Subscribe“It’s a new world, Golde…”
You can now follow the Maccabi World Union on Facebook.
The Maccabi games — a week of athletic competitions and social events for Jewish teens from around the world — will be held Sunday, Aug. 1-Friday, Aug. 6, in Richmond, Va., and Sunday, Aug. 8-Friday, Aug. 13, in Baltimore, Md.
So what makes this a “new world?” Pardon me while I get on my soapbox. Better yet, read this piece from the New York Times’ Week in Review section from Jan. 1o, “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s.”
My daughter is in her mid-teens. She baby sits for a couple of kids a few doors down, ages 10 and five. It’s frightening to think that the technological divide — with its sociological ramifications — between my daughter and me will be the same as between her and those kids.
A couple of lines from the Times’ piece:
My friend’s 3-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction.
And
Dr. Rosen said that the newest generations, unlike their older peers, will expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and won’t have the patience for anything less.
“They’ll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone, because after all, that is the experience they have growing up,” he said. “They should be just like their older brothers and sisters, but they are not.”
Why do I bring all this up? Facebook. And Twitter (see yesterday’s piece on the campaign to get Omri Casspi into the All-Star game). And how often do we now read or hear about athletes who twitter, even during games?
It’s great that such tools are available to bring people together. Yet they can also keep us apart. Go figure.
Somewhat scary commentary, but pretty true, the “technological divide” is pretty amazing, even among people relatively close in age. And to think, I was excited when I got a VCR as a kid.
The technology brings lots of benefits, but we also lose a lot. Social interaction is increasingly being stunted and, as the piece noted, kids expect instantaneous gratification. And, there is no doubt in my mind that the new technology is having a deleterious effect on thinking and communicating. Just read the comments posted on-line for anything.