Communication Breakdown for My Generation!

So, with this past week of entries, I thought I would try to bring things together a bit so you might now where I am headed with all of this. Here is one idea...

CERN was working way back when with scientists throughout the world and needed to create a system that helped people interact with each other. The isolation of distance was not allowing people to work effectively and expeditiously. This new means of communication and transfer of knowledge allowed them to get more done, become more successful in their research, learn more about their science, themselves, and others. Since then, the world has quickly become flatter, as described in the book, which I have discussed and referenced numerous times in this blog, "The World Is Flat", by Thomas Friedman.

Through, Tim Berners-Lee and Marc Andreessen and the development of the internet and the interactive browser, what has been created is a new system of global interrelations between people. New and vibrant means of communication and interaction have developed. Anyone, nearly anywhere is able to discuss nearly anything with someone else. (I say nearly anything, nearly anywhere due to the fact of governmental controls or intrusion, such as China or even the United States.) In fact, numerous people can connect with numerous other people at the same time without leaving their home or office. There are millions of global communities growing due to this fact. People are reaching out beyond the borders and walls that bind them within their country.

Part of the problem I see in America today is that our business communities, and social communities are thriving on this new way of interaction and communication, but our government is falling behind in their understanding and or use of the technology. The old world ways of education are not copacetic to this new means of global community.

How can a teacher even begin to teach the children of the 21st century for the 21st century and beyond, when the children have a more advanced knowledge of technology and its uses as practices? Also, how can a teacher even begin to teach the children of the 21st century for the 21st century and beyond without these same tools that these children already have? We hear that children today do not interact with each other like "back in the day". I disagree! What needs to be understood is the fact that the days are getting longer and the nights are becoming shorter for our world.

My nieces have a Facebook page, just like hundreds of millions of other people throughout the planet have. I found them as I have one as well, GO HERE. This type of website is designed to create community with friends, relatives, and associates by streamlining technology so that one is able to communicate whenever they want, wherever they want, on whatever they want. They have this page connected to their cell phones, blogs, other websites. For the people that don't understand this, they may feel that technology has gotten out of hand and is isolating the new generation to behind a keyboard or cellphone. The debate is that this isolation is not allowing people to connect...

Communication and community is basically who and how many can stay connected on relevant issues for their group. To be able to share needs, necessities, and ideas. We have grown as a specie from a small tribal community to a now global community. Before the telephone, one's community or social circle was defined by how many people one could come in contact with in a few days time, before the news or information or necessity for the connection became irrelevant. Today, we as a global community can stay connected to relevance continuously. These thoughts and ideas can become more relevant or change just as quickly. This emergent process of human interaction must be respected and understood by our governments, as this is obviously what our specie is yearning for and involved in.

When there are people that have created communities of friends and associates with hundreds if not thousands of members in their community you cannot say that people are unconnected.

Have you heard the saying that goes something like, "When you are pointing a finger, how many fingers are pointing back?" If one has done any study with psychology one knows that when someone is accusatory of another the accusations tend to be what the accuser is guilty of themselves. It's much like looking in a mirror...now make that accusation...Change is inevitable, and constant. Not understanding the change is what creates the wrinkles in society. This is also a constant as new and younger generations look for their own voice, to create their own marks in society. It is just that much may seem out of control to those that do not understand or embrace these changes due to the exponential growth of technology and science.

The ideas of force and not cooperation or the isolationism is putting our country at odds with every other country in the world. Remember the mirror? You see, we are reaching an apex, a tipping point in our global society. What is inevitable is a paradigm shift in human relations. The old world interactions will still exist, however will become antiquated quickly. This new style of human relations is traversing the planet rapidly, as it has been doing these past 10-15 years. There has never been anything like this on this planet before. The changes in technology are exponential. The governments still try to govern the old world ways.



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(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs