The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized

For some time now I've been something of a discontent when it comes to computers. I use them all the time, but I'm worried that they manipulate and alter my relationships, perceptions and experiences. I don't read as much, and when I go for my regular walks, they feel more like a reprieve than they used to. Moreover, I'm not sure that blogging and so forth doesn't teach computer users to consume information as soundbites, and see every dispute in pithy black and white terms. Therefore, let me say that I am neither "for" or "against" computers. But, I am troubled by how uncritically they have been applied to all aspects of our lives, and I wonder about what they have replaced.

For example, are we starting to encounter the first generation to come of age after the death of curiousity?

Lowell Monke, in an article that is nothing short of a tour de force, notes the startling fact that "recent research, including a University of Munich study of 174,000 students in thirty-one countries, indicates that students who frequently use computers perform worse academically than those who use them rarely or not at all."

And actually this makes sense. Computers put the world at your fingertips, but they also replace quite a bit of the searching, wandering, exploring and erring that constitutes being in the world. In a sure-to-be-contentious observation, Monke notes that "the power of computers can lead children into deadened, alienated, and manipulative relationships with the world, that children's increasingly pervasive use of computers jeopardizes their ability to belong fully to human and biological communities—ultimately jeopardizing the communities themselves."

The line is startling because "deadened relationships with the world" rings so true that the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That's exactly what I'm encountering in my teaching, but also in people my age, including more than a few colleagues. Ballard talks about "the death of affect", but is "the death of curiousity" really its evil twin?

More importantly, will the next cultural revolution be one against computers? Is it time for us to "Turn off, Tune out, and Drop In"?