The article gives the audience a lot of fancy phrases that tell us all what we already know: that the computer/internet has completely changed our lives. There’s a newsflash. I can’t stand reading articles that state the obvious. I want a new point or new spin added to the ideas and realizations that we all already know. Yes, the internet is probably the most life changing inventions since the wheel, and yes, windows and computer screens change our way of “thinking about evolution, relationships, sexuality, politics, and identity.” It’s not until later in the article that a totally new idea is introduced.
This article gets to a new point at the end. The point that programming, originally thought be a cut-and-dried skill is now anything but. Ok, again not the biggest news, but Turkle makes the good point that programming is not straight forward but a creative opportunity for expression in a wide range of fields. As someone who knows very little about programming, this perspective on the difficulty of it was interesting, but like how I was annoying by the obvious first part of this article, a programmer was probably annoyed by the whole thing.
I felt the same way when reading this article, but keep in mind that this article was published 13 years ago so the internet wasn't as nearly mainstream as it is now. The article just seems a bit irreverent to be reading now, but useful for "historical" purposes.
ReplyDeleteOK wow, thought that said 2006, not 1996.
ReplyDelete