Understanding a specified content or program has always allowed people to be unique, specialized, and significant. In ancient times when one was illiterate, a set person who could read and write was designated as a scribe for that person. Thankfully, many more people are literate today, but the access the world has to learning new programs, information, and skills through user designed databases is somewhat taking away from the opportunity to be different.
Obviously, people will always have something that is theres and that someone else cannot do. For example, some people will simply never be able to play the piano. Whether it be they are musically incompetent or cannot keep a rhythm, it just doesn’t happen for some. On the other hand, since I learned to operate YouTube at a very young age, I have managed to teach myself how to play piano without any lessons or money. With the knowledge of how to search for a few key words and click a few buttons, I became the world’s next Beethoven.
Charles Kostelnick is a professor in the department of english at Iowa State University. In his teachings, he focuses primarily on visual communication, literature, and visual art. In his article “The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays: The Conundrum of Clarity,” Kostelnick discusses comprehension of data in terms of visually interpreting and understanding it. Throughout his article, it is continuously obvious that Kostelnick feels that as digital datasets grow on the web, comprehension and ability to comprehend a variety of domains and their content will grow as well. Even though Kostelnick is more so discussing actual databases with, perhaps, statistical data on any given subject, I see that this idea applies to all skills one can acquire. Like I said previously, I have become a musician via user friendly websites. It’s great, don’t get me wrong– but in some ways it kills specialization.
Ultimately, to increase revenue, results, and knowledge, designers want to “ensure the optimal transmission of data from designer to user” (Kostelnick 117). In my opinion, this is great! We should be attempting to gear sources of information toward a universal audience, allowing more people to understand. However, I am worried that as this continues, the need for outside sources and outward interaction will decrease and society will soon slump into non-interaction.
“Over the next 50 years, technology will likely continue to fuel the revolution in data design, perhaps even surpassing the discoveries and innovations of the 19th century. The innovations in digital data design will afford readers even greater flexibility to visualize data, further democratizing visual access to information and intensifying the rhetoric of participation. As a result, readers will likely have a much larger array of internet-based conventional forms to interpret, as well as encounter many novel forms, all of which will compete for their attention” (Kostelnick 128).
I do not mean to discourage all of those who have learned and gained so much by clarified databases that allow them to understand and comprehend something that may have once been jibberish to them. I do, however, mean to surface the fact that as everything digitalizes, human communication and interaction will digitalize, as well. As more and more people become specialized in whatever they type into their search engine, their need for an actual specialist in the subject will wither. It may seem far fetched, but crazy things do happen in our world, and it is very likely that this could be one of them.
Cell phone providers now make phones that make it easier for seniors to text message. Texting is amazing, no doubt about it; but texting will never be as sincere and intimate as a phone call, letter, or random visit. Prior to this special phone for seniors, I spoke to my Grandma nearly every day on the phone. Now that she knows how to text, I hardly hear from her. I know that not all people conform to the assets that are provided for them, which help them understand, but many feel compelled to learn because the programs and items are catered to them. So then the question shifts from “I don’t understand this information/how to do this,” to “oh there is a tutorial on line? There is a visual demonstration? Sure, why not?”
Technology has changed the face of the earth for the better, respectively. But technology has also taken away from chivalry, dependence, and sincerity. The fact that doctors, accountants, and politicians have data charts and graphs to further clarify information is phenomenal, but when digital games are made so addictive, yet so visually comprehendible that my two year old cousin learns how to play all on her own and operate an iPad while she’s at it, I feel that things have gone too far.
<iframe src=”http://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10150986039402471″ width=”720″ height=”1280″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
Want to learn how to make that amazing strawberry cake you ate at grandma’s house? Just search it on Google and within seconds, there will be more than a hundred strawberry cake recipes. The Web has made almost anything and everything possible. Vierra brings in the example of learning how to play the piano. Many instruments today can be learned from Youtube. It is amazing how one can do so many things with having to move physically.
Overall, Vierra does a great job summarizing the reading as well as sharing her own personal take on the issue at hand. The point she makes about how as everything digitalizes, we are losing human touch is very valid. I feel the example she brings up about cell phones is a great way to depict her point. Today, texting or Facebook messaging have become such an easy option that people hardly pick up the phone. Many admit to purchasing unlimited texting plans while purchasing a limited number of minutes. Even though it is nice to re-connect via the Web at times, I feel that keeping human touch is as, or even more, important. Today, there are so many articles about how offline dating is losing popularity. However, when one makes life decisions, it is vital to have human contact before deciding to date or marry someone. Digitalizing data does not mean one must digitalize their relationships as well. Hence, something must be done to recover the idea of personal connection.