The Flight From Conversation and Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance

Technological innovations are evolving so quickly that society is having a difficult time reflecting on how to use these tools efficiently and with purpose.  This is the reason for the daunting dilemma Turkle describes.  Although not the first smartphone, the iPhone was launched in 2007, a little over 10 years ago.  A decade ago, we were introduced to this powerful device that fits in the palm of our hand.  Did we understand the possible ramifications of this tool?  We have been enamored by the small, lighted screen.  The invention is being used for communicating, yet we are missing the meaningful conversations we had in the past.  It has affected families, friends, and colleagues; our relationships have become superficial, and we have become shallow as we share only the best parts of ourselves (experiences and pictures) that lack depth and reflection as we post this information on social media. Sites.  Although we have 100s and 1000s of “friends,” we are lonely due to connecting to the disconnectedness of our culture.

Does Social Media Make You Unhappy?

It doesn’t have to be this way.  We can have the deepest and most important of all tasks to undertake with the help of digital devises and social media.  Create the purpose and let the tools guide you to explore the possibilities that were not available 11 years ago.  Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist from Kansas State University, had similar concerns about smart phones.  He discovered students were disengaged with their classes.  Only half read the required articles for class and only a quarter found them interesting.  Wesch feels questions, the basis for stimulating discussions, are not being asked.  Thought-provoking questions require higher order metacognitive skills, and good questions are usually answered with more good questions.  Postman and Weingartner, through Wesch, argue that “the environment (or medium) of learning is more important than the content (the message), and therefore teachers should begin paying more attention to the learning environment they help to create.” 

To motivate students, Wesch worked towards creating a more interactive space by having students connect using various social media sites; this generated interest, but it was not the reason for learning.  As we move towards a global society, our interconnectedness will be the key to a healthy, peaceful planet, and how will we do this?  Wesch gave statistics of the tremendous progress we have made with technology, and along with this growth, has been unparalleled global inequality.  Students were required to work together to develop solutions to these problems.  Students became aware of their abilities to make positive changes globally and took ownership of the mission.   Wesch doesn’t claim to know the answers and looks at the assignment as a quest.  The technology becomes the tool to assist in generating research and meaningful communication.  It was the project that guided the technology.  Projects, similar to Wesch’s, will encourage meaningful dialogue and conversations that have been missing, especially in academic environments.