At the present, I'm laying in my bed learning. It seems so strange knowing that I could be brushing my teeth while typing or eating a bowl of frosted flakes with almond milk (if I didn't run out of milk yesterday, that is). Frankly, I miss humanity. I am 23 11/12 years old and I should be an advocate for the digitization of my livelihood based on research, but I'm quite reserved. Yes, I do update my status on Facebook at least once a day and yes, I do have 3 e-mail accounts and yes, I do Skype and have been guilty of multi=tasking on all 4 of these modes of communication (texting is a constant, like breathing) on a regular basis. But, I would rather be around talking humans than in a pretend world.
I LOVE being in a classroom listening to ideas that are different than mine. I want to have the opportunity to think that the lady sitting across from me is completely preposterous in her ideals, the guy next to me is super hot, and the one next to the teacher is knocked out and about to start snoring. I feel like the exchange of ideas face-to-face and figuring out how to be timely, appropriate, respectful, and dignified in communication is a skill that can only be learned with use. Being stuck behind a computer, I can't practice arranging words to create an argument against somebody's conviction and articulating my thoughts respectfully and with tact. How can you answer the question, "Does this dress make me look fat?" without being in close, air-sharing proximity with someone?
However, the show must go on. Online classes are our future and my future gene experiments' (children's) futures. I can't fight the system--I must work within it and find contentment even when I disagree. It is so easy to just do my work and leave forgetting about the class community here. I am in my own world and have absolutely no connection to others learning the same things I am. But that is partially by fate and not by design. I could Facebook stalk them and we could be "best friends," but I don't have time for that and don't want to spend the emotional equity. Being in a classroom, it's much easier to create those social bonds.
This blurb is slightly tainted towards the negative. As far as gaining something, I appreciate the flexibility. I don't have to spend hours of my semester listening to teacher and student monologues. I feel more independent and can squeeze a class into my busy life. I'm taking 15 hours this semester and if it weren't for online classes, I would cry and quit life and join the circus as an administrative assistant. I really can't see how one can build relationships online without intimate, platonic self-disclosure, but in this world, it takes just as much time in real-life to do so as in reality life.
Yes, we do need to know how to have "netiquette" and conduct ourselves efficiently online, but I'm afraid that ophthalmologists, psychiatrists, and fingerologists will be bajillionaires in the future if we continue to replace our existences with pixels.
JLP
