Introductions

"People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine." - E.M. Forster in his "The Machine Stops."

Blog Purpose

I don't blog regularly because my blogs usually end up being long and many do not care to read something that, on first glance, is so long (maybe a consequence to the need for "instant" gratification technology might encourage - or to the other things we have to get to because we're so busy thanks to our technology…).

In any case, this blog will function, for me primarily, as a way to write and sort out my thoughts regarding the material of this class and to share my thoughts with whomever wishes to read them. I realize that I always apologize for the length of my writings, but I'm not going to do that here. If anything, I'm going to ask that others write *more*.

My Introduction

It's Christmas morning. I'm about six-years-old, and I just opened up my first record player along with a set of forty-fives - The Monkees. I played those records in all their scratch and pop glory, over and over, but eventually, I had to advance to cassette tapes. Tapes were easier to access, and my sister and I could record our make-believe radio shows on them. It wasn't until I was twelve that I owned my first CD - Tears for Fears Greatest Hits. It was another gift. I never saw a reason to buy CDs myself. Cassettes worked great, and were less expensive - definitely attractive to someone who never received an allowance.

Resistant to change and to technological advance, I proudly called myself a luddite. With religious bedtime stories of the apocalypse, which included details about the mark of the beast - a microchip implanted inside of every person where acceptance of it meant giving one's soul to the devil - I did not perceive that technological advances were beneficial. Computers were good only for playing "Hopper" and "Where is Carmen San Diego?" oh, and of course, "Oregon Trail."

Then, the desire for a social life hit. My girlfriends in high school talked about this "chatting" phenomenon - and their parents actually let them do it! I was curious about talking with someone, anyone, over the Internet about anything at all. I could talk with someone in Australia or England! I had a pen pal from South Dakota, and we snail mailed each other, but with chatting, communication was instant.

My parents believed that the Internet was a safe haven for molesters and serial killers (and to this day, my parents still believe this). I was allowed to chat only on a Catholic chat site; however, as an adult, I have advanced into IMing using AOL IM and Yahoo Messenger. In "real life," I was unpopular and had difficulty making friends because I was quiet and kept mostly to myself. But online, I was alive, expressing myself through my favorite medium: writing. I've met over thirty people, in-person, from online chat sessions and have formed actual friendships with people that have lasted well over six years.

I started seeing a divide, however - especially when I would talk about dating people from online. There were those that were in favor of meeting people this way, and those that -seriously- weren't. Though I was on the "luddite" side of things, I saw, and experienced, only benefits in my personal relationships with this technology. I even built my own personal Website, which I replaced with my current-day Myspace page.

Emailing is also a preferred form of communication for me (instead of the phone). I can think about what I want to say, how I want to say it, and have the privilege of using backspace and delete; however, accidentally sending an email to an unintended recipient - usually the person the email was about - is NEVER a good thing. My cell phone is used more for texting than actual calling, also.

I have gone through quite the evolution. Currently, I sit at a desk with a computer for most of my day. From my luddite point of view, this doesn't exactly sound ideal - to have a machine be my daily companion. But it's a fact. Do I understand computers? Hell no. Right next to my work computer, I have a quote: To Err is Human To Really Screw Up You Need A Computer. Though I couldn't agree more with the quote, it is, now, impossible to live without computers. I feel very blessed that my e-Machine (which I bought in 2000, and which I realize outdates me threefold in the computer world) has not died on me or given me any problem because I wouldn't even know where to begin to fix it. Motherboard, RAM, cable, video and sound card are terms I know only as terms, not really as functions. Similarly, I know of HTML, http, ftp, and other related terms, but could never define them.

I still consider myself to be part-luddite. I drive an old car and believe a car should be a car - not a computer. I still want to read "real" in-my-hand books. I think technology is responsible for making life easier, thus busier and more hectic and stressful. I believe that the paper money trail is disappearing with the prevalence of plastic and that this could be dangerous (okay, so I still have some conspiracy theories lurking around in my head from my childhood…). The floaters in my eyes and my reduced tear production are also probably a consequence of staring at a computer all day. I believe that technology brings many, many benefits - but I worry that these benefits might overshadow the potential consequences…

Moreover, the great irony is: I am still conflicted on technology and its role in the classroom. In every oral presentation or lesson I give, technology plays a role. I even attempted to form a discourse community, similar to this one, in a class, which proved highly successful in the end. I'm becoming more used to the idea that technology should be used in the classroom; however, I feel education is becoming something that is marketed and sold to students via technological appeal. This does not mean that I do not see its benefits. As I grow and become more and more accustomed to technology, I'm sure my opinion will change. I guess my real concern has to do with attention spans and incentive: how are these things changing with the advent of technology in the classroom? Are we tied more to our machines than to each other, or even, to our own selves?