Week 5 Blog
While looking through the various
discussions and articles that were presented this week, I felt that some were
very puzzling and some were more enlightening. The video called “Network,
Power, and Democracy, a presentation given by social scientist Saskia Sassen,
was very lackadaisical from the beginning. The jargon used was unnecessarily
complex, and she didn’t make it clear how any of her points could relate to our
oncoming generation. One good point she made was how foreign investment in less
developed countries can actually raise the likelihood of emigration; this went
against established notions that such investment would retain potential
emigrants. We constantly analyze how the digital age has divided younger people
from earlier generation, as common values have started to change. We also talk
about how powerful the internet can be as a tool to bringing together various
cultures, classes, and generations, so we need to keep in mind how
“disinterested” younger viewers are going to become when seeking out
information that presents itself as unintelligible. It was an interesting post,
but the speaker shouldn’t “wing” her presentations anymore.
The
web blog by Raquel Recuero, “Digital Youth, Social Movements, and Democracy in
Brazil”, went beyond commonplace speculation of emigrant behavior (at least in
my mind) and was very “enlightening” with the specific examples it provided. I
have been shocked by much of the information learned thus far about the age of
new media and new literacy, but until now haven’t really been able to fathom
the complexity and vastness of social media and entertainment gaming. According
to the statistics Raquel Recuerdo presented, “Brazilian youth are becoming
digital, 36 percent of Brazilians have a computer, 87 percent own a cell phone,
53 percent use the internet on a regular basis, and 70 percent of the
population between 16 and 25 use the internet regularly.” [1]
Ms. Recuerdo delved deeper into the
stronghold the internet has on Brazilian youth, and explained how 1000s are
using popular sites such as Facebook, FOTOLog, Blogger, and Twitter to debate
about issues facing their country. In the past six months, there has been a 50
percent increase in the amount of Facebook users, 53 million Brazilians now use
it regularly. These staggering numbers set the stage in showing how the
cultural dimension of literacy and technology has made itself clear. Brazilians
are “using operational statistics to receive and transmit meaning.” [2] Their commonality in cultural values and
beliefs helps them in understand the context and content of thoughts being
posted in mass group settings. Cities are able to speak out about their own
issues via mass media usage. Certain communities in Brazil are having major
environmental problems, especially concerning their water supply. Through the
use of social media, community supporters were able to remove 100 kilograms of
trash from local rivers.
But with that
in mind, many groups are using Facebook to help their own agenda as a
generation gap is forming. We are fighting violence with violence since
everyone is given the same tools. It is impossible to pose yourself as calm
when intonation cannot be differentiated from person to person. Traditional
media is losing ground. When considering the amount of technology people have
access to, it becomes clear that people are becoming more critical of other
users. According to W. Lance Bennett, author of “Changing Citizenship in Digital Age”,
“unlike classic accounts of civil society in which social bonds strengthened
political participation in the golden age of dutiful citizens, the separation
of the social and the civic in the youth online world often seems stark.” [3] Many factors may affect the lack of civil
engagement many young people show: a lack of education about civic engagement
in schools, a lack of concern by politicians about the issues faced by younger
generations, and more autonomy causing less concern about issues not pertaining
to themselves. Facebook
can only help in social movements if it used properly.
References
1.
Saskia
Sassen: Networks, Powers, and Democracy. https://www.youtube.com.
2.
Raquel
Recuero - Digital Youth, Social Movements, and Democracy in Brazil. http://connectedlearning.tv/raquel-recuero-digital-youth-social-movements-and-democracy-brazil
3.
Bennett,
W. Lance. “Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age." Civic Life Online:
Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Edited by W. Lance Bennett. The
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and
Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. Pg. 11.
