Technology: The Children of Cyberspace

[Exploring Life] Brad Stone’s NY Times article The Children of Cyberspace raises a number of poignant issues regarding our relationship with technology. Heralding in a new type of “generation” by some individual claiming “visionary” status seems like an all too common occurrence in mainstream media now. Apparently the so-called “Net Generation” is now giving way to a so-called “iGeneration.” Even though both of these generations are imaginary fodder, we still persist in reducing vast numbers of people to their technological avatar. It is as if McLuhan’s words have never been heard: “Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot.” There is no possibility of “immigrating” to a new (technological) “world” – there is no such thing as a “citizen” of the web – except, that is, in the minds of the delusional.

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”
- The Children of Cyberspace

How statements like this can be viewed as anything but less than credible is a mystery. What really is happening is a belief system is being manufactured under the guise of research and then promoted as a fact or reality. All it takes is for people to believe this to be true and it will be, whether it has any basis in reality or not. Worse, the proposal of intensifying so-called “generational difference” only serves to promote boundaries, borders, and walls based on age. This kind of thinking is not only delusional, it is divisive and superficial.

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world… And after my 4-year-old niece received the very hot Zhou-Zhou pet hamster for Christmas, I pointed out that the toy was essentially a robot, with some basic obstacle avoidance skills. She replied matter-of-factly: “It’s not a robot. It’s a pet… These mini-generation gaps are most visible in the communication and entertainment choices made by different age groups.”
- The Children of Cyberspace

What “generation” hasn’t had their own outlook and perspectives on the world around them? If that four-year actually equates the toy with being an actual pet then one can only assume an early onset of psychosis that requires attention. What is referred to as a “mini-generational gap” is really nothing more that a psychotic breakdown. Worse, have we become so shallow as human beings that we actually define “generations” of people according to the technology they use. Worse, are we saying that because the technology exists we are simply helpless victims of it? How much fatalism from the so-called media theorists must we endure?

Dr. Rosen said that the newest generations, unlike their older peers, will expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and won’t have the patience for anything less.
- The Children of Cyberspace

So our youth are going to demand more and more instant gratification and have less tolerance and patience for anything less. And all this because they are using a specific kind of technology? The implication behind this is clear: we as human beings are so incredibly stupid that we cannot even control the seduction of our technological tools? Are our minds so incredibly weak and ineffectual that we cannot seek higher standards of being? Are our addictive tendencies so overwhelming that they become our fate?

“They’ll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone, because after all, that is the experience they have growing up,” he said. “They should be just like their older brothers and sisters, but they are not.”
- The Children of Cyberspace

If they grow up in the proper environment, then NO they won’t “expect instantaneous access to everyone.”

Dr. Ito said that children who play these games would see less of a distinction between their online friends and real friends; virtually socializing might be just as fulfilling as a Friday night party…

That could give them the potential to be more creative than older generations…
- The Children of Cyberspace

Ahem – say what? They might be “more creative than older generations?” And this delusional creativity has some connection with the notion of replacing real social interaction with virtual social interaction? A conclusion like this is glaringly obvious fodder, yet here it is presented in the New York Times. There is no substance here.

Another bubbling intra-generational gap, as any modern parent knows, is that younger children tend to be ever more artful multitaskers.

Multitasking is nothing more than a form of distraction that leads to chronic mental fatigue. Multitasking is an illness not an ability; it is a sickness not a skill. Someone that is good at multitasking is an individual that suffers from an inability to concentration and focus.

Multitasking never happens; it is a delusion. The way many people talk about it creates the impression that it is something that actually exists. The human brain is a master of manufacturing beliefs that are utterly delusional.

One of the best moments in the article is:

“I worry that young people won’t be able to summon the capacity to focus and concentrate when they need to,” said Vicky Rideout, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which will release a sweeping survey on the technology and media habits of children and teenagers this month.

This is more than a worry to my thinking, it is a glaringly obvious reality. The fault is not with the technology; the fault is in our orientation to it. New technologies are often nothing more than an opportunity to embrace a new addiction. That is not to say that new technologies have nothing to offer us and we should not be using them. Avoidance is just as ridiculous and inept. But we need to be smarter. If new technologies are viewed as intensifying the already deeply ingrained habit of attention-deficit disorder, then the answer is to simply stop it – not the use of technology – the problems associated with it. Any response less than this is mere fatalism.

“If it’s something you grow up with, you have a completely different comfort with it than someone who has had to unlearn something about the world,” said Mr. Rainie, of the Pew project.
- The Children of Cyberspace

Nonsense. If an adult wishes to learn how to use a new technology then they will, and in the process “unlearn” or revise their perspective. We somehow delude ourselves into the notion that youth adopt more readily to new technologies than older generations – this is utter nonsense. I see youth doing trite and superficial things with new technologies all the time. And whose idea is this anyway? This idea that adults are somehow slower to embrace and adapt to technology? And why an I supposed to believe this is true? I have a different level of comfort with my iPod than most youth do simply because I know how to use it more effectively than they do.

The article concludes that the “generational gap” may or may not intensify, that is, assuming one exists in the first place. It is entirely possible these notions of new generations is a mere delusion that makes good fodder for a mainstream article, book, or consulting venture.

They will believe the Kindle is the same as a book. And they will all think their parents are hopelessly out of touch.
- The Children of Cyberspace

If youth come to believe this, then it is only a fault of poor parenting – nothing else.