Responce #5

In the article, "Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution," the author, Cynthia L. Selfe, an English studies teacher, writes about three forms of advertisements using computers. Selfe gives a description of a popular social narrative-one that people wish was true-and a revision of that same narrative-one that shows the real picture. And through the revised narrative, Selfe opens the eyes of her readers as to how technology is deceiving them. Selfe claims that "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." In other words she wants the educators, who are mainly her readers, to realize that though it brings about positive social changes, technology also hides the negative side of things. It has a mask that distracts us and keeps us from seeing the whole picture.
The very first narrative she explains to her readers is one of a 'Global village'-the popular social narrative. And "according to this popular social narrative, the computer network that spans the globe with serve to...bind together the people of the world regardless of race, ethnicity, or location." So computers are used in such a way that they connect all the people in the world. That is just an awesome picture: no more separation based on borders and ethical and racial differences, we would be connected with different cultures, and be able to see how other people live. We would all be living in paradise because those are the things that would cause wars to break out and technology could bring it down, if not stop it. But then we see the revised narrative, the "Electronic Colony", and the true reality of what we do with technology is put to light. "In this story, Americans use technology to become world travelers, to learn about-and acquire knowledge of- other cultures while remaining comfortably situated within their own living rooms and, thus, comfortably separated from the other inhabitants of the global village." We are too lazy, too full of self worth, to actually go out into the world, but instead we sit around and have the computer screen tell us what is going on in the world. We don't use the technology given us to help shape a better world, but take the easy way out instead and experience the world just the way it is from our computers. Selfe even shows the readers a picture of a white woman sitting in her living room that displays artifacts from around the world and a big screen full of "exotic people and far-off locations" and a computer that displays a world map on it's screen. Sure we can see what is going on, but we don't get to live it. We don't get to smell what they smell, live the way they live, eat what they eat, we live in out own little bubble of a world in our own homes.
Now a days, I think that in a way this is still going on, not necessarily with computers as it's focus as to why we don't do what we should do, but there are still commercials on TV's that ask you to support kids from another county by sending a monthly check, they don't ask you to come down and see the child face-to-face, form a relationship with the child, or live the we that they live. Their just asking you to send money not experience what they have been experiencing their whole lives. So I believe that we are starting to form a better connection with other nations, but we haven't come very far. We've gone from sitting in our living rooms, looking at the computer screen, to picking up the phone and sending money, but there is still more we could do. Selfe told her readers "twenty percent of the population currently consumes eighty percent of the resources." So one thing we could do is share those resources help them get better food, warmer clothes, and safer house. These are just a few steps we can take in order to get from the "Electronic Colony" to the "Global Village".