In the third chapter of Geek Heresy called "Geek Myths Debunked: Dispelling Misguided Beliefs About Technology" it talks about human habits and adaptation to technology, particularly new ones. As students who study media, we hear time and time again the positives and negative that go into technology. It is a balancing act, which was very much reflected by Toyama in this chapter of the reading. A take away point from the chapter was how human usage of technology and how it becomes normalized in our everyday life is solely not the fault of the technology itself but is a part of our nature.
An example of this I have from my own life that comes to mind, even talking about media, is that of my baby cousins. I have two cousins who are older than me, and have two children each. One family lives in rural Kentucky on a farm, with no internet access and no cable. They spend a lot of time outside and even though they have DVDs and have an cell phones, they try not to spend too much time in front of a screen and want the kids to grow up having a good balance. In contrast, the other cousins tend to always be on their iPads, playing educational games and watching their favorite shows. One summer they came to visit Rhode Island on the same weekend, and my cousin from Kentucky (she was about 5 at the time) came to me upset saying that she did not understand why her cousins who were the same age as her did not want to play outside with her. They were inside spending time on their iPads which they know how to use well, and used to Skype their grandparents or even play games together on. But she didn't understand why they didn't want to come outside and play with her, and how they were having so much fun on their iPads. It makes you think, how is one child so focused on the technology and the other not? Especially at such a young age?
I always remember this instance because it shows how normalized technology has become in our day to day lives, both for older and younger generations. But as stated in the reading, is it the fault of the new mediums? Or at the fault of our human nature? Personally I feel it is a mix of both. We always get excited for the new phone to come out or the new app we found, but all of this was created by human intent and with the planning that these technologies would adapt to human tendencies. There is an "addictive" tendencies in human nature, and when we step back and take a look at how we use technology, this does indeed make sense. This is why there needs to be a balance in using these mediums, and not putting the fault on the technology solely but how we as people use them.
The story about your cousins is really interesting! It's refreshing to hear about a family who is not only concerned about keeping their children away from screens as much as possible, but is also ensuring that their children are playing outside as opposed to on an iPad. This really speaks to how we, as users of technology, are in control of how we allow technology to affect us. While your cousins in Kentucky still have cell phones and watch movies, they don't let these media dominate their free time.
ReplyDeleteI always think about how our generation in particular grew up with all this technology yet we still had "traditional" childhoods - that is to say, not consumed by technology. Cell phones became popular and something that everyone had just around the time we were in middle school, so they became tools for us to socialize and we used them as accessories rather than as extensions of ourselves. We grew up in a balance. However, technology has become so prominent that the balance is leaning heavily towards technological dependence, so I wonder how that will affect that children who are growing up in this imbalance.
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