ART & THE FACEBOOK GENERATION

My daughter is 17 and I see her as a member of the Facebook generation. The web took off when she was a toddler and I remember taking her to the park and she pointed to the lake and said, "Click on that swan."I think she and her peers simply see digital technology as part of life, like my generation see the motor car or mains electricity.This has plusses and minuses: on one hand they are not impressed by the technology per se but by what you can do with it; on the other hand, like my young daughter in the park, they may have a one-click attitude to creativity.Digital communication encourages a superficial relationship with the real world: if a friendship is not working or a process is boring, an alternative is one click away.On Facebook, people are either friends or not, there are no subtle grades like in face-to-face relationships. I know from bitter experience that real satisfaction comes from achieving a result despite setbacks and long effort. The cyber-mediated world often confuses ideas and understanding with actual experiences and appreciation.We have a generation who can do well in a pub quiz, but may struggle with processes that need long experience and practised judgment; a generation who fully understand that anything can be art, but not what makes some art great.We need to understand that just because some programme gives us the ability, it does not give us any meaning.

Telegraph
July 4 2009