Introduction
There is no doubt that the advancement of information technologies and extensive social change correspond with one another. We speak everyday of the lack of skill that the Founders generation has, and that their noses are always to their ever-improving phones. Today’s culture of “always-on” connections raises troubling concerns regarding interface communication and social skills, as well as obstacles to the maintenance of a diverse world.
“Always-on” Connections
Swift advancement has been the main focus of the technological landscape for more than the length of my life, but has transcended to a new level of rapidity in the twenty-first century. This constant state of improvement is likely to continue to improve by a factor of one hundred with each forthcoming decade.[1] In this constantly evolving socio-technical world, we know that social institutions and technology share in the process of shaping one another, and this has had staggering effects on how youth culture chooses to interact with their world.
According to Wynn and Katz, the utilization of information technologies “do[es] not constitute a space apart from ordinary reality,”[2] as is characterized not only by the heavy reliance on digital commerce today’s population embraces, but also by the bonds formed through digital media. Information technologies are deeply bound up with the rest of the world, making the formation of relationships through a technological vehicle all the more possible, and probable, primarily through the Internet as well as today’s digital devices.
Technology and Education
Arguments are continually made for the incorporation of technology in the classroom, as it touches most other areas of youths’ lives. Ryan Sparrow, instructor of Graphic Design and Multimedia in the Department of Journalism at Ball State University, claims that information technology is crucial to his students’ study, and that it plays a significant role in preparing them for work in the media industry that is constantly in technological flux.[3] Sparrow encourages his students to engage with their technology, because that is precisely how their professional audience shares, engages, creates, and analyzes their daily lives.[4] But beyond the discipline of Journalism, should this infusion of technology in education be applied? Research shows that students’ attention spans last an average of fifteen minutes, and many return from a timely Social Media break feeling refreshed for their next fifteen minutes of paying attention,[5] but it is yet to be seen how this tactic works across other disciplines.
On the other hand, Assistant Professor of theatre and dance at Ball State University, Drew Vidal, argues against technology in learning, urging students to learn to be present in the moment and be open to their surroundings.[6] He writes that “many crucial modes of learning are not encouraged by our information technology systems,” such as those including face-to-face interactions with other persons and other social and learned behaviors.[7] Today’s information technology separates us from the life of our surroundings, both literally and figuratively. When one’s eyes are perpetually blocked by his or her phone, what is he or she really seeing and experiencing? A digital world that is separated from the reality of its viewer’s eyes? Or a digital world of its viewer’s own design? This question is yet to be answered.
Changing Diversity
The world is not homogenous; many languages are spoken, clothes worn, and rituals performed. Information technology plays an influential role in the gradual shift toward homogeneity to which delocalization is contributing.[8] Consumers’ tastes, cultures, media, and technical standards differ widely throughout the globe, but as globalization proceeds and technologies are becoming used the world over, this diversity of peoples decreases.[9] For instance, English is regarded as the language of technical standards, and this shift is attributed to the benefits of cross-cultural compatibility, but what does this mean for cultures with a different language tradition? The availability of and access to technologies, whether that be an information technology or language (cultural) technology, increases cognitive dissonance in these circumstances, because peoples may believe that these technologies will allow them to get what they want, be that resources or power.[10] As a result, indigenous languages are dying out, local musics and texts are conversing with other global traditions and transforming, and information technologies are being fused with social institutions. Technology as it stands now is moving the world toward one of shallow diversity and dependent globalized traditions.
Conclusion
The “unidirectional nature of basic technological evolution is matched by the unidirectional nature of social delocalization.”[11] Personal relationships are no longer tied to particular times or places; everyone is tied to everything at any time. Every bond that is forged is competing for attention through the device in hand every second of the day.[12] There is now a technological basis for these relationships, but since the technology shapes those relationships, and vice versa, there is no predicting what form those interactions will take and how they will play out on a global scale. Today’s “always-on” connections reveal distressing associations with interface connections and social skills for contemporary youth culture, as well as a possible barrier to continuing diversity. These issues are playing out not only in the classroom, but also on the international stage. Information technology’s role in the continuing development of these qualities suggests a troubling future in the twenty-first century.
[1] Agre, Philip E. 2000. “The Market Logic of Information.” Knowledge, Technology, and Policy 13(3): 1-6.
[2] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 1.
[3] Sparrow, Ryan. “Should Students Unplug? No. Vice vs. Value: Faculty Debate Technology in the Classroom.” In Ball State University [database online]. 2015 [cited January 20 2015]. Available from http://cms.bsu.edu/features/alumnus/summer-2015/should-students-unplug-no.
[4] Sparrow, “Should Students Unplug? No.”
[5] Ibid.
[6] Vidal, Drew. “Should Students Unplug? Yes. Vice vs. Value: Faculty Debate Technology in the Classroom.” In Ball State University [database online]. 2015 [cited January 20 2015]. Available from http://cms.bsu.edu/features/alumnus/summer-2015/should-students-unplug-yes.
[7] Vidal, “Should Students Unplug? Yes.”
[8] Bernard, H. Russell and Pertti J. Pelto. 1987. Technology and Anthropological Theory. In Technology and Social Change., eds. H. Russell Bernard, Pertti J. Pelto. 2nd ed., Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. 359-68.
[9] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 5.
[10] Bernard and Pelto, “Technology and Anthropological Theory,” 364.
[11] Ibid, 365.
[12] Agre, “The Market Logic of Information,” 3.
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