Reaction to Little Brother
Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, was a slightly interesting novel that takes place in the future and addressed the present-day struggle of privacy and technology. Although I was not impressed by the novel itself, I do believe that Doctorow raised some interesting topics through his characters and their techno-abilities.
While I found the technological language a little distracting and hard to understand, it amazed me how easily teenagers and young adults can access and invade public and private data that strangers create. Unfortunately, what is even more shocking is how much access the government has to civilian’s computers, bank accounts, and other personal items that most people think is completely safe and secure.
I believe that by Doctorow’s creation of the main character, Marcus, Doctorow is able to voice his opinion on present-day issues that tread beneath the surface of the situations that Marcus encounters throughout the novel. The first thing that comes to my mind is the Patriot Act which seemed to heavily parallel the scene in the novel where Marcus is arguing with Severe Haircut Lady, who is torturing him to get the passwords to all the different areas of his cellphone in order to see whether or not Marcus had anything to do with the terrorist attacks that just happened.
It is frightening to me to think about how dependent our society is becoming on technology. During our class discussion, someone raised the issue of putting cameras in classrooms which are supposedly put there so that parents can keep an eye on their children while they are not around. Unfortunately, this tool is more often used as something that parents log onto to watch the teacher instead of the student. This really bothers me as a future educator because I know I have the ability to learn classroom management techniques and be able to professionally hold together a classroom in a manner that would not disappoint the parents or the school system. I understand that there have been instances in which teachers were caught misbehaving and lost their jobs for justifiable reasons, but students are also given the opportunity to speak out against wrongful teachers, and principals and other administrative positions are also in place to monitor teachers and make sure that there are no “bad eggs” which inhibit the school from being outstanding. I believe that there are so many other options than putting cameras into classrooms to monitor students–and inadvertently–teachers.
Although technology has it’s “downs” in the classroom, it also has some potential positives. Giving students the access to technology could lead to more involved discussion in the classroom, and could also make teaching easier for the teacher. Of course, there is a huge difference between this category of technology and the category of technology which I discussed in the last paragraph.
Doctorow raises some interesting issues through the school, home, and city settings of his novel. As future educators, I believe it is important to consider how technology will affect our future careers. I know that I would much rather have technology working with me rather than against me in the classroom.
