A tweet led me to a post today at Rethinking Technological Literacy — Campus Technology. Mary Grush writes:
Turkle introduced attendees to her concept of “technology as the architect of self”–that even as we shape our technologies, they shape us. It’s a two-way street that is producing a complex set of problems and conditions surrounding the relationship between people and technology.
This strongly resonates with what we posited in Digital Habitats at the community level. Our choices of technology shape the community and the community influences and shapes the technology, both in how it is designed, deployed and used in practice.
I’m reading Turkle’s new book (Alone Together) slowly and how she frames the negative consequences of this interaction. I think we need to pay attention to both the negative and the positive.
This fits perfectly with another conversation I was part of yesterday! One of Turkle’s comments reminds me of the challenge of saving farmland when kids don’t know any more about where carrots or milk comes from than “the store.” The basics that sometimes get lost over time – but are crucial to the complete picture.