The 21st Century

The 21^st Century marks the next 2100 years of the common age or Anno Domini. It is a strange realisation that this is the 12^th year of this mysterious century, yet looking back, so much has happened in these years from wars to natural disasters. Wars and disasters have always occurred, so then what, you might ask, sets this present century apart from any other. My answer to that would be that technology has given us the key to unlock the door to information. In this century thus far we have seen the advent of things such as smart phones, and coupled with that a internet freedom resulting in web sites such as Wikipedia and wiki leaks. Now anyone, almost anywhere can have access to knowledge, but not the stagnant knowledge that used to be found in the family encyclopaedia. Now we have access to knowledge sources that have to keep up to date, in fact, the knowledge can often be created by anyone. Another huge difference came about with the construction of sites like MySpace, You tube, and of course, Face Book. And technology keeps on changing getting smaller, faster and able to do more sophisticated things. We have moved beyond information into what The Brave New World Of Education: creating a unique professionalism (2009) calls the digital world.

The 21^st Century is a time of remarkable change, mostly characterised by the rise of the digital. How do you think that affects the way we perceive the world compared to the generation of young thinkers in the beginning of the 20^th Century?