Something that has been repeated throughout of classes is that as much as things change nothing is new. Chapter 2 of Nancy K. Baym’s book, Personal Connections In the Digital Age, compare the words of Plato who thought writing things down would cause forgetfulness and Nick Carr who thought that the instant gratification of technology is deteriorating our attention span. As technology progresses, it is in our nature, and especially our major to compare things to how they used to be.
My comment on the blog “Avoiding Technology: Is it possible” I began to think about how I used technology as a kid, how I use it now, and how kids use it now. I wrote that, “Back then, in fourth grade, technological life had not encapsulated my life like it has now. In those days the highest piece of technologies we cared about were our nintendogs, portable DVD players and the fancy new Smart Boards that all the teachers raved about, but none of them seemed to know how to work. Technology was not in our back pocket yet”. This thought that technology has changed so much since fourth grade made me begin to think about the advancements with multiple perspectives
First I thought about it with a technological determinism perspective. We still played outside as kids all the time when we went to dinner we either behaved or we were dragged out on time out. We always had to ask how to use the school office phone and were so excited when our grandparents rented video cameras. These days children have Ipads that distract them into behavior at dinner tables, they all know exactly how to use technology sometimes even more than we go and they must just be staring at screens all day right? Are the machines changing them? Will those darn kids these days grow up without learning good behavior or social skills that they need? My thinking on that after reading is kinda, sorta. We had TV and the generations before that had radio. There are always changes in technology and they will always be open for critique. I remember doing homework on different things on the news and other educational Television shows as well as having computer classes in elementary school. Folks from older generations may have thought these things were going to melt our brains in the same way I started critiquing the fourth graders these days with their Fortnight and Kindles. There is yet one example of things changing, but not so much.
Next I tried to think of myself and children these days in relation to technology with a Social Construction perspective. This means that society changes technology. I was thinking about the Razor Phones and Ipods coming out and how our “attractive peers” as Baym calls them, all had them and made us all want them. Then came phones with Ipods right on them and we all had to have them. I thought this is a classic case of supply and demand. As people want certain things, and think certain things are cool and impressive, they are improved and created more. From a child's standpoint, if I tell the child I am babysitting that something is the dumbest thing ever, they are going to refuse to try it and tell their friends it's the dumbest thing ever. But when fortnight came out, they said it was the coolest thing ever and the company continued to improve and the kids were more and more addicted to it. It goes on like this.
Overall Technology really can only be viewed with a “social Shaping Perspective. This is a middle ground for the two. Technology becomes part of our lives and it grows with society. As much and as fast as things change, it's all comparable. As Dr Mary Elizabeth Ray said in class, “These critiques are as old as the alphabet”.
Technology has definitely taken this generation by storm for the better and for the worst. I too remember growing up in a world where we used to play outside after school and where cell phones wasn’t the main focus in everyones lives. Still to this day in my family, we are not aloud to use our phones at the dinner table and it baffles me that some family’s have family dinner with their phones in their hand and not engaging in conversation. Technology has taken this country to the next level and comparing the present and the past is sad honestly because this generation has changed so much. Kids today are growing up in worlds with no sensors. Everything is so public and every little kid has a cell phone. I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was in the 6th grade and I only was aloud to text my parents and family. Now kids get their first cell phone when they are literally 5 years old. They just plop kids that young wirh an iPhone to keep them distracted and it’s honestly sad how our generation is. It’s honestly another reason why I don’t know if I want kids because I don’t want them growing up in a world like this.
ReplyDeleteKids these days have it easy, they do basically all of their homework online. They do this from the laptops that the school gives out to every student. I think their learning abilities won't be as strong as ours in the future. Our generation learned stuff in school when we were their age (elementary). We never had iPads or laptops to take home that came with the classes we were required to take. We had to sit down in front of a chalk board and write everything down on paper. don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure modern elementary school children don't learn this way as much anymore?
ReplyDeleteWhen I go out in public and see parents throw their phones in their children's faces to distract them or not bother others, it really makes me angry. I think kids should be able to be the annoying little twerps like we were when we were their age. As stated in the main post, we used to get excited when our grandparents or family got to rent a movie or video camera from the technology store or blockbuster. Nowadays, everything is in the technology that children hold in their hands. Are parents just lazy to teach their children so they throw a tablet at them instead?
I love your point that we had things growing up that previous generations did not. We had video games TV, and our parents had the radio, and the early stages of TV. I agree that technology shouldn't be used to guess a child's intelligence. When I was a kid, I got a Nintendo DS in elementary school and a slide phone in the 7th grade. My niece and three nephews had it very different. By the time my niece was 10 and my youngest nephew was 2, my brother had gotten all four children iPad's for Christmas. At the time I thought, what is a two-year-old going to do with an iPad? Then after I saw he had a million G-rated games on it, I understood its purpose. The iPads were entertainment for all the kids, and each one was vastly different in terms of storage. My initial confusion was really just jealousy, and maybe that's what older generations today feel about us.
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