literacy and technology

Literacy and technology

I have never created a blog before. I am fairly confident with a computer but I am not up to date on Web 2.0. I do not twitter. Being my first blog this has become as significant experience for me. I have a facebook page that I never use. I am really not that interesting of a person. I do not understand why anybody would want to read about my life. I am honestly not that interested in what my friends are doing right at this second. I think if they have an important life experience they will let me know about it. Inter-connectivity is great but for the most part I do not see the point. My attitude towards blogs and social networking sites is ambivalent at best and apathetic at worst. I think the majority of books printed are not worth reading. Take away the investment needed to print a book and you get a huge amount of garbage being written and held up for public consumption. I do not want to be misunderstood, I am not against this I just choose not to participate.

The internet when it is broken down is a way to share information. When it is used for this it is really significant and important. It has changed the way information is disseminated throughout the world. It has changed the way ideas and information is shared. It has made knowledge far more accessible to most people. It has also made the access to misinformation easier. There is very little accountability when it comes to the internet; this has led to abuse by immoral or ignorant people.

Will Web 2.0 have as profound an effect on the world as the internet? The upside of social networking sites are they have led to large scale public protests in places like Iran and China. The young disenfranchised people are able to communicate with huge numbers of people very easily. This has led to the sharing of ideas and ideals and makes organizing protests easy. This also includes the sharing of undesirable philosophies. Racism flourishes on the internet. Scams are everywhere. The internet has changed everything.

Technology is double edged. At first blush it would appear that the internet is very egalitarian. When looking deeper, access to the internet and technological literacy do exclude many from being able to access the information and share their ideas.

First post

trying to learn how to use this thing.