Blog #4 Presenting the "Self" I want to be...

 

Crystal Springs, FL 

While I watched Sherry Turkle talk about the ability that texting and always being on our phones gives us to be in full control of presenting the "self" we want to be.... I thought "well yeah, its scary to show people who we really are- what if nobody likes you?" Enter my Instagram issues...but seriously, the persona you put out to the public should be your best image right? And for my that looks like adventurous, highly edited  and aesthetic pictures. While I honestly hate texting, I honestly also can't do small talk, I have real conversations with real friends who know me and beyond that, I lose interest in talking to people who aren't interested in talking to me.

Is it the same with the youth we work with? Are they just disinterested in having conversations and asking questions because there is no significance to it in their lives? I was never a student who asked the teacher a million questions about the logistics of a homework assignment or asking them to clarify the thing they just wrote on the board. I was (and still am) of the mindset that I can figure it out on my own, and if I have questions then I'll go ask another one of my peers in the class before i'd resort to asking the teach. Often I didn't need to because there was alway another student who would ask the teacher the same question I had. 

Wesch address this issue of significance and issue that I well remember having in math classes- "do I really need to learn this? " SO then the question is posed "Are Turkel and Wesch allies or opponents in this new digital age?" I believe the answer to that question will vary based upon who you ask. If we were to ask the youth we work with they would probably respond saying that Turkle doesn't understand how texting their bestie 24/7 allows them to always feel connected and they know they always have someone to talk to and never feel lonely, where as they might say that Wesch is completely right that if they don't feel what they are learning is meaningful, they might just rush through it without any thought. As for myself, I think that the way we build relationships and strengthen our communication skills is fluid and ever evolving. In order to form deeper relationships with our youth, we have to start to adapt to their methods of learning and see things more from their perspectives instead of wistful wishing thing would "go back to the way they used to be".