Eeek (essay)

We talk in a way from things we’ve been influenced from. Just like ones behaviors, our actions are linked to what we have learned, seen, heard or lived. My upbringing compared to my fathers or to someone born today have all been different technologically, and I feel that between these three generations the technological advancement has been huge. No wonder children today are able to cope in the digital world with more ease than older people do. The digital world is more instinctual to younger kids in today’s society because they were born in a world where they were surrounded by digital things, and in this crucial learning stage of their lives technology played a huge role. I see kids as young as one figuring out the complexity of their toys filled with buttons, switches colorful lights and speakers that make goat noises every time they turn a certain knob.

In gaining skills and being able to communicate and interact from the standpoint of a highly digital world, one might suffer in conversing in a world that is less digitally oriented. Poor old Laurie Andersond stood in the forefront of this generation/digital difference. It could be said that the little girl Laurie was talking too, had spent more time expressing herself through digital means than Laurie had herself. Even though they might have both been brought up in LA and had similar cultural inherencies, their generational differences in how the digital world had affected them made them both into completely different people. Laurie Andersond was shocked by this, and so am I. I feel that technological advancements are growing way too fast and that people loose some senses of how they live their lives. It is too easy to create a persona through the internet for example, and have this persona be more important to a person than his real identity. Digital use also has huge benefits in staying in touch with people, but in the same way it also changes the sincerity in the way in which people stay in touch in. The best is to know how to use these digital tools and use them as a way to help us and not as a way to live.