Learning this week about the prevalence of RSS made me think that we actually are closer to the world of Anderson's Feed than I had originally imagined. I see many people in the library where I work (mostly senior citizens) who pride themselves on not having an email account and never having used a computer for anything. I'm sure there will come a time, however, when people will eventually be forced (like Violet's father in the book) "to connect" in order to fully function in society. And, once connected, we all do somehow become dependent on systems like Google in particular and the whole infrastructure of the Internet in general.
What bothers me most about the society in Feed is how the easier access to information oftentimes lessens people's ability (or even desire) to think for themselves. Our education systems are partly to blame with their emphasis on finding the "right" answer (and this is a realm where school librarians can really champion by helping teachers design better units of inquiry...but that's a whole other topic covered in a whole other class!) As in Feed, students can very easily find most of the "answers" to their homework questions (and, sadly, buy complete papers) online these days. While I love providing chat reference in our library and believe that it is an incredible and important service, I oftentimes feel that we "virtual librarians" are part of this "Feed" phenomenon. While I'll refuse to give students answers to their specific homework questions and continually try to redirect them to helpful sources, they will continually ask, again and again, for the "answer". The saddest (and scariest) thing is that, like Titus, many kids actually believe that typing a question and getting an answer online is not cheating, but thinking.
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2 comments:
Your last line really struck me...I did not realize kids really think that getting an answer to a question online constitutes learning or thought. How our definitions and expectations are changing! You're right, it is both scary and sad. But all technology in society does is continue to perpetuate and enable the idea, really, rather than prove them wrong.
ditto what Amy said. I have been doing a paper this week about web 2.0 as a curricular issue, and lots of research about how kids know how to use the tools but continue to cut-and-paste; still struggling to evaluate information. So your statement about kids thinking they are thinking....well, it's true right now.
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