I just finished reading "The Dumbest Generation: How Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future", written by M. Bauerlein. Pretty catchy, and somehow it explains how such things will shape America to stay put as a main front in science and technology. Put into a simple acid test; answering the very foundation of the question;
1 -Are smart technologies making us stupid?
2- Well, remember when technology was supposed to make us smarter?
The way Bauerlein (the author) sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America's youth (and from my perspective - with our Malaysian youth as well) with the arrival of the instant go-go-go (touch and go ..heh..heh..heh) digital age. The result is, a collective loss of context and history. Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America's youth (and again, from my point - our youth) know virtually nothing about history and politics (unless bad politics in our major mainstreams). One point stands - such typical digital exposures normally produced a culture of people; more agile with images but lesser critical thinking (not to mention the lateral ones), and under-utilized cognitive ability. He argues that the critical reasoning requires the slow digestion of complex ideas, but normally in the digital age society - especially our youth - things are opposite of what we need.
My 2-cents opinion ~ At fault is not just technology but also a newly indulgent attitude among all of us. It is pretty silly to simply point fingers to our youth, since our culture is eventually shaping the way they will be. Technology will be just a simple technology, aiming to improve the quality of our life. The most important part is - we must understand the way young people engage with information and the obstacles they face in integrating any of it meaningfully. These are insights that all of us ignore at their peril. Pretty sad to see how our graduates are having this kind of "intellect" to be shared with our society. They know more about AF (Akademi Fantasia) rather than the recent works in their field. Producing stupidity? ohh my God, i am allergic to that. :-)
Pakcik said: There really is only one reason. Education. While we are aiming for numbers, we decrease the quality. I came across one of the groups in my class before, they just simply copied ALL contents from the net, and pledged it as their assignment. and as simple as that, they got an awesome grade F for what they did ( hmm, i did warn them, no plagiarism). What a mess! Not to mention when asked them to write fancy computer codes....(you have to double check their works with many sources).. well the Internet has left them in despaired. - a blessing and a curse. The deadly cocktail for their future. Jobless? These lots will not have a single chance out there.
1 -Are smart technologies making us stupid?
2- Well, remember when technology was supposed to make us smarter?
The way Bauerlein (the author) sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America's youth (and from my perspective - with our Malaysian youth as well) with the arrival of the instant go-go-go (touch and go ..heh..heh..heh) digital age. The result is, a collective loss of context and history. Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America's youth (and again, from my point - our youth) know virtually nothing about history and politics (unless bad politics in our major mainstreams). One point stands - such typical digital exposures normally produced a culture of people; more agile with images but lesser critical thinking (not to mention the lateral ones), and under-utilized cognitive ability. He argues that the critical reasoning requires the slow digestion of complex ideas, but normally in the digital age society - especially our youth - things are opposite of what we need.
My 2-cents opinion ~ At fault is not just technology but also a newly indulgent attitude among all of us. It is pretty silly to simply point fingers to our youth, since our culture is eventually shaping the way they will be. Technology will be just a simple technology, aiming to improve the quality of our life. The most important part is - we must understand the way young people engage with information and the obstacles they face in integrating any of it meaningfully. These are insights that all of us ignore at their peril. Pretty sad to see how our graduates are having this kind of "intellect" to be shared with our society. They know more about AF (Akademi Fantasia) rather than the recent works in their field. Producing stupidity? ohh my God, i am allergic to that. :-)
Pakcik said: There really is only one reason. Education. While we are aiming for numbers, we decrease the quality. I came across one of the groups in my class before, they just simply copied ALL contents from the net, and pledged it as their assignment. and as simple as that, they got an awesome grade F for what they did ( hmm, i did warn them, no plagiarism). What a mess! Not to mention when asked them to write fancy computer codes....(you have to double check their works with many sources).. well the Internet has left them in despaired. - a blessing and a curse. The deadly cocktail for their future. Jobless? These lots will not have a single chance out there.
22 comments:
hej! azizi...my 2-pence opinion...technology is just for the people who are specifically involved in the field, i mean the specialists/experts, and i don't think that ordinary people are into those technology, i mean into the real technology behind the 'technology' ...what general people do just use the technology (gadget) and just have a shallow knowledge on the gadget...at the end we just call them user only...and technology too made people to be more introvert, confined into four walls of their world...less face-to-face communication...arrrgghh..technology just makes the world around you shrinking...hehehehe...
and technology also is one of the main reason for increasing cardiovascular disease..people are having sedentary lifestyle, more stress and etc..hehehehee
ohh..our student are more keen to know bout Mawi rather than the patogenesis of fever, they want to think how they can be succesful artist rather than discovering their talent and intelligence to be a doctor..sorry to say but the fact that Most of the younger Malay generation are like that :(
Fakta yang menyedihkan :(
and my 2-crown opinion : kalau nk memotong, kenalah tgk belakang thru side mirror. so do attitude, people won't change until they take a look how much does our predecessor paid for the so called ketamadunan sekarang and how 'hard' we are at demolishing it.
Irony, how the dumbest generation is found at the most advanced era.
Takut nak bagi comment... sebab semua comment kat atas panjang-panjaaaaaaang.
