJoshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...
's fans spontaneously organizing an online charity project in his name; discussion of fan fictionFan fictionFan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator... - Opportunity - gives case of the Z-boysZ-BoysThe Z-Boys was a group of skateboarders in the mid-1970s from Santa Monica and Venice, California. The aerial and sliding skate moves that the Z-Boys invented were the basis for aerial skateboarding today.-History:...
skateboarding in abandoned California swimming pools; discusses ultimatum gameUltimatum gameThe ultimatum game is a game often played in economic experiments in which two players interact to decide how to divide a sum of money that is given to them. The first player proposes how to divide the sum between the two players, and the second player can either accept or reject this proposal. ...
in context of internet resources; describes history of Apache HTTP ServerApache HTTP ServerThe Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
and NapsterNapsterNapster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
software - Culture - discusses the difference between a fee and a fine in marketing; gives a history of the Invisible CollegeInvisible CollegeThe Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle...
; talks about online coursework collaboration at universities; reviews the PatientsLikeMePatientsLikeMePatientsLikeMe is a data-driven social networking health site that enables its members to share condition, treatment, and symptom information in order to monitor their health over time and learn from real-world outcomes. Members are able to find and connect with patients like them, gain social...
website - Personal, Communal, Public, Civic - discussion of why CouchSurfingCouchSurfingCouchSurfing International Inc. is a corporation based in San Francisco that offer its users hospitality exchange and social networking services. It is a for-profit private corporation, planning to go public. With more than 3 million profiles in 246 countries and territories, CouchSurfing has an...
and eBayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
websites work - Looking for the Mouse - a history of publishing and some advice for modern business practices
Critical response
Cognitive Surplus has been widely praised as another convincing installment in Shirky's long history of thought leadership among academics and writers who study the Internet and its effect on society. However, his approach has been criticized by the likes of Farhad ManjooFarhad Manjoo
Farhad Manjoo is an American journalist and author. He has been a staff writer for Slate magazine since 2008 and a regular on-air contributor for National Public Radio since 2009.-Life and career:...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
for being too academic and for cheerleading positive examples of the online use of cognitive surplus. Author Jonah Lehrer
Jonah Lehrer
Jonah Lehrer is an American journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities...
criticized what he saw as Shirky's premise that forms of consumption, cultural consumption in particular, are inherently less worthy than producing and sharing.
See also
- DriveDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates UsDrive is a 2009 non-fiction book by Daniel Pink. In it, he suggests that motivation with rewards or fear of punishment, dominated by extrinsic factors what he refers to as money is broken...
, Daniel H. PinkDaniel H. PinkDaniel H. Pink is an American author and journalist. From 1995 to 1997, he worked for Vice President Al Gore in the capacity of chief speechwriter, and before that as an aide to Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.- Personal history :... - The Shallows, Nicholas G. CarrNicholas G. CarrNicholas George Carr is an American writer who has published books and articles on technology, business, and culture. His book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.-Career:Carr originally came to prominence with the...
External links
- How cognitive surplus will change the world, Shirky's 2010 TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talk - Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution, WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...