When I was reading, I often found myself questioning opportunity as a whole. In the text, Toyama says "talent is universal, opportunity is not". This quote was used to basically explain that the internet is now our opportunity and because of this, it creates a divide between the "haves" and the "have nots", in terms of people with access to internet.
As a soon to be college graduate looking for employment, this shocked me a little bit. I don't think that I have ever thought of the internet as giving me opportunity in the job sense until now, mainly because the internet has always played a pivotal role within my life. While stepping back and looking at the past though, I can see the difference. As college grads, my parents relied on newspaper ads and word of mouth to find employment, it wasn't just a quick Google search away. While thinking about it, it almost evened the playing field, where even the people that were not as directly connected to the internet, had the same opportunity as other people. I think the internet definitely has changed the idea of opportunity, especially in terms of the job market. I think if anything it makes it a lot more competitive because more and more people have access to these job openings. I think it also makes opportunities such as jobs hard to come by, because those without have to work that much harder to find them.
I think that one thing that we need to remember going forward is that the Internet, in a way, makes people lazy. We need to find a balance between "doing the dirty work" while also having essentially endless opportunities. We also really need to find a way to bridge the divide between those with Internet and those without.
I agree with you in that this is so applicable to the seniors in the class, and how we are approaching our next step after graduation. In every career symposium and opportunity for advice we are suggested to have our LinkedIn profile updated, and that the Internet is a great way of not only networking but finding opportunities. It's interesting because we all have that opportunity to take advantage of what the internet and connection had to offer but some utilize the internet in a way that makes them lazy and not as willing to do the "dirty work" to put in effort to find the jobs they may need. It is a delicate balance that is interesting to see as we are in the exact position where some people are experiencing the struggles of not being motivated as they have access to so much opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI discussed the same quote in my blog post, and I definitely agree with you in that it was a little shocking and could easily be taken in different ways. Personally, I thought the quote ("talent is universal, opportunity is not") gave us a little too much credit as digital media consumers. I wondered, is this kind of statement feeding us all a false sense of worthiness and entitlement? As we discussed briefly in class today, this mindset has created a dangerous narcissism that has become the overarching stereotype of our generation. However, as you noted in your post, this quote is also misleading in that it generalizes "opportunity" with the assumption that we all have the same access to said "opportunity". All around, I'd say it probably wasn't the best quote to start off a reading with (especially from the reader's perspective)!
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