Lets face it; social networking websites such as eHarmoney or Facebook are getting more popular every singe day. You begin to realize that we are starting to live in a very technologically advanced world when: one out of every five new relationships are founded off of an online dating service, and over fifty percent of all internet users, world-wide, are on Facebook. In fact, there are approximately seven billion people in the world, two million of which are Internet users, and 517,760,460 of them are Facebook users. That’s a bone chilling number. It’s a digital age and social networks are racking up numbers to an unbelievable amount. I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad thing because the younger generations are getting much more technological than any other existing or non-existing generation. Just because the world is changing doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad thing. I would personally rather use the word ‘advancing’ because we are abandoning old ways and making life much faster and easier by discovering new ways to communicate, have fun, conduct business, and even live a life.
Teachers seem to question the idea that advancing technology is putting a slight burden on the current educational system. Children today have a much shorter attention span and they require a different way to be taught. It is not the students who should be criticized; it’s the aging educational system that has been around for centuries. Books and paper, pencils and pens; these have been the same tools for a “proper” education since these things were invented. This just basically goes to show that if something remains concrete then it will die. Being born into a wireless society amplifies the theory that we need to make changes in order to keep up with the changes. Of course, it is not only the educational system that needs to, or has started to, make the necessary changes that adapt to the short attention spanned children now a days. Obviously online dating services are revolutionary ideas that greatly help the singles community. If one-fifth of all couples are brought together via eHarmony or Chemistry.com than these advances are making quite the positive impact.
As we become new users of different social networking sites, or even online video games, we re extending and expanding our identities. When someone creates a character in World of War craft I don’t believe that they are creating an alter ego. It is understood that the character that is created by someone is not really they as a person. The character is simply an avatar or a representation of the gamer. Therefore, it is an extension and expansion on an identity. Second Life is another example of creating avatar beings through game. Though, some users would not even call it a game, per se. Second Life is commonly used for business meetings or transactions. Some professionals have never even met each other in person because of distance or the lack of need to. This is a perfect example of how we are making changes to make certain situations easier and even cost efficient.
Despite the possibility of gaming addictions, the option of creating an avatar in World of War craft, or Second Life may be very appealing. When something gives you the options of being a king when you’re a peasant, who wouldn’t pass that opportunity up? Some may consider this a loss of personal space and is a surrender of ego. The way I see it, there is no such thing as personal space anymore. If someone wants to find out information about you then they are going to. The socially norm in our society is to be a user on some sort of social networking website so others can find out your relationship status, check out pictures of you, communicate via the particular website, and the list goes on and on. So maybe we are sacrificing our personal space but I feel that that would have been inevitable at some point in the near future.
I understand how people feel that all of these technological advances may seem unnatural or not right because it affects the way we’ve been doing things for such a long time. Change is difficult to cope with for those are who are unwilling to change. Pretty soon words like “collective organism” and “hyper-people”, referring to those more technologically advanced than others, will be obsolete. We, as human beings, are simply evolving. The same way monkeys evolve to use tools (of course, this comparison is exponentially less then the adaption to social networking. Like everything else, consumption in excess is a bad. So the moderate use of technology is not harmful and quite extraordinary. I look forward to see what the next revolutionary advancement will be and how we are going to be able to adapt.
Sources:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/10/three-stats-that-reveal-much-about-our-digital-culture/1
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26734456/‘ial-Media-Web-2•O
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-illusion-of-transparency-in-social-media.html
Hey Eric,
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with most of your views on the growth and development of social media and technological advancements of the internet. It's crazy that 1 in 5 relationships begin online today...that number is profound. In essence, that could mean that 1/5 of relationships today would have never occured without the use of technology. The fact that 517,760,460 people are users on Facebook is insane! Social media is definitely growing at shocking numbers. Yesterday, apparently Charlie Sheen created a Twitter, and only 2 hours later i heard a news report stating that he already had over 30,000 followers.... TWO HOURS! It shows how fast news can now travel, and how connected people have become.
I definitely see how the internet has helped us communicate across the world much easier, and i agree with your view of seeing the changes as "advancements", because they are making things easier for everyone.
In schools, i think that teachers are just not used to the computers and technology in the classrooms, and when they were learning to become teachers, computers were not included, nor were they included when they were in classrooms learning. It is brand new to them, and most people don't react well to change. Once it happens though, i think we can work wonders.
I also agree that there really has been a complete loss of a sense of personal space with the access social networking sites and google allow. Older generations have more of a problem with it than our generation, and generations to come probably won't even know what personal space is other than being in the bathroom. I definitely don't think sites like Wolrd of Warcraft are creating an entire new identity, i think its a small escape for many, and something that is enjoyable...except for the few who take it too far, just like with anything else.
I really like/agree with your comparison to us evolving just as monkeys have. We are merely using our resources.
I definitely agree with much of what Eric had to say. We really are simply just expanding our identities, not making alter egos of ourselves. The concept of restricting users of their identities is ridiculous because the Internet give everyone easy access to expanding and recreating their own personalities online. The fact that in simply 2 hours, Charlie Sheen accumulated over 30,000 followers just goes to show how the Internet is expanding and allows the population to communicate in the fastest way possible. Eric has many great points in his essay that I strongly agree with but the topic of loss of personal space really stands out to me. People choose what they want to share over the Internet so it is up to their own discretion of how much "personal space" they loose. The internet creates an escape for many people, and is a great medium to connect people who are far away from each other.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteI like how you set up your writing about advancement from paper & pencils to facebook and world of warcraft. Most importantly I liked the central theme of change. I also believe the educational system needs an overhall because of advancing technology which can help kids learn.
Like Jessica said, the Internet is the fastest and most efficient way of communicating. However I think that we lose some of our communicating skills because we are stuck between screens. Either way, social networking is here to stay so I guess I must accept it.
As far as internet security, it bothers me like it does my parents. They don't understand why it's so important and may be I'm just paranoid. Either way I worry about digital entities like online banking and email being 'hacked.' In conclusion I liked your general overview of what we watched in Rushkoff's Digital Nation. It made me think about the big picture