Out of Egypt:

kids know...

So I was tutoring today, and my tutee was taking a break by playing some games on the computer. And I was struck once again by how intuitively he understands how the GUI works, even if he doesn't know all the right names for things, as I do. He's way ahead of where I was at his age, though I was growing up at the tail end of the DOS era, and thus had to deal with a whole different set of cognitive processes, which he'll never have to develop (unless he decides to become a computer nerd, which I suspect is unlikely).

Computers are just part of people's lives now. They really are fading into the background - not because there's less of them, but because they're everywhere. And while watching the ads for Razor phones, Chocolate, etc., I realize that convergence, once a buzzword for boring columnists like John C. Dvorak, is now a reality.

And in the midst of these generally positive reflections, Arthur C. Clarke's book Childhood's End comes to my mind. We really are, perhaps, living at the transition point between civilizations - even as people were at the first invention of writing. I have the blessing of being born on the cusp, and thus of being able to mediate between the old and the new. But those who are growing up now, and - even more so - those who will be growing up in the next few decades, will think most naturally in ways that will seem quite foreign and possibly even incomprehensible to the generations immediately preceding me.

Again, I am impressed with the plasticity of the human mind - that technologists can create a new medium, hardly themselves understanding how it works, and within a few generations, that medium has become an extension of man.

In this brief breathing space, we must consider both what we gain and what we lose.

I think that I am kind of kicking and screaming about that. I know that transition is "natural" and is a normal process in the development of society, but I don't like the kind of new societal interactions I see. I know we've talked about this, but I don't like the facelessness, the anonimity of the internet. I guess people will think differently, but it seems that this manner of thought will be inferior because of the type of interaction.

I know that the internet does facilitate communication, but it also can make relationships so utilitarian. By utilitarian I mean that people will be able to interact only how they wish to (and on their own terms) in cyberspace. They will not have to deal with the reality of shit in relationships, they can potentially just sign off or block someone and never have to run across them again. This seems so escapist to me. Like germs: people build immunities by "positively" interacting with them (getting sick and then getting better). I think that conflict is like that (not that our lives should be centred or built around conflict), but the more healthy ways of learning how to deal with it, the better.....

I've figured out one thing about my brain: it works in relationships and analogies. a lot.

Posted by: Chantel at December 1, 2006 11:49 PM

I can very much relate, being a "cusper" myself. I don't have a working cell phone or an MP3 player of any type (so, I'm IPod-less). The cell phone thing, I'll hopefully be able to remedy soon, but I don't think I'll ever purchase an IPod.
Whenever I have children, I don't want them to become programmed. At the rate I'm going right now, I won't have a teenager until 2025 or thereabouts. I can't even begin to fathom what more gadgets one will "need" for everyday life.
I can imagine myself shelling out the big bucks for a vintage record player and 8track player, just so my kids can know that life doesn't revolve around technology.
Its just odd how the same people who talking about parents "brainwashing" their children with religion, will turn around and pump their children up on ridolin and stick them in front of a computer to "entertain" and "educate" them.
Its a sick, twisted world we live in.

Posted by: Carrie at December 2, 2006 9:42 AM

Ok, so I got the negative side. Anyone for the positive?

I'll give it later, perhaps, if no one else cares to take it up.

Very good points though - it is a cause for concern.

Oh, and I remembered what I said the other night: it was in regard to the Semantic Web (an initiative to make the Web about structured data, rather than just text, so computers can process it intelligently): "It will happen because it has to happen."

I think a similar phrase applies here: "It will happen because it is happening." Technological changes of this magnitude have never been arrested, as far as I know, by human choice, but only by the destruction of the culture itself. (Which is, of course, in this age of terrorism a very real possibility.)

Posted by: Evan Donovan at December 2, 2006 1:06 PM

Bandwagons aren't allowed anymore??!! :)
Technology is NOT evil (I did pass Microcomputer Applications :) ).
It is useful. I like being able to "google" things to find out something I need clarification on. Its nice to be able to get on the internet and have access to official information at the tips of my fingers.
Things are more accessible now and that is good, to an extent.
Moral of the story: sometimes less is more.

Posted by: Carrie at December 2, 2006 9:05 PM

Here is a commercial for online community blah blah blah.

I have a lot of friends that I feel very affectionately about currently but whom I probably would not have taken the time (or had the opportunity) to get to know in "normal" offline interaction. People like Natalie Lodico, Jenni DeJong, Mr. Howard, Carrie Cardona, and you, for instance.

Yeah, seeing these people in person is definitely better, but for most of these folks, the fact that I "developed" the friendship online made breaking the ice and making sure we did have in person interaction much more a priority when I did happen to be in some sort of geographic proximity.

So...I'm all in favor of online interaction. Not as a substitute, I suppose, but as a useful (and no less "real") supplement to in person communication.

End commercial.

Posted by: funke at December 7, 2006 1:14 PM