LANGUAGE AND CYBERCULTURE

Jessica Ximena Castañeda Villamizar

Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, facultad de educación

Reaction paper 1

Docente: Dixón López

Abril, 2022
How are technologies and social media changing our lives? 

Nowadays it is impossible to think about technology and social networks and not think
about the word change and everything that it entails.
As McLuhan comments, humanity has gone through different stages after the creation of
the alphabet, where the forms of communication have varied, from handwritten letters,
through printing, telegrams and radio, to ours. It was strongly influenced by technology,
and where we increasingly change the way we relate to others.

The rapid development of electronic devices has led the creation of social networks,
applications and technological tools to an immeasurable advance, which are related to our
daily lives and have made them indispensable.

Every day we wake up thanks to the cell phone alarm, we catch up with the news around
the world through TV or radio or social networks, just one click away. We move to our jobs
through cars ordered by an app and we get to work for hours in front of a computer where
through different networks we share information, create content, be it entertainment, health,
education, etc. Technology is immersed in our life and we can no longer live without it.

When relating it to a field of work, such as education, technology and social networks
become necessary as a teaching and learning resource for teachers and students. As teachers
we constantly use technological platforms to share information, to generate knowledge and
to investigate and create lessons according to the needs of each student.

We have just experienced a health crisis, which showed that those students who do not have
a technological resource and/or social network to communicate are definitely deprived of
their right to education. In addition to this, the addiction and dependence that these types of
technological tools create in children at such an early age and that at the same time affects
many of the basic learning devices that are required in the first years of school life, such as
attention, perception and motivation. But also from the point of view as a student, I
highlight the benefits of having these technological advances, which facilitate the different
ways of learning, it does not limit us to traditional methodology, but on the contrary, it
allows, in an innovative way, to acquire knowledge through a screen for those who We
cannot study in person. In addition, as a constant user of social networks, I highlight the
advantages that social networks offer by bringing us closer to people separated by distance,
but also sometimes distances us from people who are close to us.
Social networks and technology are a double-edged sword that we all must necessarily
learn to handle, from the smallest to the oldest. As Nicholas Carr mentions, we are losing
focus, so much information is overwhelming and many times we are not aware of it, we
simply consume and consume information from all kinds of sources without corroborating
its veracity.

It is here that we notice the impact, both positive and negative, of the overwhelming
technological advance, and which we often cannot control. A clear example of this are the
rates of school cyberbullying that have increased as more social networks appear, people
behind a screen with access to all kinds of information of many minors who use social
networks without consent and control of their parents or responsible adults.

This topic of discussion about how technology and social networks themselves have
changed life over the years has been the subject of study in different courses such as
cultural awareness, where technology is a fundamental part of change and progress in the
different types of cultures in the world, how the ways of relating, communicating, getting to
know each other, establishing links with other people, perceiving the world, etc. have
changed.

This reading leads to a state of self-reflection where, from my point of view as a user, it
invites me to think more about the time I dedicate to social networks, which I often in
conscientiously use whenever I can, consuming my quality time, in addition to open my
eyes to a reality and it is security on the internet and social networks, privacy that has been
invaded and to which we often do not pay the necessary attention. Here from my role as a
teacher of children I differ from the author, who mentions in the reading that the new
generations may not be able to communicate in a natural way due to the excessive use of
social networks, but it is important to work so that this If this is not the case, as mediators
of the learning process, teachers and adults must work together so that future children know
how to manage and make the most of social networks, without affecting their essence and
uses and relationship.

In conclusion, the internet and social networks have greatly impacted our lives, our way of
living and relating and communicating with the world, whether positively or negatively,
this has had an impact and it is a fact that it will continue to do so because more and more
technology evolves, that is why it is important that from our different roles in society we
work together to control the management and interaction with the internet and social
networks in favor of a better relationship between humans and technology, since the one
depends on the other.