8th Post - Response to second blog post question presented by Professor

Based on our discussion, discuss your relationship to "Digital Wisdom". Are you developing the skills for digital wisdom or digital distraction? Are you controlling the interface, or is the interface controlling you?

My relationship with the new media and technology as a whole can be characterized as both digital wisdom and digital distraction. As I am in the midst of preparing and writing finals I continually get side-tracked and beging visiting websites that I probably shouldn't until i've completed all my work. However, to call them distractions is a bit over an overstatement.

For instance, I am writing a political paper on the concept of Power and whether Canada's Prime Minister is too powerful or too weak. After having written roughly two pages, single spaced, I got distracted by own thoughts. Joseph Nye, a prominent political scientist who developed the concepts of soft and hard power, came to mind while writing my paper. Like any digital native would do I decided to google him and see if he had given any interviews in which I could watch. To my delight, I discovered that Joseph Nye had recently given a talk at TED.com discussing the very matter of 'Power'. After watching the video I realized that an hour had roughly gone by and that I was still only a quarter of the way through my essay.

Now, on the one hand, one could argue that I got distracted by the internet and its vast amount of digital material. However, on the other hand, one could argue that in that 60 minute time frame, I obtained a certain amount of knowledge and wisdom due to me being 'distracted'. I learned exactly what Joseph Nye meant when talking about soft power and hard power, how he got to this concept, and what he thought America needed to do in today's context. All of this didn't really help me write my essay, however I am certain that years from now I will still remember the words of Joseph Nye.

I therefore conclude this blog posts with: I am unsure whether or not I have digital wisdom or am a victim to digital distraction.