Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.
As somebody who accesses the internet daily, I totally see where Prensky is coming from when he discusses these topics. He is right when he says that an entire generations' behaviour has change drastically because of technology. Prime examples of this are my sister and I vs. my parents who although do their best to keep up with the latest tech-trends, aren't quite as reliant or in "need" of it as we are. "Today norms and behaviors are changing much faster than in the past, because the technology changes rapidly and the Digital Natives are programmed to – and want to – keep up with it." (Prensky, 2004, pg 13) This sort of stuff gets lost on my family - my mum's doing better I'll admit, but my dad - he just cannot be bothered with it.
I like how Prensky speaks about it in a positive and realistic manner - when you read it, you believe what he's saying. I am someone who is always involved in the ever-changing technologies around us - I may not be as savvy and hip as I'd like, but the pathetic reality is that i tend to get withdrawals when cut off my phone, internet, Facebook, iPod etc.
Prensky elaborates on how communication is so very different from not even twenty years ago. People can find out other people's most personal details and what they look like with a couple of clicks of their mouse. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics shows just how many people these days are accessing social sites and meeting up. There are websites dedicated to playing match-maker - it's just not how it used to be and yet more and more people everyday are joining up and using the internet.
Dave Weinberger on the other hand - gives off a vibe of being frustrated, angry and even sickened by what the internet has become and what it is doing to the youth of today. "As a result, the Web is a mess, as organized as an orgy." (Weinberger, 2002) View more at: http://www.smallpieces.com/content/chapter1.html This is also an accurate portrayal of today's society and technology - with everything evolving and improving, there comes risks - youth is not benefiting from education as much as they should be. We all pay for uni, but how many of us actually come to class?
This is something I can completely relate to. I am paying for my education, maybe not today, but I will be and I have managed to minimise the amount of time I spend at university to it's absolute minimum, without failing. Are we learning better now with all this technology or were people better off in the days where telegrams would come and TV turned off at nine o'clock? Weinberger seems cynical and pissed off at the way technology has changed the way society learns things and I believe he is right in a sense. Although it's great to advance in technology, us as human beings are relying on it way too much. Those who spend hours on the internet, turn out to be somewhat useless when it's taken away.
Although Prensky and Weinberger give different opinions, they are accurate in portraying the way contemporary users rely on technology. The way we learn now is with technology - slideshows, computers, sound effects, movies ... New Communication is a prime example of somewhere you get absorbed by different technologies. Everybody's got to edit their photos and be looking perfect right? Check out: http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/ if you want a better look.
Hannah Smith
References:
Prensky (2004) The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native: What they do differently because of technology, and how they do it. web documentPDF] available at:http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf 16/10/2009 date accessed.
Weinberger (2002) Small Pieces Loosely Joined - Chapter 1 "A New World" [web documentPDF]] available at: http://www.smallpieces.com/content/chapter1.html 04/10/2009 date accessed.
Prensky (2009) Open Letter [web documentPDF] available at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Open_Letter_To_The_Obama_Administration.pdf 16/10/2009 date accessed.
Marc Prensky - Home (2009) [web document] available at: http://marcprensky.com/default.asp 16/10/2009 date accessed.
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself (2009) [web document] available at: http://www.youtube.com accessed website between 22/09/2009 - 22/10/2009.
Facebook Info (2009) Facebook Statistics [web document] available at: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics 17/10/2009 date accessed.
NCT09-GC (2009) Jason's Last Lecture [web document] available at: http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/ accessed website between 22/09/2009 - 22/10/2009.
Bennett, Maton and Kervin (2008) The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence [journal article] available at:http://api.ning.com/files/AkclmKAQ9nT0vPJuCYL9261SknCvwP1UJ-RaVQ7kZumzWZVPq5iNlfGrqf0Jpc3wUnK8A07FuVmRXQ1WRqnre5q2z53PRnT0/Thedigitalnativesdebatecriticalreview.pdf 18/10/2009 date accessed.
Basalla (1989) The Evolution of Technology [journal article] available at: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EBtnG36-1WIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=evolution+of+technology&ots=nGzIZSfd29&sig=wB70DFFnGeNKVOu6gczt5ly3Ljw#v=onepage&q=&f=false 18/10/2009 date accessed.
Joho the Blog (2009) Let's Just See What Happens [web document] available at: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ 22/09/2009 date accessed.
Digital Natives (2009) Blog, Wiki, Book [web document] available at: javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/pages/splash.html'); 22/10/2009 date accessed.


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