Thursday, December 13, 2012
Digital Literacy
Digital literacy and how populations are using the Internet is a viable avenue for researchers in the future. Neuroscience and brain imaging are technologies that are advancing in a way that will allow the differences in our brain structures to be seen. However, I do believe there is another aspect at play regarding Internet use. How we use the Internet is directly tied to what we know how to do with our technology. Program useability and popularity go hand in hand. There would be a lot fewer users on Facebook if we had to write our own code to post a status update. And I have to say, I am pessimistic about the results of any studies regarding identity and Internet use until digital literacy levels are taken into consideration. However, growing numbers of digital natives may change literacy in a positive manner, creating a more equal playing ground. What will that mean for the future? "Hot Cheetos and Takis" was, I thought, an inspiring video showing a new, young generation of content creators who were able to use current technology to produce something relevant to their daily lives. Hopefully, there is more of that in the future.
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The label for the process by which technology drops its required skill level is "de-skilling", and Manuel Castells talks about it at length in his 2000 book The Rise of the Network Society.
ReplyDeleteThe big consequence of the continued de-skilling related to Internet technologies is an explosion of users, and with that explosion comes a greater diversity of applications- and a lot of them were not foreseen by the creators of those technologies.
As William Gibson wrote, pre-Internet, in Neuromancer, "The street finds its own uses for things." We should keep an eye out for more emergent behaviors in the days and years to come, as more people figure out novel ways to use this stuff.
For my part, I'm looking forward to the massive de-skilling of CNC milling and 3D printing so we can decentralize manufacturing back down to the household level (and eliminate censorship by governments and corporations) where it once was.