Or is it?
Is thinking really becoming a thing of the past? I often times wonder if we are falling deeper and deeper into times where you are being told exactly how to think. We are being told exactly what to like, what to do, who to follow, who to not like, etc. Have you every watched a video and felt great, then you go to the comments, and suddenly, you feel completely different based on others opinions? The way the world is set up, we are being overly influenced by every opinion but our very own. When was the last time you sat in your own thoughts and thoroughly understand how you feel about a situation? It is tough to do these days with the access we have to everyone else's views.
The title of this Blog is a quote from George Clinton bought to us by Questlove's book called Music is History. Questlove gave a quote from that book which sparked my thought process of this post. The quote: "Active Participation is a vital skill that's being lost as our culture falls more to Echo Chambers and Social Media sniping..." This quote hit me like a ton of bricks, because of the reality that we are living in. The reality that our culture may be struggling in various places, even as precious as our college classrooms.
I posted the quote mainly, because after 13 years of teaching adults, I have witness the shift in students. The classroom in 2023 is a tough place to be in. In order to get the best from a class, a student must be able to actively participate. Professors are asking students to Actively Participate in a world where you mostly follow what the masses are programming you to do. It is a significant shift in how we live our day to day lives, especially to a student that is heavily consumed in social media (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc.). It is literally difficult to think in a world were representations of "answers" are seconds away.
The idea of being 100% immersed into a topic with so many outside influences is tough for a person in year 2023. I can barely watch a movie at home without being distracted from the outside world via my cell phone, ipad, or laptop. However, with my generation (older millennial), we are pretty much the last generation that understands life before technology and social media. Though it can be a struggle, I feel like more people in my generation know when to turn it off and focus. For a person that is born into this new world, it can be difficult. How does a person born into the Metaverse world "turn it off"? How does a person born in the 2000s actively participate and embrace critically thinking though a homework problem?
What does that even mean to "turn it off"? If a student is sitting in my class, I can see the addiction to the cell phones getting the best of some of my favorite students and it is through no fault of their own. We are slowly moving toward a world where it may be illegal to think... And even if it is not illegal, it is has become very difficult to actively think for yourself. We so quickly can find some kind of answer at our finger tips, even if the answer is not correct. We have information overload in our devices and we can't miss any of it.
The common remark is to "just turn it off, put the phone away, log off, ignore..." That is easy to do for some people, but for others, it is very difficult. Active participation needs full attention; but if full attention means a person may miss the news from the masses, it is a sacrifice a student is not willing to make. A lot of time, a students truly feels, "I can do two things at once". Doing two things at once means those two things are getting half of your attention. (a little math problem there for you).
We have access to way too much information, which may be doing more harm than good.
Overall, don't forget to think. I don't have a solution, but I will say this... Practice thinking for yourself, actively participate in class, research, build problem solving skills, gain your own opinion... Value the art of thinking... Do it now, while it's still legal!
~Dr. AIC54
S.N: This article addresses one of the many barriers that college students struggle with. I am currently publishing a book that addresses many issues that faces our college students, especially those that are working to be college ready.
The book will be released this month, Developmental Education Preparation: How Faculty Preparation in Higher Education Can Lead to Student Success. This book discusses how understanding the struggles our students face in mathematics can help prepare us for guiding them to student success. (More to come...)
Also, I would highly recommend QuestLove's History of Music. It is an amazing book, and have your music streaming app handy to add music to the words. :-)
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