I agree with the author that there has been an overreaction to the negative effects of social media. I agree that there is value in face-to-face interaction, but I don't think it is going away. I am in my mid-20's and rarely use social media (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) for communicating to my friends. I still do the majority of communicating face-to-face or through texting. Now I know this may be anecdotal evidence, but I would not be surprised if that's how it was for the majority of the populating that is my age. I agree with their sentiment that social media does not take away from talking face-to-face, but instead takes away from alone time.
I enjoyed this article because it does not look down on change. It takes a step back and realizes just because the way people use information is changing, it doesn't mean that it is for the worse. I especially liked the part about how the way people read has changed. The author points out that scanning passages may have overtaken close reading as the preferred way to read. Now normally that idea would be painted in a negative light, but here the author just says what is happening. Because there is so much more information out there, and it is all readily accessible the way people consume information had to adapt. From a video in class we heard that all of human knowledge is rapidly multiplying. It shouldn't be looked down upon to try and skim information to find the relevant bits that interest you.
The change in how people consume information should be noticed and used by teachers. It is important to know that their students take in information much differently than they did at that age. Teachers need to be adaptable to this changing landscape and try to turn it in their favor.
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