A Chalk-Free School Zone Along the Information Highway

When friends and family ask me what my college experiences have been like lately , I often find myself falling to the ground and breaking down soap-opera style. No seriously, I find myself often repeating that students appear “a lot smarter” or just more technologically advanced today than the early '90's.  Students today are wired differently because of what they have been exposed to technologically since they were born. 
When I attended college back in the 90’s, I remember using the card catalog in the library, printing on a dot matrix printer and never accessing the Internet. From Chalk Board to Virtual Black Board. And throwing daily tantrums because getting anything done (ie. paying tuition in the Bursar's Office) via customer service usually ended in defeat.  Email was pretty non-existent and classes were pretty linear where homework and tests were still given on paper. Can you say Scantron? The bulk on my news came from purchased newspapers at stands and the majority of my distant correspondence was done via telephone or, believe it or not, “snail mail”.

The Internet has greatly impacted my life positively and has forced me into thinking differently in how I perform everyday tasks. It has also become more scholastically challenging especially for someone who experienced college before the birth of the “information superhighway”.  Today, the majority of my communication is done via email, I organize my daily family life every morning by referring to a digital to-do list that I use (thanks to backpackit.com) and the majority of what I read is read online via a news aggregator that is automatically dumped into a folder in my browser.

I don’t fear the future of technology. I embrace it. Every which way I can.  I am not one of those people who believe that the Internet is making the youth of America socially awkward due to a lack of one on one interaction with each other. In fact, I believe that the Internet has opened a massive gateway for all of us to expand our abilities to communicate with people we never would have had the chance to twenty years ago.  It may decrease our close relationships with friends while drastically increasing the number of people that we can reach on a daily basis.  Before email, that was impossible.

It's globalization at its finest.

Comments

[Mark Dykeman]

I sure wish I'd had the advantages of today's technologies in the late 80's/early 90's when I was in university. Man, I didn't have a PC back then, I had a freaking TYPEWRITER!

[meleah rebeccah]

I LOVE the internet and the information superhighway. I live for new technology.

[Lisa McGlaun]

I also think that today's youth are socially inept and have no idea how to communicate without a keyboard. I watch my son and it's sad.

And I see the up side..like knowing that you exist and reading the glimspes you share of youself.

Things are always changing, moving away from what they were. Have a great time with college. I appauld you for going back. Maybe I'll follow your example.

Peace,
Lisa

[Mark Dykeman]

Hope you had a happy birthday!

[I eat Snowman Poop]

wow you're old...lol just kidding

Really don't kill me I was kidding

[Chris Lee]

In my tribe we communicate with drum and base. Happy Birthday sugah.

[i eat snowman poop]

Just checking in... how's it goin

[i eat snowman poop]

Just checking in... how's it goin

[Kali]

Thanks for asking. I graduate in five days! And then for the following five, I will be inebriated..LOL

[Robert]

Wow, Kali! This would make a great book!

Signed,

Hot & Humid in Brooklyn