Tools are not oracles
Recently, a friend of mine sent me a commencement speech Tom Brokaw made last year (2009) at William and Mary, which he, coincidentally, made on the exact same day as my graduation.
I like the general concept of commencement speeches – they are always so quotable, probably because they are meant to inspire people who are facing the daunting phenomenon called “the real world,” which Brokaw jokes, “was junior high”. I am especially susceptible to these “quotable” speeches and their mysterious lure due to my immeasurable collection of favorite quotes. Despite being a writer, I always think that someone has said it better.
This love of graduation speeches all began with the Sunscreen Song, I think . Either way, I think this section of Brokaw’s speech is particularly relevant to the effect of social media and new technology on all of us (and especially the class of 2009). Enjoy!
Photo by Stephen Salpukas
“You have at your disposal an assortment of nimble and powerful tools that can assist you-cyberspace, the Internet with its vast universe of information and capacity for research and communication played out on ever-smaller devices across an ever wider spectrum of choices.
But those are tools not oracles; they complement your mind and your heart. They do not replace them.
You’ll not solve global warning by hitting the delete button; you’ll not be able to eliminate reckless avarice by hitting backspace; you’ll not make society more just by cutting and pasting.
You should not as well surrender the essence of the human experience to 146 characters in Twitter or a Facebook, however seductive the temptation.
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but you’ll not get a Google alert when you fall in love. You may be guided by the unending effort of poets and artists, biologists and psychiatrists to describe that irreplaceable and still mysterious emotion so essential to the human condition, but all the search engines in the universe cannot compete with the first kiss.
It will do us little good, in other words, to wire the world, if we short-circuit our souls.”
Tags: google alert, Mary Schmich, tom brokaw, wear sunscreen