Session 5: Connected

This week in class we watched a movie called Connected: An Autobiography About Love, Death, and Technology by Tiffany Shlain. I thought this was a great way to start off class this week, and really enjoyed the film. My notes are tiny and incomprehensible, as per usual,

My lovely notes

so here are some of the ideas that stuck out to me in a more organized fashion.

Interdependence: Basically Tiffany says that we are all connected and that each action we take has a chain reaction of other effects. She says, "All of our actions affect everything around us." She is especially concerned with the way technology influences this. She says that as we become more and more connected, we can see the effects of our actions in real time, and this will make us more thoughtful and conscious. This is a nice idea, but I'm not sure it's true. I think being hyper-connected can make us extremely selfish in some cases. Perhaps we need to teach our students how to use technology effectively?

Interdependence

Humans are social beings. We rely on our parents for care for much longer than other species, and thus we continue to crave and seek connection with others throughout our lives. Tiffany's mother once told her that our emotional connections drive everything we do, and I'm inclined to agree.

Why do we deal with everything separately when everything is connected? When did we start doing that? We shouldn't be studying each subject or idea as a separate entity, but rather accept how interconnected everything is and study those connections. This lends itself nicely to an interdisciplinary approach to teaching.


We need honey bees! The low number of honey bees on our planet is problematic. She starts off the movie explaining the importance of honey bees in our ecosystem. In fact, Einstein is quoted as saying that if honey bees went extinct, humans would die off within four years.

Albert Einstein and his honey bee

She circles back to honey bees at the end and uses the bees a metaphor for human connection. No bee can survive on his own, just as no human can survive on his own. However, our connections need to be deep and meaningful, not superficial. As teachers, we need to make our classes meaningful for our students, so they learn on a deeper level.


I responded to Marshall Kratter and Mary Buckley.