Social Web and Technology: Moving Humans Into Uncharted Territory
The internet has changed the way humans interact with each other in every way. It has helped shape an entire generation of social interactions as well as helped people learn in ways that were not possible before. Within these interactions, the very roots of society are created. S these interactions have changed media and shape, the preferences and habits of socialization have changed as well. As a technology, social web has given people the ability to connect with other people and places that were at one time inaccessible. It also gives people unfettered access to information through first hand reports and stories. This access to information on a global scale is also changing the way socialization occurs.
Human beings have always had a certain access to information, whether within a small group or over technologies like TV, radio, or printed media. The capacity to process and digest this information and to make sense of it was often limited by both human brain capacity as well as the ability of the technology to share information, that is to say the technological limitations of the technology itself. As social web has come into existence, the tendency for technology to be limited in its scope and scale of information delivery has slowly diminished, leaving the human brain's capacity to process this information as the limiting factor of the technology.
Beyond limiting information, the human capacity for social interaction is also a limiting factor of new technologies as well. Currently, social web is a huge segment of the new media technologies that have presented themselves online and elsewhere. However, since humans have traditionally interacted in small to medium sized groups; it is difficult to really ascertain the effects that will befall humanity when technology allows people to communicate freely, regardless of location and distance restraints. This means that instead of only interacting with people locally, humans using the social web can now interact freely on a global scale. This technology has helped to open the floodgates relative to personal experiences and information.
For example, during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, people using social media like Facebook and Twitter were able to reliably report information from inside areas where no reporters were allowed. These same people were able to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and intentions to others around the globe, ushering in a new age of social media influence and identity. All of the gains in technology and social media connectivity have come with a price. This price is the decreased emphasis on personal privacy and a person's ability to critically digest the information they are receiving. The human brain has a specific capacity to understand and compute information as it comes to it. As technology becomes faster and more powerful, and people have increased access to more and more information, it will be exceedingly difficult for humans to make sense of this information overload, specifically using critical thought (Blossom, 2009).
Social web technology has given people convenient access huge amounts of information. But this access has also created a lack of context relative to where the information originates and how it is used. In the quest for faster access to this information, people's ability to truly digest and make sense of it as pieces of a larger picture has suffered. The ability to critically apply the information and skills that come from these applications is far more important than the information itself, and it seem as though these critical thinking and applications skills are becoming harder and harder to instill in a sea of pure information. If information cannot be properly utilized, within relevant context and in a realm that supports critical thinking, then the myth of information as a resource is dispelled. Capitalism and the push for ever increasing efficiency and speed have given value to resources and pools of information without placing any value or emphasis on how the information itself is vetted and synthesized.
This push for efficiency comes at a cost and as author Postman (2001) points out, technology has created a sort of hollow middle ground where the human need for information and the drive for ever-increasing efficiency has met. Postman states, "What does technology have to do with finding a profound reason for educating the young? Nothing. Indeed, if it were up to me, I would bar educators from talking about technical improvements until they have disclosed their reasons for offering an education in the first place. And such reasons are to be found in places where machines do not dwell and where gods of a different order speak their words." (Postman, 2001).
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