New Culture of Participation - Eeeek!
Technology keeps growing and growing and growing and I find it absolutely amazing with how much we can do. I remember when I was in grade 3 and my house was getting built (2005), we had a computer that looked like this...
We had this computer for a really long time. They weighed like 30-50 pounds, they were not light by any means! Then we upgraded to a monitor that was probably only an inch thick, and they make them even thinner yet. They make TV's now that are only half an inch thick, but have an 80 inch screen. It is absolutely amazing how far we have come.
I watched the YouTube video called An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. A few minutes into the video, Welsch says that YouTube videos filmed/recorded by individuals are "a celebration of new forms of empowerment and anyone with a webcam now has a stronger voice and presence and it's a celebration of new forms of community." I completely agree with this statement. From boxlike computers, to being able to play pac-man on the computers, to the first Motorola Razr phone, to the LG Rumor slide phone with a keyboard (this was a HIT), to the blackberry, to discovering YouTube and MSN, to the iPod touch, and then of course, to the iPhone and everything else is history after that because technology has expanded even more from all of that. Now, we can do more than just post/type how we are feeling on Facebook and play Farmville, we can create polls, share recipes, making LIVE videos, and share our entire life on social media if we want to. We have gone from Facebook, which was intended for friends and family to reconnect, but now it is used for people to complain about their meal at Joe's Pizza and type their opinions on anti-vaxxer's. Social media has consumed our everyday encounters with real people. It has eaten away at relationships, and made intimacy and physical contact "unnecessary." Instead of us being upset at the fact that our partner cheated on us for the fifth time (which I am sure you would be), we seem more concerned about the fact that our partner "liked" or "loved" another persons picture on social media. We have lost the meaning behind relationships and the value of them. We have materialized everything in our world from people, to food, to jobs, and to specific places. While technology has grown and made things in our world a little more "negative" or worse for our future generations, it has also impacted us positively.
We can have pizza delivered to our door in a matter of 20 minutes, we can record any moment in time whenever we want, we can video tape our child's first steps, we can talk to anyone we want to from anyhwhere in the world, and we can book flights to Europe at the click of a few buttons on our cell phones or computers. In schools, we can have children read books to us using iPad's instead of paper copies and we can show the students movies or videos on our Smartboards. It is amazing how advanced technology is in ever aspect of our lives. I used the Smartboard a lot throughout my Internship when I did math. I made questions that projected on the screen for every student to see and they took turns writing their answers. There are a lot of perks to technology with students who are blind or deaf, as there can be translators or other forms of adaptations or devices to fit those needs. Classrooms can connect with other classrooms from across the world and learn together using Skype. We need to be careful though because technology is often used as a form of bullying and hiding behind the screen to mask your true self and pretend you are someone that you are not, which can be very dangerous. I am hoping that the true meaning of Education stays the same, and that students still understand what it means to play and to be a kid. I hope that technology doesn't take over the ability to pick up a pencil and write, or speak our thoughts in front of our peers. To be able to do most jobs, you need to be able to speak to people and write.
Technology is truly amazing, yet it has changed everything, and some would say for the better and some would say for the worst. I would say that I spend about 6-8 hours in total in front of a screen on social media or doing homework. Be honest, how much time do you spend in front of a screen?
