Thanks to Richard Wakeford for alerting me to Analysis: Clever.com - part of the Analysis series on BBC Radio 4. There is a transcript and at the moment you can also "listen again" (this will change when the next episode in the series is broadcast, you can only listen again to the current one)"A growing number of scientists are concerned that we are creating a digital generation, growing up online but unable to think, concentrate and learn in the way that their forebears did. Kenan Malik examines the latest research to ask whether they are right to worry - or whether we should we asking wider questions about how we all use new technology." It includes contributions from Tara Brabazon and David Nicholas.
In my superficial Generation V way I skimmed a bit at a start and a bit at the end. The end says "Old-fashioned abilities to read deeply, research thoroughly and think broadly were embedded in a culture that valued such reading, researching and thinking. One does not have to be nostalgic about a mythical golden age to recognize that that culture itself has become eroded. Flicking and bouncing may be a reflection of the character not of video games or the Internet but of the culture that we now inhabit, a culture that increasingly celebrates banality and shallowness. Perhaps we should worry less about the technology, and more about the culture that shapes the way we use it. "
Go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/analysis/7935725.stm
Photo by Sheila Webber: On Friday some colleagues and I were recording our reflections on a module we team-teach. Ruby the plush red squirrel proved the perfect microphone-holder.
1 comment:
I'd tend to argue that Web 2.0 is all about culture, and where we have culture we have civilization, a civilization in which people's needs are met. We can still read deeply when there is something that warrants reading in that way.
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