Assignment #1

After reading the article by Marc Prensky it is clear that he is an advocate of the advancement of technology and the benefits that it has on the human race as a whole. He believes that this advancement will not only help to move the human race forward in the idea of its knowledge and wisdom, but that overall it will make humans into a whole new creature. He coins the term homo sapiens digital within his article. I see where it is that he is coming from, and I can see the clear cut benefits and good that can come from the advancement of technology. I myself utilize technology on a regular basis and know the benefit. But that does not mean that I think it will forever make people into something new. Yes people are advancing at a faster rate than ever before and we are moving in new directions that nobody could ever have perceived. But I believe that deep down people are always going to be people. Yes we will become intermittently more and more dependent on the technology around us, but that does not necessarily need to be. Especially as a history major I can see the benefit of the past. It is our past that dictates who or what we become. So to move blindly forward in the technological world would be forgetting who we are, where we come from. Reading something out of a book is such a different experience as opposed to the Internet. Opening up a leather bound primary source is in itself a lesson in history that technology cannot replicate. There are a variety of different articles showing the importance of books over technology out there in the world. So I am not saying that we should turn our backs on the advances that are being made in the technological world, but we should never forget that which came first, that which we came from.

Kelse Risenr