Clive Thompson Explains Why Technology Is Actually Good For You

A Best-Selling Author Explains Why Technology Is Actually Good For You

Clive Thompson, technology writer and author of the new book "Smarter Than You Think," stopped by HuffPost Live to talk with Alyona Minkovski about a technologically advanced future that is not all doom and gloom.

"There's been a lot of concern, a lot of books arguing lately that we're only getting stupider," Thompson said. He went on: "I really wanted to write a book that set straight what I'm seeing in the reporting around me."

He explained that there is such a thing as spending too much time on screen, but that there are ways in which people are correcting this problem. One example: The phone stack game, in which people have to stack their phones on top of each other while at dinner with friends. Thompson emphasizes that these self-correcting techniques will continue to come in due time.

Of course, Thompson noted some potential issues that might weigh on techno-optimists. "It's all happening more or less on very large corporations and they are very centralized, Twitter and Facebook," he said. "So this makes it very easy for them to cooperate with the state when the NSA comes along and says 'I want to scoop all this stuff.'"

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