Earlier this month, I bought a new telephone. It's smart. Well, it's not really smart. But it can do a lot of things. My phone can do many things that it seems smart...but phones are not smart. People are.
In trying to decide whether to get this "smart phone" or not, I talked for a long time with the man in the store. He, too, raised several children without a television and he understood my concerns about "getting sucked into my phone". In fact, he told me that many people come back into the phone store after owning their phones for a month to say that they do not know how to pull themselves away, that their telephones are taking over their lives. That is not smart. It is sad.
Technology is useful as it teaches us and as it connects us. When technology makes us less human and more robotic, it becomes dangerous.
Students - you can see that I feel strongly about this idea. What do you feel strongly about? What worries you or makes you think, "Something is wrong here." It is important that we think and speak about our thoughts and concerns...this is what makes a difference in our world. You are smart. Speak up.
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"...phones are not smart. People are."
ReplyDeleteThis sounds just like my frequent reminder to my students (and myself) that the computer is only as smart as the user.