What a time to be
alive. While we still do have a good number of experts we are now, largely,
able to teach ourselves with the right amount of material and levels of discipline.
The digital age[1]
is here to stay and while here there are still quite a few that fail to fully
grasp just how beneficial this time is. Many of us take for granted that not too
long ago, 1700s, the average person could not read and write as we do today.[2] The average person could not
readily afford books though money has lost its purchasing power since then due
to the removal of the gold exchange and standards all together.[3] We typically consume
mountains of television[4] and even radio airtime
though that appears to be waning.[5]
As to our experts,
they are most needed within the fields of medicine, engineering, architecture,
law, and the physical sciences.[6] It would appear that other
fields the experts are needed increasingly less such as religion, media,
history, etc. There are available a myriad of tools at our disposal to now
utilize to become proficient in these and other areas. We are long passed the
time of little to no literacy to where we now have home libraries, archives of
pdfs and eBooks, and learn many things from watching online videos from the
likes of say YouTube and even Vimeo. Today you can practically become an ardent
and quite astute auto-didact that could arguably be better and much more well
read than college graduates. This may seem condescending to some, but I have
become aware of researchers with no college background that have broken things down
far better than many who have attended university.
Beyond just
learning and having gadgets at our disposal such as the modern cellphone which has
become a minicomputer in our pockets or on our hips, the way that we communicate
now is in light speed. Social media, for better or worse, has largely impacted the
way that we communicate back and forth and from day to day. Face to face has long
not been the rule of the day. And unfortunately, since the current health
crisis, social media has seen an enormous uptick in collaboration.[7] So, where does this leave
us in charting the waters to the next destination? We will have to wait and
see. But I would say learn all that you can and utilize, as much as possible,
all of the available tools that are at our disposal. And always plan, prepare,
be aware, and stay safe.
[1] the present time, in which many things are done by computer and large amounts of information are available because of computer technology:
(Definition of digital age from the Cambridge
Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
[2] https://fee.org/articles/the-spread-of-education-before-compulsion-britain-and-america-in-the-nineteenth-century/#:~:text=Sheldon%20Richman%20quotes%20data%20showing,55%20percent%20to%2081%20percent.
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/276748/average-daily-tv-viewing-time-per-person-in-selected-countries/
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