I guess knowledge cannot be delivered (and received) as knowledge alone, it got to be a package packed together with virtue, value and ethics. Sadly, technologies deliver 'pleasure' in most occasion.
Yup,
Teknologi menjadikan manusia semakin malas, bodoh?
Mungkin ya, mungkin tidak...
teringat dulu zaman sekolah dulu, no telefon kawan-kawan semua hafal dalam kepala je, adala dekat 100 no lebih kurang, tapi sekarang, kalau handset hilang...
Zaman dulu, lepas je solat asar, terus capai kasut, keluar dan main macam-macam permainan, selipar tiga, konda kondi, guli, bola chap, rounders, galah panjang, kejar-kejar, lumba basikal, main perang n macam-macam lagi...
Zaman sekarang, nampaknya ramai lebih minat berminat melayan ps/2, x-box, astro dari menghitamkan kulit diluar rumah...
Zaman dulu, masuk kelas, buku nota mesti ada, salin tak salin no 2, yang penting semangat nak ambik nota mesti ada...
Zaman sekarang, semuanya powerpoint slide, ada satu thumb drive, selesai semua masalah...
Kelebihan teknologi, tiada siapa yang dapat pertikai, tapi...tapi...tapi....
Risau juga, satu masa nanti manusia akan jadi gemuk dan malas, macam dalam cerita wall e tuh, argghh tidakk....
technology only "makes us stupid" if you completely rely on technology to do the work/thinking for you.
well, not to say only our youngsters keen to the tv programme such as "Akademi Fantasia", it also attract our "makcik & pakcik" to cry together ok.....;-)
danialma --> yup, sometimes those gadgets practically useful when it is fully utilized.
let me see....... what on earth the iPhone has shaped you :-)
inah --> mental degradation is a common problem. but one needs to balance and sort out the priorities. pretty funny how our teens these days. they are living in a very complex world.
lynawan --> wise man says - mind is like a parachute, it works when it is opened. lesser we are using it, lesser we are utilizing it.
josh --> those values we are missing now. sometimes it makes us less human.
m.hisham --> ingat zaman belajar dulu, semua atas usaha yg gigih. cari nota sana sini...... library sampai tak cukup buku..... tp sekrg, internet sepatutnya membuatkan ilmu berkembang, minda bergerak, tp pelajar kita? ...... susah nak cakap.
mazdaud --> heh...heh...heh no harm in relying things work for you, but one should learn how it works, and challenge it. .... ;-)
Hi Azizi, my friend Henry (well he is an 83yrs old botanist) doesn't have and doesn't want to have internet access, goes to the library every Wednesday morning to check out the new book arrivals.He tells me the walk keeps him healthy, the smiles he receives along the way keeps him happy and the short conversations with the gardeners,students,librarians what have you keeps him intouch with the `living' world..just my 1 kiwi cent opinion...
Alamak!Dumbest generation?takutnya...Nauzubillah...tapi tulah jadinya kalau dah senang nak senag lagi kan azizi?(plagiat n so on...)
*Yg tak pernah minat AF...*hehehe
win --> he is enjoying his life. the nice way. and welcome to this blog ;-)
r.salju --> yup, itu mungkin terjadi. "dumbest generation" tu utk catchy je, tp hakikat bagaimana pemikir masa depan boleh dihasilkan kalau begini caranya pelapis berfikir :-)
macambest je buku tu azizi...ada jual kat msia ke?? hehe
Encik Azizi,
for me it depends on how u make use of it - use it in positive way --> +ve lah jadinya, vice versa..
(hmm, cant help myself from admitting that technology makes our life easier)
contoh mudah.. kalkulator..
kalau dulu masa muda2 congak jer .. skrg sikit2 tekan calculator.. otak dah karat.. x exercise..
The majority is allowing technology to "babysit" our lives now. I do believe it can make us lazy but I'm not sure it's making us dumber since technology makes information is at fingertips and knowledge is gained daily....
nbc --> ya betul pn Noraziah. rasanya byk perkara ni kita malas nak fikir panjang. guna apa yg ada. paling teruk - copy n paste (ctrl C ctrl V syndrome) lepas tu submit assignments. :-)
arep --> itu nama mental deterioration. sy pun sama .....
sikit2 nak pakai calculator. my mum punya maths lagi power ooo...
hafizoh --> "easy to get" sometimes makes us think less. albeit our mind needs to be nourished and trained. :-)
eq --> tak pasti pulak. ni pun sy pinjam dengan sorg prof kat sini. ;-)
from my experience, in my time when u want to make GUI using JAVA, u hv to write a code for every single button, txt field n everything.. but now with the advancement of technology, u jz drag-and-drop the button from the toolbox (NetBeans)... the conclusion are; students can make a program like touch-and-go, really fast.. but they dont know what they were doing (komputer je yg tau).. so Pokcik, what say you?
apit --> students should be exposed to a traditional way to do works. it is important for them to understand the basic part of it.
1+1=2, x+y=z ... later, you can proceed for a fancy calculus later.
salam from qatar... lompat2 blog terlompat kat blog u ni.. menerik singguh penceritaannya.. keep writing... will visit it often
sharm
whitelighter --> welcome! ...
Post a Comment