While I'm all excited about the new skills I'm acquiring and the new tools I'm discovering, I see and read things that sadden me.
There is this dichotomy between the tremendous benefits and advantages the web has to offer and ways that it is stealing our humanity from us. "Look Up", the video poem Katie posted on her blog is such a plea to put down the phones and turn off the computers and enjoy each other and our world before it's too late and the opportunity vanishes.
Charles Crook's paper reveals that, while Web 2.0 creates incredible opportunities within the sphere of education, few teens avail themselves of these. The so-called "digital natives", who claim to be so adept at multitasking, when honestly commenting on their use of the web while doing homework admitted that they are distracted by other more appealing online pursuits and get very little or nothing done on their school work...."In the end you've added five photos and done no work".
The more I read around the more conflicting the information becomes. Some claim that time spent on the web improves literacy, spelling, communication, etc. Others claim that as a result of surfing the web, students' GPA's drop. Surfing is an exciting but dangerous sport. The better one becomes at it, the greater the illusion of control until, suddenly one day, nature laughs and the illusion is swept away.
Even before this class started, one day I walked into our breakroom at work. Five of my co-workers were eating lunch around the table and each one was peering into his or her phone. No doubt they were communicating or having something communicated to them by someone or thing somewhere but it certainly wasn't happening between the people with whom they were sharing the table. Yes, it's amazing that a dad can see and speak with his wife and son via Skype or Facetime half way around the world but what about his neighbor right next door? Communities of Practice are a wonderful, new phenomenon but how about the breakdown of community within the family? Kids come home, go to their rooms and get on their computers or iphones. Conceivably (and I'm sure some do) kids can go days or weeks without any real communication taking place between them and their parents or siblings.
It is unfair to try to pin the blame on technology. We created it and should be able to control it and not the other way around. Like people who become addicted to alcohol or drugs, when technology masters us, it is simply another manifestation of a deeper ill.
The problem is our own. We can control it, if we wish. It's not just the computer stuff. TV has long had a lot of people sucked in. Books can, too, but you work a bit harder there (I know some readers who tune out everyone and everything).
ReplyDeleteSherry Turkle has a great book titled "Alone Together." Quite apt, no?
And yet, without all of this technology my daughter and my mother would have less of a relationship. They Facetime a few times a week. They send photos back and forth (through me). It's pretty wonderful, and something I wish I'd had as a kid (I lived far from my grandparents, too, and from my dad from age 7 onward).
I see the breakroom example from another perspective. I don't know that technology has much to do with the situation described. Before smartphones, people used books or magazines as an escape during their breaks at work. I am guilty of the same thing. When I'm taking a break I often turn to Facebook. I don't do it because I don't want to talk to my co-workers, but more because I don't want to think about work. Often, talking to co-workers will lead to discussing a topic you were trying to take a break from :).
DeleteI truly believe I have a stronger connection with many of my friends who are spread throughout the country because of technology. Different time zones and schedules make it difficult to catch up on the phone, but Facebook makes keeping up with them easy.
Technology is easy to use as a scapegoat. But the reality is, if a parent genuinely wants to communicate with their child who is glued to their iPhone, they can text or Facebook with them. I communicate with my parents much more now that they learned to text.