Technology Crisis

I had a funny moment recently where I felt like maybe games were not the right field to be in. There are so many social networking applications taking the Internet by storm that it seems easy for games to be lost in the mix. They've been around for millennia; why should anyone start noticing them again? While I see the emerging merit in them, it's difficult to be the champion of a new spin on an old trick. Games are powerful tools that can be used to express important concepts or thought-provoking messages. They have not always or often been used for this purpose, but the psychology behind games makes them perfect for it.

This is only a smaller portion of a larger contemplation on technology as a whole. It was interesting to listen to statistics about people in my generation that are younger than me. It made me realize that as technology develops and brings people together faster than ever before, culture also shifts at increasingly rapid speeds. I would never have imagined that children in elementary school would be carrying around cell phones and laptops. Even more so, I refuse to acknowledge that students need access to social networking tools like MySpace while at school. There is a fine line between resource and recreational tool in the technological world today, I recognize this. But it is a pretty clear line in some places.

So, I begin to wonder: at what point is that line going to be drawn on an official level? In their fear or lack of understanding, will teachers start letting their students use AIM and Facebook in the classroom? If either of these has become a part of intellectual conversation, one has to be a little afraid that the answer may be yes.

It's funny to listen to digital immigrants talk about technology and how they implement it. From the standpoint of a digital native, these actions come off as "poser" moves. Our generation is in many ways united against all other forces in the world. If someone comes across to us as hokey, we all know it and no one will accept them. If an older adult, like Ann or John Cohn, proves that they're up to snuff with technology, we accept them into the circle. But once you screw up, it's hard to shake off the resounding laughter you may receive from kids today. I wonder if they will ever truly accept the ways in which older individuals have started using Second Life, or if they'll just wait for some of their Gen Y peers to get into the working world and shake things up. The latter option seems far more likely to me.

There's that thought. Oh, how unbalanced the world is becoming...