Students Today
I found this video to be pretty interesting - it made me reflect on my own college experience. It does put a negative spin on technology, though, which sort of upsets me. In this video it seems to me that they are blaming technology for lack of student productivity. While it certainly is a contributor to student procrastination the world over, I don't think that makes technology inherently bad.
I agree that the fact that students read more on the Facebook than they do for class, or that students spend more time on the phone/listening to music than they do studying is actually quite horrible. However, I don't hold the technology accountable for this trend, but rather the people using the technology.
I was speaking with my roommate last night about the appropriate use of science and technology, and I told her that when it comes to such subjects, my mantra is this: "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
I think the lack of formal education about the appropriate use of technology is unfortunate. People take technology for granted, and as a result they don't really stop and question if their use of technology makes sense. However, I don't think that makes technology evil - I think that makes people in today's society careless about their usage. If there were classes being taught about the internet, modern gadgets and appropriate usage, I think students (and the world of procrastinators in general) might be better equipped to handle the distractions technology delivers.
I'm not sure what my point is really, I just didn't like the subliminal negativity towards technology in this video.
I've got to find a synonym for technology.
posted by Meghan @ 4:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
well okay, what is the appropriate use of technology? do the people in a position to teach the "next generation" really know? I know this is twisting your point a little, but I think it's usually the youngest people to adopt a technology who invent the "proper" way to use it. like, social networking sites were supposed to be a way of mapping all your real life friendships on a website. But that's not really how we use them. Your real life friends are on there, but there's a whole new category of relationship, "facebook friend," where you formalize and sometimes create weak ties with people that in the past you would've just let fade away. and all the old people discovering facebook are bemoaning how it cheapens normal, real life friendships, but they're missing the point. I think people are really adaptable, and technology will not ruin us. if college students waste too much time on facebook now, they were probably wasting it on something equally as stupid 20 years ago. it's like the douglas adams quote:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
I agree whole-heartedly with what you are saying. I just got the sense watching the video that the message was sort of saying technology is bad/to blame in some way for students' lack of productivity, or at the very least that technology was/is supposed to enhance people's lives but it doesn't really (rather only causes distraction) and that sort of pissed me off (for no particular reason).
Your point about how people who waste time on Facebook now would have wasted it on something else stupid 20 years ago is *so* true. I know I didn't Facebook it for the first three years of college, and I wasted tons of time in a myriad of other ways.
I'm going to waste some more of my precious life right now by watching a quality film (Eurotrip).
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