Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thinking About Your Thinking

Answer this not-so-simple question: How does extensive Internet/media/technology use change the way you think? Focus on your memory, your ability to concentrate, your sense of time and priorities, and the subjects/topics that interest you most. If you find "thinking about your thinking" difficult to assess, try the following strategies: compare yourself with older people who did most of their formal learning before smart phones and 2.0 existed; compare yourself with contemporaries who don't use those tools much today; read up on what education leaders and thinkers have to say about generational differences in thinking (and remember to cite your sources). When what we need becomes accessible at the tip of a finger. We begin to loose our ability to learn for ourselves. Granted the fact that we even get out in the world and look for new things is concluded as the process of learning. Most of the things we search have already been pre-decided for us. That is through an unknown entity that follows and tracks us during our online activities. Then from that determines what we most be interested in and pushes that to the top of the list of our searches. Yet how does it know what we want? How does it find such an answer? It makes me think about what I am thinking. What exactly have I researched on this computer that allows it to make (what almost seems as if conscious) choices for me? Why am I trapped in the filter bubble of this society? And yes we know more now then we ever thought possible through technology. But it's what we don't know...or are not allowed to know that leaves me curious. How do I think about thinking when I do not have the full access to what I want to think of? (Well, online that is.)

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