Obama worried technology can affect democracy

US president says we're living in a 24/7 media environment with an information overload

Obama worried technology can affect democracy

10 May 2010 12:38 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

Barack Obama has claimed that, as a result of "iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations", we are living in an ubiquitous "media environment" where information has become "a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation".

Obama, speaking at Hampton University, said that he was concerned that the bombardment of information can expose us to claims which are untrue and, as a result, can directly impact upon democracy.

Obama also stated that he didn't know how to operate an iPod, iPad, Xbox or PlayStation but admitted that the world was at a moment of "breathtaking change" where the changes cannot be halted and must be adapted to.

His campaign team were definitely adapted to these changes. During his run for office in 2008, an American TV station broadcast this report, which shows how adverts urging people to vote Obama were placed inside 18 Xbox 360 games: