5. The iGeneration

I'm a proud child of the digital world. Wednesday's discussion on communicating in our newly digital nation got me riled up for this blog. Most of the arguments tossed around in the conference room were that "texting is ruining the English language" and that social networking is "alienating people." I'm not here to say that you all are wrong (even though you are), I just want to draw some parallels.

Many intellectuals were upset by the invention of writing. Culture was primarily aural/oral, and was the natural way to communicate. Plato wrote that writing disrupted this natural speech, and that recording words in writing destroyed memory (in the way that today, the calculator handicaps peoples' mathematical ability). He emphasized that writing and reading were passive and "inhuman," as external resources that alienated people. (Ironically, his argument presents itself in text.)

When books became more readily available for the common person, what today we call "progress" and "revolution," then, was greeted with mixed feelings. Many felt that replacing the dominant oral/aural culture with an increasingly solitary visual culture was isolating people and making them more disconnected from the "real world."

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Texting, Twittering, and social networking are causing many of the same alarmisms to resurface. Every generation believes each successive generation, ("kids these days") are getting stupider. Texting is making people stupider (not true), the internet is making people stupider (not true), television is making people stupider, sock hops are making people stupider, telephones are making people stupider, jazz music is making people stupider, books are making people stupider, writing is making people stupider, etc.

Our culture is changing via the way we communicate, for better or for worse. It's coming, and you have two choices: Embrace it, or GTFO.

I'm Ruthie, and I'm a child of the internet generation. I've had an AIM account since I was ten. I'm a member of several forums ranging from artistic endeavors to crude entertainment. The #1 Google result for my name is actually me. I've watched over 20,000 YouTube videos. I'm a master Googler, Facebooker, Twitterer, texter, Gmailer, Hulu-er, Skyper, BitTorrenter, Flickrer, Wikipedian, Tumblrer, craigslister, FourSquarer, LiveJournaler, Omegler, Newgroundsling, Sporcler, Vimeoite, an eBayer, a Blogspotter, and a worthy internet pirate.