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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
| | With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility |
| | The advances are not stopping; it’s time we collaborate, let’s say on a wiki, and discuss where to turn next. |
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From my point of view the essay's most important problem is that it doesn't know there's an off-switch. |
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> | I live my life in the Net. I have been using email for forty years. I know as much about how to build, program, use and understand the social implications of computing as anyone else I know, and I know the people in this world. |
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< | Comment(Matt Burke): I can see how modern technologies have changed the things that we do: We spend a lot of time using devices that once did not exist. But have these devices changed our underlying psychological motivations? Our social psychological constitutions? What is the difference, on these views, between, say, those who take instagram photos of a concert today and those who made bootleg tapes of concerts 35 years ago? The difference, whatever it is, seems somewhat cosmetic to me. |
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> | But I don't use an Internet-connected phone in my hand. I'm surrounded by computers that I run, and they do everything for me, but they do not demand my attention in return. |
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< | Or, differently, what if you assumed not only that modern technologies have changed the way we think and interact, but, broadly, that there is nothing to be done about it? On this view, what does it mean to be educated about society's obsessive use of technology? |
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> | You're not talking about the consequences of technology. You are talking about the consequences of using it badly, as a result of habit-formation that was convenient for the sellers of mobile bandwidth and surveilling-you "services," but which as you see are not good for the cognitive development of human beings. |
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< | ToddDensen Comment: I enjoyed your piece, I think we can all relate to the pull technology has on us. The mastery over technology and human psychology allows companies to turn consumers into addicts who need their game, in-app purchase, device, whatever. |
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> | If you learn to use technology more wisely, you will grow wiser and better connected, instead of less wise and more isolated. In the meantime, Sherry Turkle's 2011 book Alone Together will interest you. |
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< | I wrote a longer comment that I failed to properly save (more evidence for the necessity of increased education on technology). I think you correctly identify that education on responsible use is a modern need that is yet to be addressed. But the need for education on technology must go further. We ought to be teaching children about programming, typing, research, photo/music/video editing/creation. Technology can be a tool of immense creativity and children who learn these skills young will think with the mindset needed to create with them effectively. |
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> | Comments are still available in the "History" of this page. But the next draft will be clean, overwriting my comments here as well, leaving coherent history in the wiki as well. |
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< | Additionally, the current regime only works to further widen the achievement gap between the classes. Technology is more accessible for children in middle and upper middle class homes. But those without access do not learn these skills in school and fall behind. I tutor at a middle school in Harlem. It's a charter school and they have some resources. I was working with a 7th grader on a report he needed to type up on the schools laptop computer. He struggled mightily with even the most basic tasks - typing, using the shift key, saving a word document, using email. Now, I cannot say what economic class this particular student comes from, but what is clear is that he was not acquiring skills on using technology at home. I asked him if he ever was taught in school how to type - once, in 3rd grade - and never again. What kind of modern education system allows for that? Do we take use of technology for granted?
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