Technology comes with responsibilities
April 3, 2008
By: Min Qiao <mqiao@hilite.org>
Last week, my English class spent an entire period in the media center researching for our research paper. However, as the period wore on, I found that most, if not all, students were seated in front of a computer. In a library full books, encyclopedias, almanacs, magazines, and newspapers, most students passed the bookshelves without a glance and moved directly on to Google. In an age of ever-advancing technology, the Internet has become a crucial staple in many of our lives.
In fact, today, most of us would be entirely lost without our Internet connection. In just one click we can find the answer to virtually any question over any subject we desire. For many of us, the main attraction of the Internet is its convenience. Students and adults alike would much rather look up information instantaneously rather than flip through dozens of books. Most of us would rather gaze at the vividly colored Web pages containing the information we need as opposed to the dull black-and-white lines found in a book or a newspaper. All of these online resources just made flipping through the books, well, silly.
According to Wired magazine, The Des Moines Area Community College sure seemed to agree with this sentiment. Its West Des Moines campus just opened last fall—without a library. Instead, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books, online journals and audio-visual materials—but no books.
There is no denying the revolutionary effect of the Internet and technology. A recent survey released last month by We Media / Zogby Interactive shows that more than half of Americans primarily use the Internet for news and information. Even our Carmel Clay Schools have begun to take advantage of this growing influence of Internet. As shown by another study conducted by the National School Public Relations Association, 10 years ago, most people’s impression of a school was its physical appearance. Now, the research shows that the first impression of a school is its Web site. With this new perception of the school, comes the responsibility of a better Web site. And beginning this year, Carmel Clay Schools have shifted to a unified layout for all the Web sites in the school district to better promote this “online look.”
While few can deny the benefits of this technology, this growing attachment to the Web has led to an increasing wariness of our society’s addiction to the Internet. The wealth of information that is available at our fingertips has caused many to neglect the rest of our resources. Students have become lazy. In the days of spending time at the library looking for resources, writing info on cards, one had to work to get information. It may have been tedious, but it certainly caused the information to sink in more deeply. The process of knowing how to find resources was also valuable. Today’s student spends very little actual time finding resources or checking to make sure the resources are good ones.
As I sat down to work on my research paper last week, I found myself falling into this trap, sitting among the “lazy” students. After all, there are numerous online databases, online magazines, online newspapers, online encyclopedias and millions of online articles. All this increased popularity and availability of the Internet just contributes to this on-going debate about our society’s dependence on the technology and the Web.
For an increasing amount of people, this technologization of our culture is a great concern. This neglect of the old-fashioned books and newspapers presents a certain level of resentment toward the Internet for steering us away from our traditional resources. Certainly, this new paper-free campus promoted by The Des Moines Area Community College brings up questions about the quality of information on the Internet, plagiarism and simply our complete dependence on technology.
But is it really the technology and the Internet that’s the problem? It seems that our sole dependence on the Internet cannot be caused by the availability of the Internet, but rather the abuse and excessive use of this technology. And like the misuse of anything else, the consequences are not pretty. As long as people can keep that in mind and use the Internet responsibly, the Web can be an excellent and resourceful tool.
As for the technologication of our generation, I would say that we are far from it. In many aspects, we are still very much a “book society” that has an additional resource in form of the Internet. While many of us might find the Internet a quick path in the quest for information, most of us would still prefer the paper over the screen. We would still rather read a printed version of the text than to subject our eyes to following the words on a screen. Not to mention, most of us would prefer the ease of carrying sheets of paper and the convenience of referencing the documents at any time.
The Internet is here to stay and we have to learn how to adapt to it. The abuse of the Internet is certainly a problem but it is a problem that stems from people, not the technology. We don’t need to go back to the “old days,” but we do need to learn to use this great resource responsibly. Most importantly, we need to keep in mind that books and encyclopedias are reliable resources as well. Min Qiao is a reporter for the HiLite. Contact her at mqiao@hilite.org.
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