In Don Tapscott’s book Grown Up Digital he refers to kids in the 21st generation as “Net Geners” and his own children as prodigies because of the knowledge they have about technology at such a young age. Although Tapscott begins with ideas on the positive impact of the technology boom, he continues with the issues with our generation that many people view as a result of the technology. Tapscott argues many points regarding the issues of "Net Geners," including the point that people in our generation are dumber because of technology. Tapscott quotes a source that says, They’re dumber than we were at their age. In this paragraph he argues that many sources say that our generation is more dumb and reckless than any other generation has been. Tapscott quotes a psychiatrist Edward Hallowell who refers to our generation as, “a shallow, distracted generation that can’t focus on anything," but he does not agree with the sources he is quoting.
Response:
I disagree with the idea that our generation is dumber due to technology. Tapscott quotes Robert Bly who says, “They don’t read and are poor communicators.” He comments that our lack of social contact makes us bad communicators and that the technology is a distraction from studies in schools everywhere. Although some of his ideas may be true, that technology can be distracting
I agree with your stance and propose to compliment it by adding that perhaps our generation is smarter in other ways. We can prioritize, micromanage, and manage to do/say more with less (a la Twitter). Perhaps the criticism stems from a lack of understanding of how communication has evolved: back in the day, a message is long and it effectively communicates multiple points. It takes a while to read and write but is typically meaty enough to justify the investment. Nowadays, we communicate on a much wider scale. We'll say things in multiple places, to multiple people, and we'll only say a few things in each place. But add it all together and you'll get a picture just as complete as if you'd done the other way. The smaller portions fit better into our faster-paced lives and allow us to update and contradict ourselves as needed. We're a bit more flexible about how we do things.
ReplyDeleteYes, there may be distractions in the technology, like facebook and twitter, but technology itself is definitely not the distraction. Communication is so much faster and much more efficient because of the great advances in technology. With just a click of a "send" button, the other person can receive mass amounts of pictures, videos and emails. Technology is helping us to organize our daily schedules and prioritize what's in front of us. It is almost impossible to separate the two entities.
ReplyDelete