Oh just be patient!

The discussion in class shed some much needed light to how new media is shaping today’s society. First, let me express how much I enjoyed the presentations. They were very entertaining and edifying. While this isn’t the first time I was totally taken with the subject, it was {as I uttered in class} the first time I really had the urge to verbalize my thoughts…which is a good thing. Anywho, I was mostly captivated by the stumbled upon discussion on this very bad trait that has grown to be prevalent in today’s society. Talking about the ever present impatience. Why has it become such a trend and is technology really to blame? As I expressed before, I love electronics and at times I feel like I’m in a technological matrix {best said by Vee :-)}, however, I do believe that it is partly, if not wholly, to blame for the degeneration of a very valuable and essential characteristic.

While doing some research for my paper I came across an article entitled “Is Educational Technology Shortening Student’s Attention Spans?” Written by David M. Marcovitz and John David Son, this article devises a point and a counterpoint in an effort to answer the question. Based on the length and the many examples and analogies used as support, their answer, as is mine and I’m sure most others, is Yes. There’s no doubt about it. Electronics and technology has fashioned us to become accustomed to rapidity; high-speed internet, on demand, uploading, downloading, etc. Technological and/or scientific simulations allow people to create and invent cyberical entities in an instant, watch them change, die, etc., which in a way is remarkable, but the downside of it all has its own detrimental effects. As best expressed in the article,

“After seeing a flower bloom in a minute, who has the patience to wait for it to bloom in real time?”

This article made me think about the presentation on Twitter {which was awesome by the way}. Twitter may be amusing and great for interacting, but truth be known it isn’t helping the issue with impatience. The whole idea of limiting each tweet to only 140 characters is silly but some may argue that it teaches people to be creative and straightforward, which, for the most part, is beneficial to those that tend to ramble. I’m sure avid Tweeters can come up with a bunch of probable {and I use this word loosely} benefits to tweeting. Let me utter that I’m not arguing against Twitter because I think it’s ridiculous and will eventually depreciate along with the earlier social networking sites{I promise}, it’s just bottom line, in essence, Twitter is an expansion of stimulations to goad time management – make people more impatient.

One aspect of the article that bothered me was the illustration of students in one classroom using technology to basically learn and be creative. “Students were excited and engaged in the content being presented.” Whereas, in another classroom the teacher adhered to the traditional learning style of lecturing and students were to take notes using a pencil and paper. It was described as a process using “little creativity, expression, or problem solving. Students seemed disengaged and disconnected. They were only on the receiving end of the information.” When did taking notes become uncreative and disengaging? I must have overlooked that memo. So basically, students must use some kind of computer technology to be creative and express themselves? I’m honestly a little frightened to see what the next generation will conform to…