Michael Wesch

Today I watched Michael Wesch's video Toward A New Future Of Whatever. At first he started his speech by talking about the impact of technology on our culture. He stated that when the media changes then our conversations change. Which is very true, everyone molds to the new, cool, and "acceptable" idea. Everyone has to have the nice new technological device and everyone has to be a the new social network. He used the example of television. He stated that people think they have to be on the tv to be soemone. He talked a lot about MTV, when MTV first came it out was the cool thing and everyone wanted to watch MTV. He showed a clip of the Simpsons from 1992 where they stated they were "the MTV generation." Then a clip from 2001 where the kids are asked if they want to go out to "Block land" and their response was "Meh."

I feel that these two clips are very interesting and very true. I admit my generation is just like the "Meh" clip. We are more interested in tv and the internet than we are about going out to see nature and parks. I see it in my college classes now, people come to class and play on facebook the whole time, or text, or listen to iPods. Its like nothing can interest us anymore, nothing is quiet as stimulating as technology.

Another interesting thing he showed was a picture of a class who seemed uninterested and then a picture of American idol with excited people. This is very bad for future teachers. It is going to be harder to interest our students. We are basically going to have to sing, dance, and jump through fire to get them to pay attention to us. Yes, thats extreme but kids these days are only interested in video games and television. I see it now in kids as young and 3-5. It seems that every child 3 and up has some sort of portable game system, thanks to the parents who dont want to deal with them. I work at a department store and I cannot tell you how many times I see they kids dragging behind the parents quietly playing their Nintendo DS. Also, younger and younger kids are walking around with cell phones. Not just those phones designed for kids that only dial two numbers (their parents). No these kids are walking around with iPhones.

Overall technology has its pros and cons. Unfortunately for teachers it is going to be harder to keep their students stimulated in class without doing so with a new technological device. Before we know it the old fashioned way of teaching will be over.