Tapscott starts out this part of his book talking about the Net Generation and Politics. I feel like more people of my age group are connected to politics than ever before. I voted in 2008 (The first time I was able to) and I felt empowered. Whats more I was informed. I would go so far as to say that anyone who is sufficiently immersed in web culture would have had a hard time not being informed. Information about the election was everywhere on the web. I spent hours and hours reading about different sides of issues and forming my oppinon about who to vote for and what to support. When Tapscott talks about the Net Generation gaining empowerment from being experts on something from an early age that their parents knew nothing about (Computers and the internet) I am not sure he full sees how far this effect will reach. Being an expert on the internet has given the Net Generation the power to trust their own brains. We don't want to adopt someone's political viewpoints as our own, rather we want to form our own viewpoints. My parents are very liberal and I think that 50 years ago this would have ended up meaning that I too would become very liberal. Today this means that liberal viewpoints are the first I question. I still feel like I fall broadly into the liberal category however my viewpoints are very different than my parents and last state election I voted for a republican governor.
I guess what I am really getting at is that Tapscott is correct in saying that the Net Generation likes to be involved but even more then that we have strong communal values. These values mean that those who consider themselves democrats or republicans in the net generation have more in common with one another then with conventional party lines or even their own parents. Most of us have lived out whole lives hearing about corporate corruption, mounting national debt, America being hated abroad and social injustice. Things that are important to almost all net geners would have previously been seen as the domain of one political party or another. More then anything I want to know and I think most net geners do to why it takes so damn long to get anything done in office. The whole country has been going downhill while the baboons in Washington DC flounder about. We want to see results and at some point this want for faster government will become a reality.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A Better Pencil 7-12
Sometimes I just want to be left alone. My farther told me that my grandfather used to unplug the telephone during dinner. He hated the thought that anyone with his number could choose to call and disrupt his family during a meal. I really feel like I agree with this. Baron presents a great deal of information about different digital mediums of communication in chapter 8. He presents them using language I associate with selling a car. This car has airbags and abs, that car has automatic windows. IM is instantaneous while e-mail can be ignored. All of it makes me slightly uncomfortable. I like choosing to talk to people. Contrary to the popular saying, talk is not cheep. I like to choose when to engage in conversations with people because it takes a lot of effort to have a good conversation and I don't often want to squander this effort on the amazing thing your dog just did. Really I would say that most of the time I just want to be left to myself.
Texting is even worse then IM. I would say that for most people my age texting has really replaced IM. I find this really annoying because it means that your always connected. You can always close down an IM program and be left in peace. However shutting off my phone is much harder. I want to have it on so I can respond to emergency's but this also means that I have no way to stop being pestered by texts. I wish there way a way to put a polite message on my phone letting people know that I am not accepting texts at this time and to please try back later.
I find this whole book somewhat interesting because the author obviously loves this stuff. You can hear the excitement in his voice when he talks about all these new ways to talk to other people. But to me there not new ways to talk to other people. The are more or less similar to how communication has worked for most of my life. I find myself annoyed with these "new" communication technologies in much the same way that I am sure the phone bugged my grandfather. What right do others have to interrupt my peace on a whim. I feel like all these new technologies are pushing us to disclose facts about ourselves that really are no ones business. Face book is another grate example of this. It has a place for me to put what I am thinking or feeling. No one really wants you to put down what your actually thinking or feeling tough because that would be weird. Could you imagine if you logged into face book and saw someone had put "Tim Somebody is thinking about how he would really like to murder his landlord, he even has the perfect spot for the body". What is expected in that space is for you to put something fun and lighthearted.
When it comes right down to it I feel like the humanity is slowly leeching away from our communication. When your always connected that connection looses some of its meaning. There is a section in things fall apart that mentions why people gather together to watch the moon. Its not because they cannot watch the moon from there own hut, because surely they can do that, but rather they do so because it is good to gather. What happens when were all gathering all the time? We certainly wouldn't want to all live in the same hut but that is where technology is taking us.
Texting is even worse then IM. I would say that for most people my age texting has really replaced IM. I find this really annoying because it means that your always connected. You can always close down an IM program and be left in peace. However shutting off my phone is much harder. I want to have it on so I can respond to emergency's but this also means that I have no way to stop being pestered by texts. I wish there way a way to put a polite message on my phone letting people know that I am not accepting texts at this time and to please try back later.
