really?

this video by a prof at KU is engaging, to say the least. i am, however, always skeptical of claims that the web is changing everything. ::cue spooky, wavy music:: i wonder whether a change of medium really changes people or we get a skewed sense of reality every time something new comes up. dev and i were just talking about what my students have reported as a meth craze taking over the area's youth; dev reminded me that, when i was a youngster, the deadly drug was pot (the gateway, dontcha know, in an era that at the start of the "retro" craze, even in its propaganda), and for him, it was PCP. oh, and satanists. playing dungeons and dragons. skinning black pets during halloween/friday-the-thirteenth ceremonies. and giving virgins stds. nevermind that none of us really ever saw a spaced out junkie in a fit of reefer madness.... we've always got to have a drug-scare-du-jour, right?

i also wonder how the have/have -not divide will be impacted by the growth of digital technologies. i have students who don't know what an ipod is -- not just haven't seen one or used one -- don't know what i mean when i say "ipod." kids who don't know not only something relatively complex like DRM, but who don't know what it means to download a song. 20-year-old kids, not the geriatric librarian. on one hand, i'm of the mind that to prepare these kids for an educated future, it's our place to bring these technologies to them. on the other hand, ... . i don't think i have another hand.

point of the story? how much have things really changed since the advent of the web? how much will all this social networking change things further? i think i'm honestly asking: i'm young enough not to remember adult life without the web, especially coming from a tech-forward high school that helped us sign up for email accounts (mine was an excite account at the turn of 1996) and required sources accessed on what we'd come to know as the web on term papers in 1993 or 1994. we had computers in grade school, for chrissake, and i remember kids just a couple years older than me being confused at the fact that 10-year-olds had to show them how to load where in the world is carmen sandiego?

typing that, i just realized i missed my 10-year high school reunion last year. huh.

appropriate rambling end to a typical, rambling post.