Luddite or Future Shock?
Um, I tried, but I don't understand Tabblo. How are you supposed to add text to the &(&*(&*( text boxes?
Anyway, I was amused by both perspectives presented this week. Landow suggests today's college students do not value books. Would not the board books and well-designed and well-illustrated children's books have imprinted some value on this generation? I think so.
And things are not as dire as Birkerts would make it seem. There are always people who are willing to jettison the old (My brother got rid of his LPs in the early 90s. ALL of them.) and those that reach back into the past (Harlan Ellison still stubbornly types on a manual typewriter) I think the abundance of media has the potential to make us brighter, not dumber. Is network news better than 24 hour cable news? No. But that is all we would have if cable and the miracle mind of Ted Turner (or someone else who would have eventually thought of it) had not existed.
Comments
The whole concepts of how students to appreciate text books or not appreciate them is quite interesting. Everything is becoming available on the web, and soon we won't even have to buy text books for our classes. Happiness for the student because of how much money we will save and think about how much the environment will appreciate it!
Posted by: Jamie | March 25, 2007 06:55 PM
I agree with you that technology has the potential to make us smarter. Although, some technologies have the potential to make people dumber i.e. six straight hours of watching MTV. I think that some people just have a hard time of letting go of the past and the "good old days." A lot of the technology that we have makes our lives easier, for instance: cars, phones, the Internet, household appliances, and medical equipment. I don't know if digging one's heels in the dirt and refusing to type on the computer really has a benefit. It would be the same as refusing to write with a writing utensil such as a pencil or pen...those were great technological inventions at some point.
Posted by: Natalya Goncharova | March 25, 2007 07:04 PM
I agree. I believe that college students do value books. I think we are just too lazy to go to the library. However, colleges obviously still care about books because we have to pay so much for them. Another question that Langkow should ask himself is if books are getting so unpopular, why, in the recent years, has one of the most successful series of books (Harry Potter) captured the minds of children and adults? I think we should realize that books still have great power and can still influence people. Good job
Posted by: Mark Mahan | March 25, 2007 09:21 PM
Nice post
I seem to like having a connection to my old SLR camera. It's a Pentax that my grandfather received as a retirement present. I think that I still like it because it's still very useful. I have a digital SLR now but the old Pentax sure takes beautiful shots.
Posted by: Blender | March 25, 2007 10:56 PM
I agree with your views. Printed media is irreplaceable especially for young children.
Posted by: Matt Erickson | March 25, 2007 11:00 PM
I agree with you that todays generation doesn't value books. From what it seems like everyone is communicating through text messaging and IM's.
I also agree with you that all this media capabilities does help us in ways that we couldn't even 10 years ago. I think text messaging, IMing, and chat rooms and all the other forms of media communication helps us stay connected for the better
Posted by: Harpal (Paul) Thind | March 25, 2007 11:08 PM
To answer your question, the text box would come up and then you would have to double click in a blank square and then the text would show. Hope that helps for later on.
Posted by: Kelly | March 25, 2007 11:36 PM