Technology, specifically the Internet, has become a corner stone of many aspects of culture today. People applying for jobs are now subjected to online applications that require the potential employees to describe themselves in small text boxes. It requires the potential employees to have a basic knowledge of English grammar. Facebook talk will certainly not be acceptable for potential employers. The odds drastically increase as a person gets older that they will not be able to understand the odd “Internet speak” that younger generations are becoming frightfully fluent in. This means that those cutting age youths must be able to communicate in the ancient “rational English speech” that “older generations” are accustomed to. What does this mean for those of us included in that “Internet speaking” generation? How do we continue embracing our bright, wireless future, and the bookish (I say bookish, as a substitute for old) past?
This never really crossed my mind before. I don’t know why, my parents are, frankly, about ten years behind the times when it comes to Internet communication. My dad is still under the impression that e-mail forwards are still hilarious (I mean, they invented Youtube to stop those, right?). I started to consider this issue (I think it’s an issue) while reading this week’s reading. The Internet is constantly evolving. I can remember when AIM became all the rage only to be seemingly replaced by Facebook. As I started thinking about these advances in the Internet, I realized that so many of these advances were the product of people that at the time were roughly my age made these advances.
Even with these advances, it took a couple years to “catch on”, if you will. It seems that the older generations are at times reluctant to embrace these news advances. It’s easy to understand those who lived many years before the Internet being reluctant to help with the progress of younger generations. Weinberger says, “One can imagine their bemused skepticism when the young man who had been their student the previous year now told them he was creating an organized list of all possible topics of knowledge” (53). If I were able to make some advance in Internet communication (I won’t, but if), I would expect to receive skepticism, but not from my peers. I would expect it from the “higher ups” in the field. The hierarchy of academia can be a road block, at least in my mind, to technological advances. If the older generations are willing to embrace change in the split second it happens, then who knows the progress that could be made in the next 20 or 30 years.
I know that I’ll try to keep this in mind when I become (hopefully) part of the older generation. The Internet has become, as Weinberger points out, the driving force of the future. It’s better to be in the, or relatively close to the drivers seat, then the guy sprinting to keep up (and consequently send e-mail forwards as he goes).
I'm just curious who defines what progress is? What does it look like? To that old guy, sitting in his recliner, forwarding emails, that is an astounding amount of innovation, but does he consider it progress? Maybe his idea of progress includes a society where communal based farming and ranching are the pinnacle of civilization. In that example, our digitization of sociaty is heading in the wrong direction, regressing into individulaistic opportunistic self serving nothingness where since everything is miscellaneous, nothing is valued or held as extrordinary except the uber-meta label that everything is both valuable and valueless.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing about internet/ speak (as I think you called it) on Facebook is also the way that you can be criticized by potnetial employers who view your profile when you are applying for a job. I have seen a few articles lately that warn people to watch what is posted on your page because employers may check it and make a decision about you. So that then begs the question of how authentic or honest we can be in public places with out internet speak. What are other implications of this? I think it must have something to do with constantly watching others while being watched.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about employers checking out a potential employee's Facebook,made me wonder how he would be perceived if he had no Facebook account. Would this be a strike against him, for not being up to date, socially backwards,etc?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if it is just the older generation who is feeling threatened or left behind. In today's classroom I have encountered many students who feel that they are internet illiterate, who worry about what they do not know and how far they are falling behind.AS a teacher, I would like to use computer apps on many projects but there are still students who do not have computer access at home so this requires too much comp lab time at school that is not always available. Kids joke about keeping their parents off their Facebook, but parents just want to keep up too. Many parents are unable to help their kids with computer related homework as well, so the digital divide concern is still there.