Technology is the end to Human development.

For this blog it was really difficult for me to talk about something that I didn't strongly strongly believe in one way or that was absolutely crazy, for example, homosexuality being a trait and not a choice, or the world not coming to an end in December of 2012 although that being something many believe. I think that although I could talk about something as BS it is really important to see both sides in any argument, especially for this class, no matter your opinion. In a recent communications class we began the discussion about virtual worlds and the reality that digital communication, video games, technology and things like that takes on for many. The argument that multi-tasking has become a norm for even the smartest among the groups out there, and that on top of all of this our communication skills in the digital age are drastically changing and its harming out society which will end up leading us to no longer developing as a human race is bullshit and really uniformed in my opinion.

Here is the rhetoric I want to discuss.... As great as technology is and all of the fast, speedy, changing developments it's always having, a majority of the world believes that our society is going to be crazy, and in insane in a little of a century.
 A lot of theorists say that things like social media, and virtual worlds are leading to lack of real social skills, communication and understanding in how to form relationships outside of an easy way to communicate such as through cell phones, computers, video games. 
I would like to counter argue that although this may be different from the way that people communicated 50 years ago, could this not just be the NEW reality? And that although some might believe that a person behind a computer screen might seem a little bit more outspoken, crazy, weird, promiscuous, you name it, more so than that they would be in human contact, I would like to say that this potentially just a different way to communicate.


I think that it is naive for people to think as society and culture is developing through technology more and more then it is also losing its ability to do other things. This is the simple matter of change. As things develop to communicate faster and more efficient other things will become non-existent. Before phones people wrote letters to each other which took a lot of time and thought and it was a lot different than a conversation in person. Then when the development of the phone came along, letters slowly become less of the preferred way to get the message across. We move to email and writing came back. You could argue that writing is a lot more person than a conversation through a wire, but then again isn't hearing the persons voice and not giving them the time to think or erase what they are saying more of a reality?? Then we get into social media and the construction of a version of yourself. A facebook page only shows people what that person wants them to see of themselves. These are all things to think about not as good or bad, but just as how our society is changing. Change is always hard but development in anything is inevitable. Work, jobs, what we strive for is always the answer, the truth, the fact, and the want for more, and better, quicker, stronger, more efficient. Instead of the human nature of ourselves wanting and striving for this being a bad thing or leading to the end of our development we need to look at it from a different angle and say that with this passion being innate within most of us, so does the development and way we act, and look at society change.


 I think that also an example of this would be when people claim that young people or generations of this age no longer know how to research because it is simply all there on google and you could get to information in a mater of seconds. I like to look at it in the way that, it is the new way to research. We have grown up with a lot of information at our finger tips, and things called computers that never would have been a reality for every college student to own 50 years ago. Therefore the possibility to have information at your fingertips in the matter of seconds was not a reality. Now a days papers and tests and ways to research may have a lot more ways to get it done, but I would like to argue that our papers, assignments reading, are also a lot more in depth than probably the assignments of our grandparents when they were in school based on this as well. I had a teacher in one of my previous semesters who established that there needs to be a developing way to teach and help students discover through sites such as wikipedia and still be able to create their own opinion. I would argue that way our society works in it's rapid developing digital world in some ways challenges people to be even more creative and independent than before, because there are so many things that already exist.


Finally to go back to my first example that lead me to think about this rhetoric is the digital nation in things such as second life and virtual realities. The problem many in society panic about with this topic is the addiction virtual worlds generate for players. The fact that fantasy becomes more fun, more time spent and more of a reality than real life is a concept that is hard for many to understand who don't play or who have never experienced gaming of this nature. I thought it was crazy when I heard that people trade real money for 'fake' prostitutes in games such as these. You can have virtual sex with someone and feel as though it is a real romantic relationship. The fact that this world allows people to escape reality seems to be that case, but  this changing and developing game  in another opinion opens doors for many who may not be satisfied with the life they have, and although doing many real things in the virtual world such as jobs, overcoming dilemmas, forming and developing relationships etc. The distinction for many people who live in a ‘second life’ and reality, doesn’t always exist, and in some cases the virtual world seems truer than not. The time spent in virtual space on real life occurrences overrides time spent in the ‘real’ world. This might seem like something that is hard for us to swallow at this point and is leading to people to not be able to have real social skills, but if they have them in a game than couldn't we just view it as a different kind of social skill? Why do we have to look at it as strange like everything else before it becomes reinforced to the point of tolerance and acceptance in society. My reality is the life I live, but in a virtual world, that allows participation in unimaginable things, and the choice to do really anything without the consequences a real society encompasses, the ‘made up’ reality seems like a better alternative. And this realization has really challenged me to think that technology is definitely not leading to anything bad, besides a new reality.