Often I appear to
find myself on the opposite side of the cultural divide: especially when it
comes to the apparent intrusion, by my lights, of personal technology.
Thus the latest Run4YrLife
idea: the Cassandra, curmudgeon conundrum.
Rather than
pigeon-hole myself as a grousing grinch when it comes to cellphone addiction
(Oops, there I go again …) I’m making an effort here to be more sensitive to
the positive aspects of personal technology as it affects our lives.
Consider the
education of our children.
Thursday (Nov. 9),
while running in Prospect Park, I saw a small class of grade-school children,
using a nifty green-fringed tablet to take photos – and do research while
milling about on a bridge over a watercourse. I imagine them using software to
identify trees and shrubs, minerals, even ducks and geese.
Perfectly benign,
right?
Meanwhile, Silicon
Valley poobahs like Mark Zuckerberg see a gap to fill. I’d like to think that
had to do with adding employees, improving the educated “stock” in math and
sciences. After all, private tech companies are seeking to take a more active
role in educating our children. Wow. Imagine the poobahs thinking as the most
righteous do, ie, What is more life-fulfilling than to do the selfless work of
educating our children and improving their quality of life – and not
insignificantly – potentially unifying our fractious society through a politics-free
push to create good jobs for all people?
In other words,
doing what public schools used to be equipped and funded to do. What underpaid
teachers continue to be renowned for.
Could it be
remotely possible that we could be seduced to think that the idea of tablets
being toted around the park, children staring into them, seeing the world
mediated by a screen is not connected to the goals of the likes of Mark
Zuckerberg.
Alas, I fear (CURMUDGEON ALERT!) this is not about educating our kids.
It’s what John
Reed says in the movie “Reds” when asked about the origin of another BIG IDEA,
World War I.
“Profits,” he
says.
