Comments on: Technological Disconnect http://www.bookishdark.com/2007/08/technological-disconnect/ She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:31:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: kaizerin http://www.bookishdark.com/2007/08/technological-disconnect/comment-page-1/#comment-2046 kaizerin Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:34:39 +0000 http://www.bookishdark.com/?p=109#comment-2046 It's a good point about the generation gap in attitudes toward/adoption of technology. Although I didn't use a computer until I was in junior high school, and didn't own one until my mid-20s, I'm so dependent on them now that I forget they weren't always here. I think this conversation is a prime example of technology's power to bring people together: we're having a multi-generational, continent-wide discussion via a website that only exists because CountessZ and I built up a friendship online. If it weren't for the facilitation of technology, we would still be polite strangers, linked only through Corvus. Sure, we might talk on the phone now and then, as I do with the wife of another good friend, but we wouldn't know and love each other the way we do. We wouldn't have been driven by our shared passion for books (and later, yarn) to carve out an online niche for ourselves and our loved ones to flop down and natter the day away about whatever takes our fancy. I can imagine a life without TV, but try to take mah innernets away, and we're gonna have a problem. It’s a good point about the generation gap in attitudes toward/adoption of technology. Although I didn’t use a computer until I was in junior high school, and didn’t own one until my mid-20s, I’m so dependent on them now that I forget they weren’t always here.

I think this conversation is a prime example of technology’s power to bring people together: we’re having a multi-generational, continent-wide discussion via a website that only exists because CountessZ and I built up a friendship online. If it weren’t for the facilitation of technology, we would still be polite strangers, linked only through Corvus. Sure, we might talk on the phone now and then, as I do with the wife of another good friend, but we wouldn’t know and love each other the way we do. We wouldn’t have been driven by our shared passion for books (and later, yarn) to carve out an online niche for ourselves and our loved ones to flop down and natter the day away about whatever takes our fancy.

I can imagine a life without TV, but try to take mah innernets away, and we’re gonna have a problem.

]]> By: Corvus http://www.bookishdark.com/2007/08/technological-disconnect/comment-page-1/#comment-2044 Corvus Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:13:55 +0000 http://www.bookishdark.com/?p=109#comment-2044 I also think there's a generational shift in play as well. I find myself between worlds in this regard. Many people my age tend not to be as wired as I am, but many people much younger are even more tapped in and active than I have the presence of mind to be. Children who are being raised with social networking tools already a part of the world are going to have a much easier time finding connectedness without the need for physical proximity. I have often struggled with feeling disconnected from my online friends, but then I have often struggled with feeling disconnected, period. Like Kai, I don't feel I can lay that at the feet of the technology as much as I look for its roots in the culture (after all, I wasn't allowed to watch television as a child and didn't use a computer until high school). I firmly believe that the culture dictates the use of its tools and while they may accelerate or enhance a cultural trend (such as isolation), they do not cause it. That being said--without television we certainly wouldn't have the internet, which is a powerful tool for creating international connections between individuals. Never before in the modern age has a technology SO afforded individuals their voice. As I've sorted my issues, technology has made it easier, not harder, to better keep in touch with IRL friends, family and professional contacts, not to mention hundreds of people I have not, and perhaps will not ever, meet face to face. But when Josh, to pick one of the online people at random, gets married, or suffers a setback at work, I care just as much. I also think there’s a generational shift in play as well. I find myself between worlds in this regard. Many people my age tend not to be as wired as I am, but many people much younger are even more tapped in and active than I have the presence of mind to be. Children who are being raised with social networking tools already a part of the world are going to have a much easier time finding connectedness without the need for physical proximity.

I have often struggled with feeling disconnected from my online friends, but then I have often struggled with feeling disconnected, period. Like Kai, I don’t feel I can lay that at the feet of the technology as much as I look for its roots in the culture (after all, I wasn’t allowed to watch television as a child and didn’t use a computer until high school). I firmly believe that the culture dictates the use of its tools and while they may accelerate or enhance a cultural trend (such as isolation), they do not cause it.

That being said–without television we certainly wouldn’t have the internet, which is a powerful tool for creating international connections between individuals. Never before in the modern age has a technology SO afforded individuals their voice.

As I’ve sorted my issues, technology has made it easier, not harder, to better keep in touch with IRL friends, family and professional contacts, not to mention hundreds of people I have not, and perhaps will not ever, meet face to face. But when Josh, to pick one of the online people at random, gets married, or suffers a setback at work, I care just as much.

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