Activity #3 - question 4

Vaidhyanathan is wrong in categorizing certain groups as always more “digitally adept” than others, and sounds condescending in some areas of his argument.

Vaidhyanathan states in his article that privileged socioeconomic groups are mostly digitally adept, which I agree with for a few reasons. Young people who are born and raised in wealthier families and attend schools in wealthier areas are more likely to know how to use technological tools simply because they can afford them. Schools in wealthier areas have more computers and tools and are more likely to be able to spend more one on one time with them in school because they have sufficient funding to purchase enough to go around. They are more likely to have instructors who know a lot about them and will teach the children. I have cousins that were raised in wealthy areas and their schools always had a large amount of new computers and tools. I noticed growing up how they always knew more than I did about using computers and claimed that they had learned those skills in school, while I always just knew the basic skills. Wealthier families also have the luxury of being able to purchase certain items for their children like ipods, newer model cell phones, mp3 players, and computers so they are able to use them and learn about them in their free time as well. Obviously, a child who owns an ipod or computer will know more about them than a child who does not own one. Although it is not fair to lower income families, higher socioeconomic groups are more digitally adept because they have the advantage of being able to purchase them.

Vaidhyanathan also argues that young English speaking people are more digitally adept than others, which I disagree with. This seems condescending because he offers no evidence or reason for making this claim. Japan is a more technologically advanced country than the United States is. Therefore, their young people are more digitally adept than young American people simply because their country is ahead of us in that area, and they most likely are not English speaking. Most young people in the United States are English speaking, so if Vaidhyanathan is only speaking of this country than he is correct, however, if he is making this generalization about the whole world, he is incorrect.

I believe that Vaidhyanathan?s statement about white people being more digitally adept is accurate on some levels, but not entirely. I know plenty of people who are of different races than me and are much more digitally adept and often teach me things about computers and other high tech items at school and work. I think this issue goes back to whether they live in wealthier socioeconomic areas and their financial situation. Whites tend to have higher incomes than other races in many areas, so this disparity could be a reason for this statement. People who are well off financially are more likely to buy certain technological items and therefore become more digitally adept, regardless of their race.

Vaidhyanathan states that males are also more digitally adept than women, which I disagree with. Women are just as good at technological tasks as men are; they just are not always given the opportunity in the workplace to show it. According to a study by Arenz and Miheon, when children are young they somehow gain the impression that computers are more masculine than feminine, and the more that males continue with computer courses, the more they feel that their computer skills are superior to those of females. This may cause females to have less confidence in their technological skills, which causes them to not continue or pursue an education in computer or technological fields. Therefore, in the workplace, one is more likely to see a male than a female in computer oriented jobs because from childhood, society wrongly expresses that males are more digitally adept. For example, at my job most of the computer technicians are male, yet I know of women that I work with who would do a better job than the male technicians.

Vaidhyanathan stereotypes certain groups of people which I do not agree with. I do believe that socioeconomic status has a lot to do with technological knowledge, but it is not accurate to assume that particular groups like whites, males, or English speaking are categorized into digitally proficient.

Works Cited:

Canada , Katherine. Educational Technology Research and Development. Ariel. 2007. 13 Oct 2008.

http://www.arielpcs.com/resources/articles/etrd.shtml