Chapter 6 of Cynthia Selfe's, Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century, struck a chord with me. Her statement that "technological literacy has been enacted at what Foucault calls the capillary level, 'where the power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives'" (99), mirrors our society today. We speak in computerese. We communicate through cell phones, blackberries, and laptops. From the oldest of us to the youngest, we rely on computer technology to process our bills, remind us of doctor's appointments, program a trip, and communicate with family members and friends who've moved across the country, or maybe live just next door.
When computers crash and cell phones drop our calls, we are more than frustrated. We are temporarily out of touch with the immediacy of the world around us, and we have come to believe that we must constantly monitor as much information as we can download, upload, facebook and twitter. Tuning out is not an option, or is it?
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Hi Diane,
ReplyDeleteI guess it all has to do with how much we identify with our cyber-self. I know I've identified with a lot of things in my life, but I've never identified with anything so much that when I lost it I felt like I'd lost my identity. If I stay true to form, I don't think I'll ever become so identified with technology that I'll feel lost without it. But that's just me. I think our relationship with technology is a very individual thing, and that each of us has to make up our own minds about it. However, I do think it would help if we began looking at cyberspace as a community highway rather than an information highway. And yes, sometimes tuning out is definately an option for me... in fact, I don't believe I've even really tuned in yet.