I've been skimming one of my favorite books tonight - The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman - with the hopes that it would spark some inspiration for an article I'm supposed to write concerning this class. It didn't disappoint. The book is genius. Check out this excerpt that I just now stumbled upon:
The very technologies that are uniting us are also clearly dividing us. The same technologies that allow us to connect with each other as never before also allow us to interrupt each other as never before. The technologies that are empowering individuals to upload their own content...and to inscribe themselves on the world also contribute to a coarsening of our language and the dumbing down of our discourse. And most troubling, but still not yet fully understood, is what happens when we can all not only author our own content and upload it globally, but, thanks to improved connectivity and search engines, read all the content people are authoring about us. What happens when the Internet becomes so ubiquitous and search engines so refined that we can all suddenly hear everything whispered about us? What happens when we all have dog's hearing?
This was written five years ago. Well before Facebook and Twitter even existed. Yikes. Don't get me wrong. All of the tools available to us are indeed a marvel. But they alone do not enable us to truly connect with one another. They do not - they cannot - take the place of true character and thoughtfulness. In many ways, the connectivity that teens enjoy in a superficial way leads to their disconnection from others and from themselves. Just ask Tyler Clementi's parents.
So it is my sincere hope and prayer that in this class we can explore the new forms of writing and connecting while also honing our relational skills to the fullest. According to Friedman, that is the only true path to success in a flat world.
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