A conversation with Marc Andreessen

This kept me up past my bed time last night. All in all a pretty good conversation between Marc Andreessen and Charlie Rose – although Andreessen tends to come off as a bit manic (if not maniacal) and Rose a bit presumptive.

The one part that sticks with me – where I feel that Andreessen let old charlie off the hook – was his not standing up to Rose’s insinuation that the ubiquity of laptops in the teen lifestyle somehow was a hinderance to quality face to face social interaction.

He could have pointed out that most kids are not substituting online time for face to face time, but rather for time spent veggin’ out in front of the TV.

He could have pointed out that the online social activity teens engage in will more often than not enhance and complement their offline interactions.

Or he could have simply stated that if Rose was truly concerned for the quality of the teen experience in social networks he might want to take a look at danah boyd’s recent dissertation work.

Instead he just shrugged his shoulders and let the old man have the moment. Oh well. (To be fair to Marc – before Rose brought up the loss of face to face contact he did point out how computers make kids more educated, self aware, and world wise.)

Nevertheless it’s a good hour or so of discussion and well worth your time so…