taking stock of community and connection now and in the future
I’m back from my travels and gearing up for a return to my regular blogging schedule. It was a great two weeks. I saw many historical sites I’ve wanted to visit for some time. I also had the chance to spend time with my extended family and reflect on different aspects of my life to date.
As I wound my way back through New York, I stopped at the Chautauqua Institution for an overnight with my cousins. Chautauqua is a very special community where people gather to take in the arts, learn and discuss important issues of the day in a beautiful, natural setting. Families and individuals return year after year to find “intellectual and spiritual growth and renewal.” Through the unique activities and environment it offers, Chautauqua fosters great inter-generational dialogue and understanding.
Having just been steeped in this generational exchange, I was happy to come across a recent Fast Company article touching on the topic. Titled The Future’s So Bright…, the piece captures a conversation between John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox Corporation, and high school senior Shannon O’Brien.
At the outset, Brown refers to the innovation explosion happening today and shares his “belief that we will see a new form of education emerge--not one based on being taught but one more oriented to passion-based learning within niche communities of interest.” With this new type of community-based learning, he sees the “rise of the pro-amateur class--serious explorations and creations we do for the love of doing it.”
Responding to Brown, O’Brien passes along the teenager’s perspective that “the future is a giant leap into the hopeful unknown.” Acknowledging the innovation and technological advances Brown cites, she observes that they can have the detrimental side effect of keeping people from “communicating and bonding like they used to.” She hopes that “the people of the world” will take note of this fissure and “learn to find balance between the real world of people and relationships and the cyber world, [that can be] time consuming and overpowering.”
