The brief excerpt from Hamlet’s Blackberry speaks
volume to this world today and to my life personally. Powers (2010) sheds a
much needed light on the detriments of individuals being too connected to the world
around them. He spends a considerable amount of attention on the topic of depth
acknowledging that as life becomes frantic and rushed, we lose depth. I never
thought about it this way before, but unfortunately, it is very true. Powers
(2010) expressed that “the more connected we are, the more we depend on the
world outside ourselves to tell us how to think and live” (p. 2). I believe
this statement resonates with Kegan’s (1994) discussion on the ability to
self-regulate.
Kegan (1994) speaks on the importance for adult
learners to engage in self-directed learning, stressing on several occasions
that higher education should not “ train adults to master a curriculum by
focusing on skills and behaviors associated with mastery,” but should “ educate
adults to enable the order of consciousness that enables those skills and
behaviors” (p. 287). Self-directed learning involves the ability to seek depth
with in the material being consumed. When individuals look to instructors to
provide them with the specific knowledge or skills they believe are needed to
succeed at these “practical, real-life demands” instead of learning how to make
sense of what is being presented and construct their own meaning or rely too
heavily on technology and their vast connection to the outside world, they
limit their opportunities to embrace depth in life’s encounters. These individuals
are merely scratching the surface of the benefits self-directed learning has to
offer by relying on others to dictate to what they should know.
In regard to Power’s
(2010) article, I am one of those individuals who creates busyness for myself
and become too consumed with the frantic and rushed atmosphere I call life that
I do not allow myself to truly engage in many of life’s experiences. For
instance, my life is consumed with school, work, family, friends, and other extracurricular
activities. Everything down to the very thoughts that I possess are so routine
that I do not know how it feels to really stop, breathe, and take in what is
really going on around me. Honestly, the thought of breaking my routines intimidates
me. Fortunately from reading these articles, I am more aware that sometimes it
is not about becoming completely disconnected from certain things, people, or
life tasks but changing the relationship in which I connect with them. I
believe my ability to embrace this concept and bring it to fruition could positively
change the way that I engage life’s experiences, both social, as well as,
solitary encounters.
Tia, I really enjoyed what you had to say in the last paragraph about what you became more aware of ("it is not about becoming completely disconnected..."). I think I liked what you said here because it shows the importance of relationships, something we never want to sacrifice. The importance of connection is the biggest lesson I've learned so far in this class, and you hit the nail right on the head in that it is about the connection we make, not what we make the connection with. I am struggling to find a thoughtful comment, but I really wanted to express how much I liked that last paragraph. Maybe my question would be how do we do that? "That" being ensure we connect to things the right way rather than the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteThat was my question too, Zach! I would assert that first, we would have to establish a moderation for both states: isolation and connectivity. What is an accepted level of commitment to being connected to the world? What is an accepted level of personal isolation? I would imagine that there is not general level of "what is okay" - it would have to be different for each individual. However, I think that it is crucial to make those two assessments before trying to change how we interact with the world.
ReplyDeleteYou guys raise a good question! I think the toughest part about many of life's encounters or problems is trying to decide what to do and how to do it. Hannah, you bring up a good point about finding that acceptable level of commitment to each, but I think that could be a difficult task as well. In both cases, we are the ones making decisions and having to decide how much time we give to each state of being, and this same decision making process is how individuals choose to be more, or overly, connected with the world.
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