Dive Brief:
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Questions about how the liberal arts are quantified took center stage at the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts last week, Inside Higher Ed reports.
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One professor said the "black mirrors" that are device screens have adversely affected attention spans and limited people's ability to "interact with the meaningful, valuable media that take time and effort to understand," of which liberal arts is comprised.
- As such, the liberal arts need to be saved "from the kind of de facto private education we've all received in the form of advertising," University of Virginia professor Talbot Brewer argued.
Dive Insight:
Recently, the impacts of a proliferation of technology use have been discussed numerous times, as experts try to discern whether they're helping or stunting learning. Brewer said it is not just liberal arts that need saving; the increased reliance on technology is impacting people's sense of self as well, he said.
It isn't just technology that threatens the liberal arts — heightened conversations around STEM and innovation often exclude the importance of the arts. And as institutions are under increasing pressure to demonstrate return on investment and as outcomes are directly tied to graduate employment rates, the arts are being forced to the back burner, both in conversation and in funding practices.