August | 2014 | Isabella Radwan

a software system allowing extensive cross-referencing between related sections of text and associated graphic material. What does that mean for me? I can find things easier, what does that mean for you? You can find me easier, but is this good….

One of my readings pointed to the future saying something along the lines of in the future all texts will have links to eachother. I guess this could be simplified as cross referencing. My teacher added in class saying that we have become really good at looking things up, but not so good at knowing things by heart. For example my phone number took me ages to remember because I’ve had so many numbers I didn’t think this one was going to last, but more importantly because my phone number was so easily accessible on my phone. I didn’t need to know it.

But what if in the future we all become a generation of robots who don’t know how to interact with each other because we’ve adapted to this new wave of coding. I know coding is not something I’m at all necessarily good at. When I was assessed to code a website I had no idea what I was doing which leads me to my next point of interest..

We may ‘think’ we know technology but do we really? My lecturer insisted that we need to actually know how to use technology not just in keeping our Facebook profiles up to date but in the template itself, the design, the structure. Because without such, we’re not really in control of what we’re doing. He used the example of getting your motor fixed in your car. You go to the mechanic and he tells you what’s wrong with it. You just believe him, because he would know better. The counter argument is of course well no one really knows how a printer works. I don’t believe that lie because printers are manual, and everyone says well books were frowned upon, but books are manual!

Time for a pun…there is no manual for how to use the internet! There is a difference between the internet and technology. Look:

The internet:

a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.

Now wait till we get to technology, we’ve got

a) the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.

b)machinery and devices developed from scientific knowledge.

c)the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences.

Personally I’m not satisfied with any of these definitions. Just the fact that Google definitions couldn’t choose just one definition shows they haven’t got it figured out yet. Technology is ever changing and ever creating, so how do we define such a broad thing. Well I’d say technology is communication WHOA did she just say that? Uh yeah. Technology is social, let’s face it texting only became popular when the tech nerds found out teenage girls in China and South Australia were texting allot, so they realised it was something marketable. So we see that technological determinism is a saying I really dislike because it’s not robots that are in control of this world it’s us. The only thing between us and the technology is the remote control, yus, the technology is in our hands.

Bye bye

Moving on from ‘what is a story?’ my lectures have now come to explore literacy. A broad meaning of the sense I gathered from my lecture was as…. wait let me give you an example:

“She is so illiterate.”

“I know she can’t even buy a coffee.”

It’s a language

For example when a student is quite good at English at school, he may be asked to study literature as something that could further his understanding of English as a language.

So where do books come into this? Well apparently before print books were for content. It wasn’t until print came along that books became a device for exploring characters’s motivations and emotions.

So why do we find technology to be this big scary device? If in the course of history books were hardly a fifth of, why is it seen that books still and always will rule the world?

personally, I love books shhh but that doesn’t make me a genius. Perhaps more morale in sustaining my vision, however life at the, well ‘institute of technology’ has obviously made me atleast a bit more tech savy. I’ve come to be more fascinated with the politics of the internet, and who controls the content and voices that get seen and heard.

Rant over.

Isabella Radwan

Monthly Archives: August 2014

The Hypertext

Literacy

Wiki Commons hmm