"You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat."
The above quote is taken from "The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace." First and foremost, I thought the entire article was both creatively and well written. This portion of the article, however, stuck out most for me. Throughout the quarter we have been discussing web forums such as myspace and facebook and how they can be rather foreign to adults. Facebook and myspace have become a significant part of our generation and we have embraced it wholeheartedly. A majority of the older generation, however, has become annoyed with the idea of our obsession with cyberspace. They cannot find the endless positives the web can bring to our society. Perhaps they are so pessimistic because they are "out of the loop." It may be difficult for them to appreciate the web because they have grown up with out and it survived. Nowadays, it is an important part of life. It is often difficult now to attain employment without basic knowledge of computers and its technology. Technology is quickly becoming an important factor in our survival.
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While I agree with some of your points, I know many adults who truly wish to understand this world of technology as they do not want to become obsolete themselves. One of my professors constantly asks me for my help with searching the internet and using different software. She has nothing against advancing technology, but just wishes our generation were more patient with those who did not grow up with google and wikipedia. I think if our generation were willing to help our parents and those older to understand the uses of technology or social networking sites, we wouldn't have such a gap in communication.
I completely agree with you, Monique. Technological illiteracy is a definite problem and the world is becoming increasingly hard to navigate for those who have limited experience with digital technology. "The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace" goes a little bit to far in saying that the older generation is "terrified of [its] own children". I think it is less fear and more misunderstanding that results in the observance of a multitude of rules and regulations surrounding the internet. Perhaps we, as a younger and desensitized generation, have less to fear about our exposure to the big, scary world of cyberspace. Maybe if the older generation was more exposed to the realities of internet use and given basic instruction about technology there would be less misunderstanding. I think it is extremely important to narrow the digital gap and provide technological literacy to everyone.
I also think its increidbly interesting to take into consideration just how much we know about these technologies. So much so that when my mother asks me how to sign into ecampus, no matter how many times I tell her, its still like trying to teach an old dog a new trick. I always wonder if our ability to surf the web and navigate through almost any kind of technology is making us smarter, making our brains work quicker. And if so then maybe your point is on target, maybe we do need these skills to survive. Not necessarily just to be able to function in this technologically advanced world but to think at the fast pace asked of us.
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