Last night I had my writing group workshop a monograph I was working on for an online publication (I’ll post more details once I know it’s been accepted). In the piece I was discussing what types of support faculty need to work with newer technologies. While talking the group mentioned a few spots where I needed to unpack some assumptions I was making. I was glad they pointed these out because the tone of the piece was also a little too casual and making “these are my assumptions” moves are always already more formal.
However, at one point, one of my group members mentioned that there was a slight tone resonating in the piece that potentially gave off the vibe I felt I was better than other faculty members. Ugh! Obviously I need to reflect and revise accordingly; but, I also wonder where/how this “tone” comes from.
Part of me thinks that I’ve started to adapt this “tone” that is interpreted as “better than thou” once I embraced my desire and role as someone who plays with new technologies. In other words, once I accepted that I will cultivate this role, this expertise, as a scholar, I began to comfortably settle into it. And this settling in becomes a quite cloak of confidence. And what I think is the funny thing about confidence with “new technologies” is that I’m confident I will never know everything about the technology I’m currently playing with.
Although this reflection started out with me thinking about the difference between being confident and being conceited, it has moved into developing a new idea about being a technophile. It feels like it might be a characteristic of technophiles, especially those who play with newer technologies, that they embrace the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing everything. They have to feel comfortable playing around without directions, without guidance, without support, security or safety.
Is this characteristic that the net generation more readily embraces compared to gen-Xers and older? Will this type of discussion about “what characteristics make a technophile?” be irrelevant once a certain generation emerges?
