I frame Stern’s chapter “Producing Sites, Exploring Identities: Youth Online Authorship” as an answer to a not-so-new argument iterated by those who approach the infiltration of technology into our society and education systems with trepidation. More technology, this argument posits, is not synonymous with wealth, increased knowledge, or a superior society. As environmental educator, David Orr, states: “There is a myth that our culture represents the pinnacle of human achievement: we alone are modern, technological, and developed. This, of course, represents cultural arrogance of the worst sort” (Orr, 1991). He continues to critique modern American curricula for its emphasis of fragmented bits of information – often mistaken for knowledge – that is devoid of spirituality, nobleness, gentleness, and life affirmation. As a result, “most students graduate without any broad integrated sense of the unity of things.”
How is Stern’s analysis of youth online authorship of personal sites, such as websites and blogs, a reply to a culture that aggressively promotes technology as a superior instrument through which our world may be managed? One of the most evident of Stern’s findings is that personal sites allow adolescents opportunities to “[manage] the complex situations and shifting self-expectations that characterize adolescence” (p. 97). She further states that, “expressing oneself online becomes a way for them to explore their beliefs, values, and self-perceptions, and thereby to help them grapple with their sense of identity” (p. 102).
Within a cultural context that places such heavy emphasis on harnessing technology for success in the 21st century – all too frequently, in my opinion, at the expense of other ways of cultivating imagination and sensitivities, other knowledge, instruments of production, and sources of potential societal contribution – Stern’s scrutiny seems to make an offer we as educators should not pass up. The popularity and attraction of personal sites, and the talent with which adolescents construct them, is a magnificent opportunity to employ technology as a means for youth to make sense of their world. The empowerment of authorship, the potential limitless audience, the accessibility and increased tools of personal sites provide a chance for adolescents to integrate the bits of fragmented information thrown at them from every which way, to personalize and humanize them when they are static and technocratic…to chew, savor or spit them out. Ultimately, I believe they offer a modest approach to countering the danger David Orr warns against – a population of graduates “without any broad sense of the unity of things” to potentially help develop citizens who are highly reflective, more spiritual, and more in tune with their identities as a result of contemplation and self-inquiry.
Samah
