The lives of your
children.
Your children will be natives to this electric world. They
will be born into a world without any hiding spots. There are no secrets, no
closed doors. Privacy is no longer a right or even a privilege; it is just
another 20th century relic.
A lack of
privacy may seem scary at first. The fact that within minutes I can find out
where you live, where your grandmother lives and the name of her childhood dog
is terrifying. We are all connected whether we want to be or not.
The foreclosure
of privacy is also wonderful. For the first time, traditional forms of
education no longer monopolize the world’s wealth of knowledge. We can share
ideas, concepts, art, literature and news from across the world, instantly.
This free exchange of ideas has opened the floodgates to advancements in all
sorts of academia.
The concept
of the child is changing. The 19th century child is gone. Moral
values can now be taught to children by what they see on tv, on the web and
what they read. Some of their teachers are artificial, that doesn’t make the
lesson any less real. Worldwide, we are replacing the teacher with the screen.
There is a virtual classroom with students from all over the globe attending. This
disintegration of teacher-student interpersonal relationships creates an “Us
and Them” relationship. THE students, THE teacher.
With the immediate spread of information, comes a change in
the way we interact as a society. It is no longer the individual, the self, but
rather the era. There are THE baby boomers, THE generation x, THE millenials
and THE digital natives. This assimilation of cultures and beliefs will aid in
fostering an age of understanding. Will we ostracize racism? Will hate be
taboo? Maybe. But with the sharing of ideas springs another question. Who’s
thoughts are you thinking?
