I am back! (I was only here for one post! But still!) It's been so long since I blogged or did much of the internet at all, that it kind of feels weird, but I've made a decision to actually post on at least a monthly basis. There's a bunch of crap swirling around in my cranium, so I might as well get it out there for people to pick over, munch on, and eventually crap on. Here goes...
I have been out of grad school (MA in philosophy) for about a year now. Oh, uh, I quit, just to clarify. I don't have an MAPhil. I've been thinking a lot, and I realized I'm kind of bitter about academia... So, what better way than to look back at something I'd written a few months ago? (This writing will appear in the next post).
Long story short: Despite my bitterness at my academic training being for nought at this point in my life (it really did teach me a lot, I'm just being hyperbolic), I am indeed concerned for the future of academic studies in fields other than Math and the Sciences. I worry because fields such as philosophy don't really appear "useful." I have a bachelor's in history, and many people feel that that, too, isn't very useful. It's true, it hasn't really made potential employers throw jobs at me, but the research and analytical skills I cultivated are really valuable. (I try to explain this on job applications, but no one seems to care lollol!)
Long story:
Anyway, I fear that as a civilization, we're kind of forgetting where we come from as we explore new territory in technology and the way we attach ourselves so adamantly to such technology. (It's kind of ridiculous how addicted I am to playing dumb games on my tablet.) Aside from things like iPads, however, lies the real and omnipresent digitalization of our lives in ways that I think we forget about. We forget about them because the technology, and the demand for the maintenance of it has become so deeply entangled in the way that we do everything. (I mean, for a good example, I'm writing on a blog that no one reads on the internet instead of writing an editorial in the newspaper... Not that people still don't do that, but they all tend to be much older than I). The touch screen technology that rules our lives right now won't save us from ourselves, is what I'm saying.
I think about the digitalization of archives and historical records, especially personal accounts such as diaries all the time. A former politics professor of mine back in 2009 actually raised this point as he was researching for a biography he was writing on a cardinal. I believe he said something to the effect of, "How are you going to do your historical research if the person you're researching hasn't physically written anything down?" And it's so true. On the one hand, it simply means that we will develop new research guidelines and techniques utilizing the internet. (Even though the verity of the documentation is going to be much more difficult to determine based on the changeable nature of the internet, etc.) On the other hand, though, I ask myself the question: "What happens if the internet goes kaput?" Seriously!
What do we do then? How do we know things? In more than many ways, the internet is an amazing and wondrous tool. However, what happens when something really bad happens and things go horribly wrong and we don't have it anymore? Can that ever happen? I'm not sure, but I think the recent trends in education that rely so heavily on the internet are slightly dangerous. I'm also worried, because, as I mentioned above, fields that teach critical thinking and analysis (such as philosophy, history, and literature), are getting less funding and are shoved to the back burner for more important things - such as computer science, for example. I was told in a grad school seminar that getting a job after our graduation was going to be incredibly difficult because more and more schools were actually shutting down entire philosophy departments. We're not talking like, you can't major in it anymore. I'm saying, they're closing the departments. No more philosophy classes at all. Poor Socrates.
I seriously hope no one reading this thinks that I'm not a proponent of mathematics and science research. Because I heart NASA so much.
Anyway, in all seriousness, I do hope that love of education for education's sake does not go down the tube. And I don't mean the YouTube.
On that note, my next post will deal more along the lines of why I am bitter towards academic philosophy and how it's kind of ruining the spirit of inquiry and understanding...
TTFN
I have been out of grad school (MA in philosophy) for about a year now. Oh, uh, I quit, just to clarify. I don't have an MAPhil. I've been thinking a lot, and I realized I'm kind of bitter about academia... So, what better way than to look back at something I'd written a few months ago? (This writing will appear in the next post).
Long story short: Despite my bitterness at my academic training being for nought at this point in my life (it really did teach me a lot, I'm just being hyperbolic), I am indeed concerned for the future of academic studies in fields other than Math and the Sciences. I worry because fields such as philosophy don't really appear "useful." I have a bachelor's in history, and many people feel that that, too, isn't very useful. It's true, it hasn't really made potential employers throw jobs at me, but the research and analytical skills I cultivated are really valuable. (I try to explain this on job applications, but no one seems to care lollol!)
Long story:
Anyway, I fear that as a civilization, we're kind of forgetting where we come from as we explore new territory in technology and the way we attach ourselves so adamantly to such technology. (It's kind of ridiculous how addicted I am to playing dumb games on my tablet.) Aside from things like iPads, however, lies the real and omnipresent digitalization of our lives in ways that I think we forget about. We forget about them because the technology, and the demand for the maintenance of it has become so deeply entangled in the way that we do everything. (I mean, for a good example, I'm writing on a blog that no one reads on the internet instead of writing an editorial in the newspaper... Not that people still don't do that, but they all tend to be much older than I). The touch screen technology that rules our lives right now won't save us from ourselves, is what I'm saying.
I think about the digitalization of archives and historical records, especially personal accounts such as diaries all the time. A former politics professor of mine back in 2009 actually raised this point as he was researching for a biography he was writing on a cardinal. I believe he said something to the effect of, "How are you going to do your historical research if the person you're researching hasn't physically written anything down?" And it's so true. On the one hand, it simply means that we will develop new research guidelines and techniques utilizing the internet. (Even though the verity of the documentation is going to be much more difficult to determine based on the changeable nature of the internet, etc.) On the other hand, though, I ask myself the question: "What happens if the internet goes kaput?" Seriously!
What do we do then? How do we know things? In more than many ways, the internet is an amazing and wondrous tool. However, what happens when something really bad happens and things go horribly wrong and we don't have it anymore? Can that ever happen? I'm not sure, but I think the recent trends in education that rely so heavily on the internet are slightly dangerous. I'm also worried, because, as I mentioned above, fields that teach critical thinking and analysis (such as philosophy, history, and literature), are getting less funding and are shoved to the back burner for more important things - such as computer science, for example. I was told in a grad school seminar that getting a job after our graduation was going to be incredibly difficult because more and more schools were actually shutting down entire philosophy departments. We're not talking like, you can't major in it anymore. I'm saying, they're closing the departments. No more philosophy classes at all. Poor Socrates.
I seriously hope no one reading this thinks that I'm not a proponent of mathematics and science research. Because I heart NASA so much.
Anyway, in all seriousness, I do hope that love of education for education's sake does not go down the tube. And I don't mean the YouTube.
On that note, my next post will deal more along the lines of why I am bitter towards academic philosophy and how it's kind of ruining the spirit of inquiry and understanding...
TTFN
I hear you, girlfriend. Same shit is happening with art of all types (for example, there is digital art now. In my opinion it looks worse, but that is just me. I guess there is digital music now too... all that shit is ONLY recorded on computers!) I'm glad you are blogging again, though! :)
ReplyDeleteYes! I was thinking the whole time of the arts as well. And thanks for reading!
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