Jon on Selfe

“An exclusive focus on the positive changes associated with technology, often serves to distract educators from recognizing how existing social forces actually work to resist change in connection with technology…” a powerful statement made by author Cynthia L. Selfe in “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution”. Selfe’s purpose through her writing is to inform the readers, or more specifically English Studies teacher’s, to be aware of the propaganda in images relating to technology and what the true purpose of that image may be. She later gives many examples to support her claim and goes on to show us the connection with the “Global Village” and the “Electronic Colony”. One of the common idea’s shared throughout this technology generation is that it can make us closer and keep us connected. “According to this popular social narrative, the computer network that spans the globe will serve to erase meaningless geopolitical borders, eliminate racial and ethnic differences, re-establish a historical familial relationship which binds together the peoples of the world regardless of race, ethnicity, or location.” Although this sounds like something that we would all hope for, unity, and understanding throughout the world, we can’t do this through a computer screen. Selfe shows that is impossible for us to truly be connected or to relate to someone in another country, especially one that is poverty stricken. That we “In fact, find ourselves as a culture, ill equipped to cope with the changes that the “global village” story necessitates, unable, even, to imagine, collectively, ways of relating to the world outside our previous historical and cultural experiences.” This gives us the feeling that we are a world away without ever leaving our homes. We like to think that we are connected to these people that are thousands of miles away when we truly are that far away.

I agree with Selfe with her narrative of the “Global Village” because my own experience with technology throughout my life can relate to it. Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, and Television can give you that feeling that you are really connected to these people in a significant way. You talk to a friend that you haven’t seen for five years and you find them on face book, you have a conversation about what you have been up to in your life and theirs and it seems like you might know them again. But in reality you are only getting the pieces you are allowed to see or hear. You don’t truly know them or understand unless you are experiencing it yourself. When you go on the computer and look at a picture of a tribe in the amazon it may make you feel like you can understand their plight, looking at the child’s starving face and feeling remorse and sadness for him. You could try and say you feel his pain, but until you walk in the shoes of these people you could never truly understand, further bridging the gap of human connection. It’s a belief passed on to us through the corporations to affect us emotionally and manipulate us to feel and think a certain way, and in many cases it is extremely affective. The goal of Cynthia L. Selfe is for us to know and educate others about these tactics being used on us the “Global Village”, to give us the tools to better understand, and to see things in a new light.