Thanks for your comment. You make an interesting point about users leaving it up to ‘experts’ to do the critical thinking; I think that is a huge part of the problem. While it may be up to scholars, teachers, scientists, etc. to lead the way towards a fuller consciousness of what it really means to be living in a digital nation, I think it’s dangerous for there to be little or no encouragement that people do some of their own critical thinking and reflection. I don’t think that saying “Wow, we’re totally immersed in media!” is really achieving much, and it’s not provoking others to be active, instead of passive, media consumers. Proactive and informed media consumption is a large part of what we at The LAMP try to teach in our media literacy workshops, rather than focus on the spiral toward societal decay you mentioned. It is extremely difficult, though, when that spiral gets the bulk of the attention.

I also have not had a chance yet to view the extended clips online, but I want to also ask you and everyone else reading this–what do you think about Michael Wesch not being interviewed for this? He’s as close to a rock star as media ethnography is going to get, and I would have loved for his insight to have been included.

Now I haven’t watched the extended clips, but I did find Marc Prensky’s comments particularly troubling in that he didn’t mention what the “benefits” actually were for society when paying the price of technological advancement. This kind of unbridled enthusiasm and faith in technology is ill-advised. Add to this the comment made by a Stanford researcher about our inability to keep up with and evaluate technological change, and Dretzin/Rushkoff’s slant looks a lot less alarmist.

For the record, I don’t believe in technological determinism. I do however believe in the power of reflection to help us learn. Somehow we (educators, technologist, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, etc.) need to incorporate reflection in our designs. It’s clear that the end-users has deferred critical thought to us ‘experts’. The question is, “Are we ready to accept the challenge?”