Lately I’ve had the overwhelming feeling that I’m leashed to my computer. This is a difficult feeling for those that really know me, as I love to be outside. I love everything about it, from the mud to the bugs, and everything in between. So, I am trying to fight back, if only in my mind.

Two things did it for me. First, it was a subscription to Twitter. For those that don’t know, Twitter is kinda like public instant messaging. It can be used for trivial matters (updating people on the status of your dog’s allergies), or for serious collective matters (most commonly, the usage of blogging as a pedagogical tool). Dina is studying how it changes language and relationships. It basically owned my soul on Sunday and I spent gobs of time surfing around and had nothing to show. So I quit Twitter. I’m sure it has great potential, but so do I when I’m actually doing something productive.

Two. This video:

I’ve seen this video in a number of different settings now, and it’s always bothered me. I get the message. The world is constantly changing, in our case exponentially, and dammit, we need to prepare kids better for that world. While I agree with this statement, this video is heavily laden with ideology. While I do think that technology is leveling the world of knowledge, I’m not so sure it applies to all aspects of our lives. The virtual drooling over economic globalization in this video definitely represents a specific value set. And I don’t buy it. It further promotes that whole “Hey kids, you will be competing with India and China for jobs, so you better study harder” mentality. No mention of the companies that ship jobs overseas for cheaper labor. You know, study harder though. It always seems more convenient to put the onus on the individual to attain everything in this world of ours. Classic neoliberal rhetoric. And it continues to promote more of the root metaphors (progress, individual autonomy) that I mentioned in an earlier post.

And, oh by the way, I love the suggestion at 6:00 that computers will soon be smarter than humans. Sweet. Why even teach the kids to think in the first place then? I can’t wait for machines to just take over the world and put us out of our misery.

My thoughts on this are incomplete, and I imagine that I’ll write more later about the confluence of humans (especially as we relate to the natural world) and technology.

And yes, I realize the irony of complaining about technology…on my blog. Ugh.