This first chapter is basically an introduction to digital literacies and the way they shape our reality, how even a small invention like the mainspring can change the way we look at the world and ourselves. I found it particularly interesting that the person in the example seemed to regard his watch as a part of his body. And it's true that when someone asks us the time we usually say we know before we've looked, but now that technology has progressed and changed our world even more, there is little need to ask the time, because most people have it already.
Affordances and constraints were talked about, and it is important to realize that there will be both with any kind of technology you come across. For example, the internet can provide you with a lot of good information, but there are also a lot of distractions and false information that constrain your use of this tool. The chapter went on to discuss the ways that our new literacies change the ways we interact and relate. We can get to know someone through today's technology without ever meeting them, which eliminates geographical barriers somewhat when it comes to communication. It's amazing to think that only twenty years ago it would have been impossible to get to know someone from halfway across the world without ever traveling to that person's homeland or them travelling to you.
The chapter also touches on the fact that new technology always creates a certain level of resistance, and that's true. There will always be those who are afraid of what's new, but there will also always be those who find creative ways of improving our world with new technology. If you ask me, digital literacies and the technology through which they are possible are not going anywhere, so we can only move forward making the best of things with them.
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