Today's Old News: Paying Attention

According to Mark Weiser, “The most profound technologies are those that disappear,” that “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it” (qtd. in Selber, 159-160). Selber adds, “Technologies may be the most profound when they disappear. But when this happens, they also develop the most potential for being dangerous” (160).

Technology and its corresponding literacy are already deeply woven into our way of life. We see its hemlines at work, school, home, and even in the twenty-first century workings of our democratic government. As more of us go online it instantly creates a division with those who are still offline. We get so used to our new access that we easily forget those without it. The internet and its uses are ingrained in our lifestyles, but what of them who never had it?