The Excitement of Information Systems Technology.

So I'm in this class called The Wired Society and it's about the internet in our lives.  Not the most interesting subject to me.  But I did find this recent reading fun.  We read chapter 1 of, get ready for it...

Technopoly

The Surrender of Culture to Technology

Neil Postman

Doesn't that sound exciting?  Okay, you're right, it doesn't sound exciting at all.  But it was.  And I wrote a short little thing about it for an online discussion in my class.  If you're looking for something to do one day , you should read it...not the whole book, just the chapter.  I don't know, I guess you could read the whole book if you want.

Anyway, here's what I wrote:

In Judgment of Thamus, I am intrigued by Socrates’ thought that we think we are wiser, yet we know nothing; we know only that we are able to find information, not that we carry it always.  I feel that way, in a much less intellectual manner of course.  What do I really know?  And what do I really remember?  I hold on to information as long as is needed, and then I let it go.  If I make an A in botany, but couldn’t tell you what cyanogenic glycosides are, am I still knowledgeable in the subject?  Or am I simply knowledgeable in making A’s?  But this leading to a college degree puts me in the ‘smarter-than-most’ category in our society.

Though this is what most captured my attention, the chapter serves another purpose: what I read is that technology changes our lives and that our lives change our technologies.  As Freud said, “If there had been no railway to conquer distances, my child would never have left his native town and I should need no telephone to hear his voice…”  

Also, something else we've discussed is how the advancement of social sites makes us think that everyone wants to know about minute happenings in our lives.  Some people say that it is an online form of narcissism when someone uses their blog or Facebook to tell us they are making a PB&J or that they accidentally put the wrong socks on.  Who wants to know every little detail?  But.... when you put all of those little details together, you get a very good sense of who the person is and how they are feeling in general.  You 'get to know' the person.

All that was to say, though you  may think I'm going on about myself, I'm merely letting you get to know me.  =)

I ♥  Learning!