The world we live in is one where people constantly lie in
wait for the “next big thing” in technology.
People will line up for hours – or even days – to get the latest product
from Apple, or even a newer version of a product they already have. With the release of new and improved
technology comes a unique excitement. It’s
as if people have a thirst for technology that simply cannot be quenched. Each new purchase is enough to soothe the
burn for a bit, but sooner or later, the people will be parched yet again.
The first question weighing on my mind is simple. Why?
Why are we such slaves to technology?
Why do we constantly feel the need to upgrade our gadgets? Why are we willing to buy used cars and secondhand
clothes but shudder at the thought of buying a used cell phone? I think it all comes down to one thing: What is it that technology promises us that
we just can’t seem to turn down? From
our discussion in class, the two promises of technology that I think have the
greatest influence on our obsession with it are efficiency and information.
Modern society is fast-paced, and for most people, time is
at a premium. Technology promises to help
us navigate through the daily labyrinth that is our modern existence. We can consolidate and organize information
in ways that appeal to the ears and the eyes.
We can reach colleagues, family members, and friends via multiple
avenues in an instant. We can find our
way to and from places we have never been without a hitch. Pretty much any question we could ever ask has
an answer, or at least a substantial amount of information to consider, that is
right at our fingertips and can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
This all sounds terrific to me, as I'm sure it does to most people. Many of these resources have become what I would call a necessity in my life, and I’m nowhere near "tech junkie" status. So, my next question is: What’s the problem, then?
Although the benefits of technology are innumerable, what
are the costs? My answer is the widespread
loss of the skills that technology performs for us. How many children will grow up not knowing
how to read a map because their GPS just takes them where they need to go? Will people forget (or never learn) how to
write a letter to their grandmother and send it in the mail? Will we stop using our minds to solve
problems and instead just look up the answers?
Will there be a day when children no longer create imagined worlds in
their backyards because everything they could possibly think up is already in
front of them in the form of a movie, TV show, video game, or computer app?
We can neither ignore nor deny the positive impacts of technological advances in an ever-changing world. To do so would be utterly obtuse. What I think we need to acknowledge, however, is that there are some negatives that come along with the positives. We have to ask ourselves whether we're willing to hand certain tasks over to our gadgets for good and create a dependence on technology. If we do that, are we losing something that we can't get back?
A small reflection from our field trip today... watching certain students with their phones made me very self-conscious about my own phone use. I was frequently tempted to pull out the iPhone during downtime, and restrained myself because I realized that I was modeling behavior.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing! Anytime we're in the presence of students, we are modeling behavior for them, and that's a very big responsibility. I imagine you feel the same way as a parent.
DeleteLiving with technology is sometimes harder than we understand. Just think about waiting for a phone call. Fifteen years ago, waiting for an important phone call was something that you did at home. Nowadays we can check the phone every couple of minutes waiting for that call; we can fixate so much easier as we wait for instantaneous responses.
ReplyDeleteI am happy for GPS though. Otherwise I would be perpetually lost in Ann Arbor.
Just think: How would we have gotten back to central campus on Thursday without my GPS? We may have had to do the unspeakable and use the map in my glove compartment. The horror!
DeleteI resisted getting a GPS/smart phone for years, and prided myself on the ability to make it to concerts around Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland with just my own sense of direction, a route from Mapquest printed out and memorized, and maybe a list of turns stuck on the dashboard. (This backfired only once, when I simply could not find the Garden State Parkway at 2 AM on my way home - a phone call to a roommate solved that one, technology to the rescue!) Now every time I plug in a destination and my smart phone tells me where to go, I feel a vague sense of guilt. That guilt is exactly what you're describing here - when we rely on technology, what are we giving up?
ReplyDeleteI also resisted a Kindle for ages for this very reason. I imagine I will keep reading a mix of physical and ebooks for some time, but the switch may be inevitable. The unstoppable flow of progress.
I give these anecdotes to demonstrate that these questions are very much on mind, and have been for a long time. I often think about the effect the internet has had on my attention span. I have a vivid memory from childhood of a day I decided "Today I'm going to read." I sat down on my bed and read all day. I finished something like three whole books, and had no trouble doing this because I was so focused and happy. These days, anything similar is a pipe dream. Even when I'm reading for pleasure, the process looks something like this: I read two pages, my phone buzzes, I read an email, maybe reply, read a couple more pages, my mind wanders, I go to get a snack, I play some Bejeweled, I read a few more pages. That characterizes my brain almost all the time, and it's highly concerning. Focus and persistence are important characteristics of success in many aspects of life, and I worry that a whole generation are growing up without them as well-developed skills.
I suppose as teachers all we can do is try to make students cognizant of these questions - the tradeoffs inherent in technology - and help them to think about the consequences, rather than just accepting technology as a natural, ever-present crutch.
The description of your reading experience is right on par with my own! I never had an issue with focusing my attention as a kid, especially when it came to reading. Nowadays, however, I notice that my mind (and fingers) start to wander off every few minutes. I can't even sit at a red light without reaching for my phone to occupy the 90-second wait. How sad is that?!
DeleteOK, so reading this post made me pretty angry. Not with the post of course but with our society in general. You are totally right. And I'm not thinking just about technology, I'm thinking about our constant need to consume. While I was reading your post I could visualize the lines waiting for the next iPhone, or even worse the lines for black friday! Can you believe that basically every year there is some tragedy where someone dies being trampled by lines on black friday? It's sickening! Reading your post reminded me of how disgusted I am.
ReplyDeleteBut then I think, OK how can we change this? As educators we're helping to sculpt the minds of the next generation (forgive me for being so corny.) This raises an issue I myself have been mulling over, how do we get kids to slow down and realize they need tone down the need for instant gratification? I'm not necessarily looking for an answer, just pondering.
"How do we get kids to slow down and realize they need to tone down the need for instant gratification?" This has to be (one of) the million dollar question(s) we face as future teachers. The current generation of school-aged children are being raised with everything at their fingertips at all times, and technology keeps changing, changing, changing! I feel like they're missing out on developing some really important skills. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the results of this in the workforce in 10-20 years.
DeleteErin, your blog post was clearly very resonant for your readers, which is great. I really like the idea of thinking about the experiences/moments that we miss out on because technology has impacted our lives, and I think that having conversations about a topic like this would be compelling and interesting for kids. I think of the use of calculators in a math class, for example. There are probably lots of ways to experiment with a "low tech" approach, or to engage the students in talking about how they can use calculators and still know their math.
ReplyDeleteThe use of calculators in math class is something I think about a lot. I don't remember being allowed to use them until 7th or 8th grade, but it doesn't take long to become dependent on them, even for the simplest calculations. Even now, I'll find myself double-checking things on a calculator that I really have no need to double-check, just because it's there. If anything, that just makes my addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills weaker. While working with the incoming 8th graders at Scarlett, I have been worried that I made a simple mistake on a couple of occasions. It's a good reminder to refrain from using a calculator unless I really need it.
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