Monday, 20 April 2009

The Dean’s Blog ‘Windows – Part Two’

“18 hours a day and I am certainly not addicted…
Maybe there is some confusion though for the parent generation after all. The second article I read included an interview with, not a teenager, but with a young middle aged professional, a business man, who is temporarily out of work. This particular man alleges that he often plays computer games up to 18 hours a day, usually Second Life where he creates an existence more successful and therefore more personally satisfying than his first life. He maintains he can stop at any time. It is not like being addicted to cigarettes or alcohol, he affirmed. He claims to have several acquaintances with similar time allocations. But he has time for friends, partner, family. On 18 hours a day? Plus sleeping?

Imho url8 ttyl
Professional educators discuss at conferences trends they notice in the students over the recent years which coincide with the regular and frequent use of some of these technologies. This was happening at the ECIS conference in Nice before Christmas, too. They discuss the role of MSN and SMS with their ‘mobile speak code’ where letters or symbols replace fully spelt words and syntax, deliberate misspellings to shorten the time needed to write (‘imho ur l8 ttyl’). They note dwindling attention spans, the need for instant information and entertainment, the ability to process only sound bites with confidence, inability to process extended pieces of text, huge distractibility, the need for very short activities, minimal expressive vocabulary.

The first oil painting is no masterpiece
There are key issues here and they are being discussed in many a forum. Whether individuals are in denial of the power of these windows and how to combat this. Achieving a balance of recreational activities that includes regular reality checks. How to make attractive to the young face-to-face communication that is caring and sincere. How to inject more passion into real life for a growing section of the community. How to react to passive and made-by-others activities which for a small but growing section of society are threatening to replace the personal, creative hobby. Sounds old fashioned. Grumpy Old Man on a rant.Hobbies!But that is where passion is, and individuality, and creating and risking and being challenged. This is the home of Homo Faber, and through it bunches of pure pleasure. Even if the first oil painting is no masterpiece.

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