Listening to the speakers this past Tuesday talk about the steep exponential curve in reference to the advancement of technology and to then hear them ask how many people don’t take part in technology has sparked an idea in my head. I have several friends that have really rejected new technology beyond a basic cellphone, their computers and music recording technology. Now my friends are definitely in their hippie musical artist phase of their life or perhaps that’s who they are, but i think that there are probably more people in the world just like them. These people may reject technology as a political statement in a way, as a response to the ever growing ability of new technology, or it may be that they never jumped on board to the steep learning curve and now are falling further and further behind. One of my friends in particular was never really introduced to new technology as a kid, meaning he never had cable or the Internet until very recently, and he still has dial up, even as a college student who has access to very fast Internet at school, and the most distinguishable fact about my friend Colin is that he never played video games. In fact he totally rejects them. So maybe because he was never introduced to accepting new technological advances, he has fallen behind and not been able to catch up to the new wave of convergence technology. Perhaps there is actually a whole section of my generation, which has been around for the most recent surge in technology but also around when almost no one had the Internet, that does not subscribe to technology like the rest of us. These people may be a conscientious objectors or they may be developmentally challenged, meaning they never started riding the wave of technology and it’s become way too difficult to hop on the wave while at the crest. Will these people ever catch on or will they forever be disconnected from the technology that is defining a generation? Are they the link to the previous generation and are those of us that utilize technology the link to generations after us?
February 28, 2008...7:12 pm
Learning Curve and those that reject it
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