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I came across this interview with Berners-Lee from BBC today- the creator of the first website. It got me thinking not just about how the web has changed, but also how people have changed because of the web. Can people be changed by one piece of technology in the space of 14 years? And to what extent are we better off?- as the interviewer so clearly keeps asking throughout the interview.
I'm not old enough to really talk about what life was like 'before' and 'after' because I'm a digital native (Prensky, 2001)- I essentially grew up with it. But for most people not much older than me, there is definitely a sense of 'before the web' and 'after the web'.
So have they actually been changed by it? In my humble opinion, there are those who use it to do the old things in new ways and those who use it to do new things in new ways. Those are the people who have actually been changed by it.
Let me illustrate with an example from my field: I teach interactive whiteboards. One of the features is a screen shade- you black out the screen and drag a handle to revel parts of the screen at a time. It always amuses me that the older teachers particularly 'Ooo' and 'Ahh' at this bizarrely simple, and I think useless feature. Until I realised that it looks exactly like the old overhead-projector-with-the-piece-of-paper-covering-up-text trick. The teachers want to do old things with new technologies- it's familiar and comfortable, but not new.
It's worth remembering, though, that a vast number of people still live in the 'before', either by choice or circumstance. We all know those that live in 'before' by choice- who refuse to set up an email account, use online banking, order their travel tickets or find out the movie session times online- usually our grandmothers, who can be forgiven because they are our grandmothers. But what about those people who live in the 'before the web' by circumstance? Whole nations and societies are still there, and it worries me that the already vast gap between rich and poor is driven even further apart by those that live 'before the web' and those that live 'after the web'.
References:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4132752.stm, 3.3.10
Prensky, M 2001 ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, On The Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5.
Hi Tracy.
ReplyDeleteI read through the article that was questioning Tim Berners-Lee. Personally, I think what Tim Berners-Lee did is amazing. Not only did he invent the internet (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/), but he made it free!
In my opinion he (Tim Berners-Lee) created a vehicle, a tool for people to use. Just like Henry Ford invented the motor vehicle, Henry Ford probably did not anticipate that people would use the motor vehicle to rob banks, to use recklessly on public roads or to use as a weapon. And I believe that Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the WWW for people to make various forms of porn available, or for people to use it to steel other peoples identity, or to cyber-bully others etc.
It's a shame that there is a lot of bad stuff on the internet, however the internet is an integral part of (my) life these days and won't be going away. For me, the internet has provided new and amazing career opportunities and I'm sure that there will be more to come.
I feel like I could go on and on about this topic but as it's late and I really need to go to bed as I have to work in the morning, I'm going to leave it here for now :-)
Thanks Tracy for blogging on such a great topic. I also like your point of view regarding the before and after the web.
Carl