I find this whole book somewhat interesting because the author obviously loves this stuff. You can hear the excitement in his voice when he talks about all these new ways to talk to other people. But to me there not new ways to talk to other people. The are more or less similar to how communication has worked for most of my life. I find myself annoyed with these "new" communication technologies in much the same way that I am sure the phone bugged my grandfather. What right do others have to interrupt my peace on a whim. I feel like all these new technologies are pushing us to disclose facts about ourselves that really are no ones business. Face book is another grate example of this. It has a place for me to put what I am thinking or feeling. No one really wants you to put down what your actually thinking or feeling tough because that would be weird. Could you imagine if you logged into face book and saw someone had put "Tim Somebody is thinking about how he would really like to murder his landlord, he even has the perfect spot for the body". What is expected in that space is for you to put something fun and lighthearted.
When it comes right down to it I feel like the humanity is slowly leeching away from our communication. When your always connected that connection looses some of its meaning. There is a section in things fall apart that mentions why people gather together to watch the moon. Its not because they cannot watch the moon from there own hut, because surely they can do that, but rather they do so because it is good to gather. What happens when were all gathering all the time? We certainly wouldn't want to all live in the same hut but that is where technology is taking us.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A Better Pencil 1,3,5
After reading chapters One, Three, and Five in "A Better Pencil" I find myself appreciating my computer even more. I feel, like Baron says, that the closest my brain comes to direct thought output is when I am sitting in front of a computer. I do not understand how someone could prefer to write with a device as distracting as a pencil. To me a pencil is much like the clay tablets was to many of Barons students. It is intricately linked to art. A pencil wants to draw pretty, free flowing lines, and it seems like a travesty to try to confine these line to something as plain as writing. When I try to take notes with pencils all I end up doing is doodling in the margins.
On the flip side of the same coin I feel like when it comes to the business of imparting information that text, with its identical letters, does a much better job. When I take notes with a computer I end up with notes that are much more complete and have no doodles cluttering them up.
This whole idea, supports of old mediums holding contempt for new mediums, reminds me of a section of "The Stand" by Steven King. In the particular section I am thinking of one of the main characters was involved in a nasty motorcycle crash. As he lay dieing (a slow process that takes several days)King takes you back to his child hood. You learn of his ambitions to be a writer and how he spent years perfecting his handwriting because he knew that the closest his thoughts could come directly to paper was a pencil. Eventually he is forced to recognize the convenience of the type writer and starts to use one. As the character lays dieing he begins to write about this childhood in a notebook. The further he writes back about his childhood the closer he comes to death, and his once perfect handwriting becomes childish once more as his strangth flees.
While I don't feel that the pencil is the closest my brain comes to writing. I do understand the character reluctance to change and the the frustration he must have felt about his deteriorating handwriting.
Whats new and better is never as comforting as what is known and acceptable. I made my myspace account when I was 17 and for a long times hated the thought of switching to facebook. Now after using facebook I really have come to realize that I just don't like publishing facts about my life quite so openly as these sites encourage.
I guess what I am getting at is that the smart person does eventually adapt to new mediums, but he or she also does not forget that first medium that he or she loved so much. Occasionally, when time permits, you will slip back to that old medium and use it for something unimportant. Even once someone is certain a new medium is better than the old one they wills still have place in their heart for that old medium. If I was given all the Cherries in the world I think I would really want a banana.
On the flip side of the same coin I feel like when it comes to the business of imparting information that text, with its identical letters, does a much better job. When I take notes with a computer I end up with notes that are much more complete and have no doodles cluttering them up.
This whole idea, supports of old mediums holding contempt for new mediums, reminds me of a section of "The Stand" by Steven King. In the particular section I am thinking of one of the main characters was involved in a nasty motorcycle crash. As he lay dieing (a slow process that takes several days)King takes you back to his child hood. You learn of his ambitions to be a writer and how he spent years perfecting his handwriting because he knew that the closest his thoughts could come directly to paper was a pencil. Eventually he is forced to recognize the convenience of the type writer and starts to use one. As the character lays dieing he begins to write about this childhood in a notebook. The further he writes back about his childhood the closer he comes to death, and his once perfect handwriting becomes childish once more as his strangth flees.
While I don't feel that the pencil is the closest my brain comes to writing. I do understand the character reluctance to change and the the frustration he must have felt about his deteriorating handwriting.
Whats new and better is never as comforting as what is known and acceptable. I made my myspace account when I was 17 and for a long times hated the thought of switching to facebook. Now after using facebook I really have come to realize that I just don't like publishing facts about my life quite so openly as these sites encourage.
I guess what I am getting at is that the smart person does eventually adapt to new mediums, but he or she also does not forget that first medium that he or she loved so much. Occasionally, when time permits, you will slip back to that old medium and use it for something unimportant. Even once someone is certain a new medium is better than the old one they wills still have place in their heart for that old medium. If I was given all the Cherries in the world I think I would really want a banana.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
