Everybody’s Doing It (Or Getting Others To Do It For Them)

During a recent interview with the New York Times, John McCain says the following about his use of the Internet:

I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.

It doesn’t get any better for McCain in this exchange between Mark Soohoo, one of his eCampaign directors, and Tracy Russo of the Edwards campaign about how important it is for the next president to understand the Internet:

As you can imagine, McCain’s lack of web 2.0 skills (and web 1.0 skills, come to think of it) have been the subject of abundant jokes, criticism, and general disbelief. An account of the New York Times story has received almost 1,500 diggs and the quote has spawned parody blog posts about McCain’s Internet explorations.

After learning that McCain depends on his wife and advisors to help him go online to read newspapers, the following words on McCain’s campaign site seem somewhat empty to me:

John McCain believes the Internet offers tremendous promise in terms of freedom of expression, information sharing, and the spread of knowledge and commerce. It represents the greatest innovation of the modern era in terms of the democratization of free speech and access to information. From human rights groups in China to bloggers here in the United States, the Internet has opened a global dialogue that has propelled the world into an exciting new century of connectivity and communication.

And what should we make of McCain’s Facebook page, MySpace page, and YouTube channel? When a presidential candidate who doesn’t email and can’t figure out how to go online is using social networking sites and viral videos as part of his campaign strategy, it’s clear that social media has become one of campaigning’s required tools. It’s now as obligatory as press conferences, press releases, and those annoying recorded phone calls at dinnertime. Gone are the days when we’ll marvel as a presidential candidate like Howard Dean who harnessed the power of the Internet to conduct fundraising and who benefited from his supporters’ online organizing. Now everybody’s doing it (that’s not to say they’re all doing it equally well, as ATW and Mknac point out).

In a Washington Post op-ed last winter, my instructor expressed his serious dismay at politicians’ lack of technology literacy. He asked:

…why is it that we blithely allow our leaders to be ignorant of the force that, probably more than any other, will drive and define the nation’s economic success and reshape its society over the next 20 years?

I don’t have the answer to his question, but I wonder whether time will be the main factor in ensuring that we have technologically literate politicians. We may just have to wait until our digital natives are all grown up. After all, McCain’s daughter has a blog.

How Much Technology is Too Much?

My classmate, Shannon, recently blogged about internet safety, including online bullying that has led to the suicides of at least three teens. Almost 30 percent of tweens and teens have reported being the victims of cyberbullying. Shannon also wrote about the growing occurrence of online gaming addictions.

This got me thinking about the other consequences of living in a time of technology saturation. When I think back to my childhood, most of my memories aren’t of me pecking away at a laptop, chatting or texting friends, or playing video games. They’re of me running around barefoot in the backyard, riding bikes with my sister through the neighborhood, playing street hockey in front of our house, reading books under (or in) a tree, and playing dress up in my mom’s old clothes.

Are kids today missing out? How much technology is too much technology?

It’s no secret that we have a childhood obesity epidemic. The rate of obesity in kids ages 6 to 19 has more than tripled over the last 25 years and one in three U.S. kids is overweight or obese. A recent study revealed that by age 15 a majority of teens are moving less than one hour each weekday. It’s so bad that the American Academy of Pediatrics has raised the possibility of drug treatment to lower cholesterol levels in kids as young as 8 years old.

I’m not pointing the finger solely at technology. I realize it’s just one of many contributing and interconnected factors that play into the childhood obesity problem. But there’s no question it’s a factor, and this dilemma is one that our society needs to solve soon.

I also wonder what other, perhaps less ominous, consequences pervasive technology might have on children and on our society in general… A website tracks some of the skills, like dialing a rotary phone, that technology has rendered obsolete. Will writing with a pen someday make it to that list? Do kids today even know what a phone booth looks like? Are kids’ diaries with those little locks and keys even made anymore? And what about books? My classmate, ATW, blogged about reading her first novel on her Kindle; she says she’s “hooked.”

What struck me was her following description:

I was sitting on the plane and struggled to resist the urge to physically turn the page. I honestly kept lifting my right hand to the top right hand corner of the device.

As weird as it may seem, I don’t know if I’m ready to give that up! I love the smell of books, turning down the page corners to mark my place, and the sight of books of all shapes and sizes lined up on my bookshelves.

Technology helps us accomplish great things, but I hope some things like books, newspapers, and kids playing outside, manage to stand the test of time.