This article underlines the effect our digital culture has on children who grew up not knowing a world without technology. Being surrounded by technology is no substitute for tangible, sensory inputs of the real world. Although we are becoming more connected on a grandiose scale, we are becoming more disconnected from the world directly surrounding us. Social media communication severely undermines face-to-face communication, and is leading people to feel more disconnected as we become more connected.
There are various aspects of technology touched on in this article. Although there may be benefits to using this technology, there are certainly some downfalls. Using technology can enhance the learning experience, but access to an endless amount of information can pose some risks. Our brains still respond to our environment, whether it is physical or virtual. This alters the brain’s chemistry, ultimately leading to a shift in neural patterns.
New communication technologies provide us with the ability to connect with anyone in the world, and access any piece of information desired. This is connecting the world into a collective intelligence, yet people feel more alone than ever before. It makes you wonder how being more connected can lead to the inverse.
This cultural shift in technological advances has radically changed society. The author separates the generations that grew up without technology, and those that grew up with it into two distinct groups. One group sees technology as unnecessary and detrimental to our youth, and the other sees it as necessary and couldn’t imagine a world without it. Nonetheless, both groups remain steady consumers of the latest and greatest innovations. It’s no contest that technology has shifted as a result of culture; it is simply a matter of how we make use of it.
By separating the digital immigrants and the digital natives, we see how they both react to these new technologies. They also experience different motivations when it comes to interacting with it. The younger generations definitely have more trust in online information sharing, whereas older generations tend to be more hesitant and repulsed by the idea. This is simply a matter of conditioning and previous life experiences.
This article shed a light on how the two different generations experience these shifts in technology. It was interesting to read about how one subject can have many different implications based on people’s varying perceptions. New communication technologies have changed the world, and will continue to do so. Whether it is streamlining learning through video games, or children experiencing virtual trauma, there are many positives and negatives to be assessed and considered when implementing this technology into our society.