Obama's commencement speech at Hampton University

At Hampton University's commencement, President Obama told the crowd of graduates yesterday that in the current 24/7 media environment, information has become a distraction that is putting pressure on America's 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 said. "All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Immediately, his comments are criticized as a "weirdly out-of-touch moment". I honestly think what the president was criticizing is how news is covered by the media in general, not the new media innovation. It is true that people get distracted by excessive information everyday, sometimes misinformation, and confuse the act of being entertained with the act being informed. I've heard people saying how addictive these cute devices are. However, the President didn't put it in an accurate way. There's nothing wrong with the advancement of technology. It is rather a matter of how you use these tools.

I found it quite ironic that Obama used YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to run his campaign but now blames iPods and iPads in part for the spread of misinformation. The president could have addressed to these 22-year-olds on how to stay focused and avoid counter-productive behaviors. I think it is a much better angle.

Ivan Illich introduced the concept of counter-productivity which describes an inconvenient phenomenon: when they reach a critical point (and form a monopoly), big institutions of modern industrial societies become, without knowing it, impediments to their own performance.