International Effects

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.