The Moss-Free Stone

Doris Lessing, the 2007 Nobel Laureate, apparently thinks those of us who are so fervently promoting the use of the web in education are helping create an ignorant generation. In her acceptance speech Friday night, Lessing went so far as to describe the Internet’s resources as “inanities.” Duncan Riley at TechCrunch definitely takes strong offense, referring to the “ditherings of an ignorant old woman.” While I won’t go that far, it is worth noting that Lessing was once a strong supporter of communism, so take her ability to pick a winner for what it’s worth.

Beyond the remarks stinging somewhat on a personal level, Lessing’s comments do have some value (perhaps at least as discussion starters) to those of us working with educational technology. Lessing asserts that students’ knowledge is all-too-often very narrow in its focus, saying,

We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers.

While I can appreciate Lessing for championing a broader course of study, I have to disagree that students today are in some way less aware of the world and more narrowly focused than previous generations. In fact, I would assert with confidence that students growing up in the 20s and 30s had far less width to their studies, and most would be destined for even greater specialization, as they took their place in the labor force of the age of industry. The Internet is but one reason for this, but it is a powerful one, where users can view streaming video from a refugee camp in Somalia, converse with a scientist in the Brazilian rainforest, view simulations of great disasters from centuries ago, and then use the tool to create a poetic reflection with help from other users on the other side of the globe, utilizing video, music, text, 3-D animation, and more. To the contrary, students are exposed to far more than they were nearly a century ago. Lessing continued,

What has happened to us is an amazing invention – computers and the internet and TV. It is a revolution. This is not the first revolution the human race has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, transformed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked: “What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?” In the same way, we never thought to ask, “How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc?”

The comparison to the impact of the book on society is a good one. It is staggering to see the pace at which the changes brought by the Internet are occurring and to compare that change to previously significant moments. To someone from a generation where change occurred at a much less frenetic pace, I am sure this is mind-boggling in its rapidity. However, to be so arrogant as to criticize a “whole generation”, saying that they have fallen victim to “inanities,” as she has, reflects either: a.)complete ignorance of the resources available, b.)complete disdain for anyone young enough to appreciate a free wifi connection, or c.) a lament about sagging book sales. Ms. Lessing is a brilliant woman, and the Internet is certainly not lacking in addictive time-wasters. However, it is also filled with thousands of times more outstanding scholarly resources than can be found in virtually any city library’s shelves. Having a Masters degree in Reading myself, I appreciate her championing the cause of literacy. What she is missing, however, is that literacy is much more than words on paper. In this vein she continues,

Very recently, anyone even mildly educated would respect learning, education and our great store of literature. Of course we all know that when this happy state was with us, people would pretend to read, would pretend respect for learning. But it is on record that working men and women longed for books, evidenced by the founding of working-men’s libraries, institutes, and the colleges of the 18th and 19th centuries. Reading, books, used to be part of a general education. Older people, talking to young ones, must understand just how much of an education reading was, because the young ones know so much less.

(Try talking to my grandfather about RAM or download speeds–it’s not less knowledge, it’s different knowledge.)

We all know this sad story. But we do not know the end of it. We think of the old adage, “Reading maketh a full man” – reading makes a woman and a man full of information, of history, of all kinds of knowledge.

I would also add that reading makes a man or woman seek even more knowledge, more points-of-view. It makes them laugh, cry, scratch their heads, and furrow their brows. Reading is connected by research to increased intelligence, so it truly benefits the entire mental being. The problem here lies with associating only reading of physical books, with linen covers and parchment paper, to anything of value. I spend at least an hour a day, usually 2-3 hours, reading online. It has opened many doors and exposed me to ideas I never considered. It has had substantial value for me (Of course, I don’t simply read my MySpace comments all day.).Another quote by Ms. Lessing:

But here is the difficulty. Writing, writers, do not come out of houses without books.

Cannot argue that. I would more specifically say great writers do not come out of such houses. That is because quality books (not the inane ones) are part of a richness of experiences that help enable one to create something of value and depth. Again, however, it is not the only such experience. As stated, the Internet affords a wide variety of experiences which benefit the writer (Imagine creating a Tom Clancy novel without access to online information and schematics about nuclear submarines. It could be done, but it would certainly take far longer and be much more labor intensive.). Actual physical experiences, such as journeys to other lands, career paths, loves lost/found, etc. certainly add to the repertoire, and are probably the most valuable tools of all.

Why would I care about Ms. Lessing’s remarks at all? They are surely nothing new, in that they reflect the attitudes of many in the “scholarly” community, as well as the prevailing attitudes of many of the more senior community, who at times view technology as some sort of evil Gen-X plot to take over the planet. She, unintentionally, I believe, offers this self-indicting statement that reflects her attitude, “We are a jaded lot, we in our world – our threatened world. We are good for irony and even cynicism.” No, this isn’t new at all. This is what bothers me, though. There is a dissociative view among many, such as this great writer, that technology and the Internet are destroying their world and replacing it with one that is less intelligent, less capable, and less personal. I, for one, look at the changes which have occurred in my lifetime (granted, less than half of Ms. Lessing’s) and am excited by the possibilities. I see knowledge available to more people than ever, and the barriers that kept countries and cultures apart actually being destroyed. I can foresee a new breed of writers, spurred on by these experiences and knowledge, creating the next great wave of literature. Of course, that literature will probably be in electronic form, but a lack of paper will not make it lack significance, will it? I also see the great possibilities that technology affords to create connections and communities where they previously did not exist. Of course, the participants will need to be willing. Something tells me Ms. Lessing will not be interested in adding me to her Twitter friends.

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Photo credit: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Doris_lessing_20060312_%28jha%29.jpg)