Perhaps my unfamiliarity with the newer tools of the web is shining through, but I am a bit weary of where we are going...Thinking back 14 years ago when I was an exchange student at UWA and email was kind of new, and a phone call to mum and dad back in Sweden cost $2 a minute, I feel the world now is SO much smaller! Being able to access newspapers and information from around the world at your fingertips, is truly amazing - no longer can one blame the distance for not keeping in touch. Following this incredible trend, perhaps we can expect to see the social role of say, Facebook, increase to a more vital status in our social lives, where one's presence to connect and make peripheral friends becomes an integral part of one's success. I would hope not, and perhaps for my generation it will keep as an added extra rather than take up any major importance...
Being overly specific in what you want in an on-line search is vital to avoid drowning in results, however, having the web "getting to know you" and help you in your search for answers, and really without you knowing, I find a little less advantageous. Undoubtedly we get overloaded and interrupted by the web whether we like it or not. I am afraid a little "help" in finding our way out there, can also hinder our curiosity and our openness to the approach of others.
I take time to make sure I switch off, literally. Time spent listening to music, reading, swimming, walking, riding - simple things to make sure I'm not spending hours on end at the computer. I love going away and not taking my laptop. As I posted on my blog, I want to use these new technologies in the classroom but I don't want to feel pressured into doing so. And on searching: I've never bothered with anything beyond Google because I like finding the unexpected, the outrageous and the sometimes downright wrong - it helps to bring me back to earth from time to time.
ReplyDeleteSara, I agree that the real danger of an ever more personalised web experience (where the web essentially gets to know you) is that you'll be exposed to an ever narrower range of pre-selected material. We have to preserve some ways of breaking out of our comfortable informational cocoons to experience something new, different, or challenging. Long live serendipity!
ReplyDeleteTo echo what Matt says - even though I love my technology (in case you hadn't guessed) I also take breaks from it, ranging from a night out without mobile phones, to a week away at a time with no computer, no mobile, no TV ... I think it's healthy to take a step back from time to time!!
I agree with you Sara in that I find it a little bit creepy that search engines keep track of your search information. However, I also see the benefits of a refined search option. There is nothing worse than having to trawl through a whole list of unrelated results because a particular item was really popular but not the one you were looking for. I recently found this article that helped me http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2010/04/02/02gigaom-10-simple-google-search-tricks-58674.html
ReplyDeleteThe '-' option is incredibly useful!
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ReplyDeleteMark I hadn't guessed that about you, but I do hope you are just renting a chalet in the back waters of Balingup or something and not paying exorbitant prices for one of those tech-free holidays!
ReplyDeleteMeredith - it's just south of Margaret River, actually! :-)
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