Week 4: Thoughts on Digital Identity, Use of the Internet, and A Math/Physics Blog
(Readings found at bottom of post)
What I found very accurate in Will
Richardson’s piece about our digital footprints was the idea that “students
have the potential to own their own learning---and we [adults] have to help
them seize that potential.” (WR) This says to me that in the modern world, it
is no longer the teachers teaching the students new knowledge and the students
then later going on to apply that knowledge. Instead, with all the resources
online on the Internet, students have the potential to become what I call ‘fluid
learners’ through the connections they can make with others that share their
passions online. I see the new world as all about connections made with others
in terms of how we learn. That connection may just be with our teachers, as it
used to be in the ‘old days,’ but with the Internet at our fingertips, the
connections we can make with others are limitless, and the sorts of things we
can learn from that are also without bounds. Students of today can watch a
YouTube video showing what happens when you put molten salt into a fish tank.
They can read a blog about what someone thinks about the current political
climate. They can even contribute their own thoughts and ideas through online
forums and comments. Ultimately, however, it is all about interaction between
so many different kinds of people with so much information to share. School curriculums are slightly outdated, in that sense. I see school (especially
before college) as a more static thing: there are certain things that a teacher
must teach, those concepts are learned by the students, and the school day is
over, perhaps with some homework to do. The Internet opens up the opportunity
for students to learn new things on their own, as the article mentions. They
can find something they are passionate about, like science or politics or
whatever it may be, and delve deeper into the subject using the Internet. I
think that is what Richardson is getting at in his article, that adults need to
engage with this new medium of the Internet and collaboratively learn what
fantastic connections and learning opportunities it provides.
The article by David Baker,
concerning the idea that disconnecting from the Internet could help us find our
own identity, was a sort of wake-up call. I’ve always been the person who puts
their phone away at the table and always says that “social media doesn’t really
mean anything” and “we shouldn’t be on our phones all the time,” yet when I
read these sorts of articles, I realize how much I check my phone on a daily basis.
It’s a sort of feeling of being constantly connected, and I think it’s even
exhausting. The best times that I’ve really ‘been in the moment’ were the times
where my phone literally was confiscated for a day or week on retreats that I
did. I really felt the freest in those times, I really felt like I could live
in the moment then. But now, especially in college, the phone becomes a
distraction or an easy way out in awkward situations, always worrying who Snap-chatted me or is texting me or whatever it may be. The quote from the
article that in a way sums up this whole mentality is “’Are you living the life
you want to be living, or the life other people want you to live?’” (DB) from
Socrates, as well as the next line, which says “The internet has brought the
opinions of others flooding into our own lives as never before, and it is
threatening our ability to understand who we really are.” (DB) I really dislike
how true it is. Though I claim not to really care about it, deep down it does
feel special when I get likes on Instagram or pokes on Facebook or whatever it
might be, and I enjoy it, so of course I need to post another picture in the
hopes of getting those likes again. But it takes me out of the moment, that is
the worst part. I think society as a whole is starting to live outside of the
moment, only living for the purpose of getting acceptance on social media. Of
course, this is not to say that everyone does. I’d wager to say that most
people don’t have or don’t care about social media, but there’s still the trend
towards this detachment from the moment, and a detachment from who we really
are inside. This has a lot of philosophical weight behind it, with how does one
define oneself, who defines it, and so on. Because of this trend, I want to
propose a challenge for myself and you that I heard recently in a YouTube
video. It goes as follows: when you wake up, check your emails, your social
media, whatever it may be that you do on the Internet. Try and keep it down to
an hour at most. Then, simply turn off the internet on your phone/laptop. Of
course, still use it for school studies and the like as is needed, but no
social media, no obsessing over likes and re-tweets, nothing. Then, see how free
you feel. I imagine in the beginning it will be tough for me, especially since
I’m so used to just pulling out my phone as I’m walking. But I will try and
avoid that as much as I can. So this is the challenge I propose to myself. What
do you readers think of this challenge? Or do you think it isn’t really
possible in this day and age?
I also just wanted to write briefly
about the third reading before talking about the blog I found and read a bit
about. The article by Aleks Krotoski concerns itself with whether or not
authenticity or anonymity are more important, discussing both the pros and cons
of each. The anonymous argument is summed up in the quote “The ability to be
anonymous is increasingly important because it gives people control, it lets
them be creative, it lets them figure out their identity and explore what they
want to do, or to research topics that aren’t necessarily ‘them’ and may not
want tied to their real name for perpetuity.” (AK) In essence, anonymity gives
more freedom and flexibility. Looking at the other argument, as long as they
are secure, services like Facebook “are more inclusive, and open up the web to
new audiences who never would have gone online before,” and enables “people to
express themselves online because they didn’t have or know how to use the tools
they needed.” (AK) To me, it sounds like the benefits are largely the concept
of a greater sense of connectedness. In my opinion, both have their uses in
specific situations. On forums or sites like Reddit that are more casual,
anonymity allows the user to be more flexible in what they do and post, because
it isn’t directly tied to their real life through their name. They can explore
things they might be unsure about without fearing consequences in their own
lives. However, on more professional sites like LinkedIn, being authentic is
extremely important, because employers and other people using the site will
want to know what sort of person you are, perhaps your resume, and any other
information about you to consider you for the job. That’s where being authentic
is crucial, because people won’t hire people that they don’t even know or that
only go by a screen name. In this sense, profiles on these professional
websites should be a continuation of your real life, physical self, and it
shouldn’t affect you backwards. The goal of authentic profiles should be to
project your own identity out, rather than have others determine exactly what
that identity is. Of course, that is hard, especially considering some of the
other topics discussed in the readings for the week.
Blog I discovered: http://www.askamathematician.com/
I enjoy science in math, so I
searched around a bit for those subjects, and stumbled onto this blog. How this
blog works is that someone can submit a question to it through email, and then
they will do their best to answer it, the mathematician and the physicist. This
results essentially in the users deciding what the blog is about and what
questions get answered, ranging from quantum theory to geometry to computer
science to evolution, which are just some of the topics that they’ve discussed.
I was really interested in the blog once I started reading because the language
that the posters use is more or less ‘in my range’ in terms of complexity, and
if there is perhaps a fancy science word that they use, they make an effort to
explain it. I’ve tried reading some articles in scientific journals and it just
bores me because I don’t understand half the words they are using to describe
the subject. But with this blog, they do a good job keeping it a mix of
informative with answering the question, and relatable, weaving in a few jokes
and providing real world examples. Something I also found cool is that
throughout each of their blog posts, they often have some of the words
highlighted, with links that go to sites that go more in depth about the
specific topic that they mentioned. For me, it was a great way to just read
about some explanations to interesting questions in a way that made sense to
me. At the same time, I think this blog can also be helpful for people looking
to learn more by providing the resources and pointers for what to look at. I
definitely want to read this blog a bit more, since it’s just fun to read
answers to questions that I would never have thought about asking. I highly
recommend it for anyone interested in math and physics in particular, or
science in general.
Readings for the week:
“Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson (WR)
“How disconnecting the internet could help our identity” by David Baker (DB)
“Online identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important?” by Aleks Krotoski (AK)
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