After reading this section of Slack and Wise Culture + Technology, I realized how
much of an impact that technology has in our culture. It’s difficult to understand the plethora of
technology that has been invented and how much it plays a role in our daily
lives. I agree with the point on page 43
that “writing technology is the cause of major culture change. Writing technology
implants forgetfulness, it makes people mentally lazy. . . ” It is something I can relate to because I don’t
know any of my friend's numbers that I met in college or recently. It’s just programmed in my phone. However, I know my friend’s house numbers
from when we were younger because it was something that had to be memorized if
one wanted to easily call their friend.
However, today nobody will have to memorize a number if he or she can
just easily look it up in their contact list.
Today, technology is all about convenience which we mentioned in class
today. It now caters to people’s needs
to facilitate lives. However, I want to
know what would happen if cell phones just stopped working and we had to depend
on our memory and ourselves to do tasks that cell phones do for us?
I agree
with the point that once you have technology, you have to use it because in today’s
society people assume that everyone has internet access and cell phones. At Ursinus, professors assume you have email and
regularly check it. For instance, I heard
a professor get mad at another student for not answering her email. Then I began to think about how different
this was 20 years ago. It wasn’t assumed
that everyone had internet access. Now a
professor expects to always be able to contact students. While there are benefits to this, it is
difficult to disconnect from today’s society.
For example, my dad is never not on his phone because of work. He feels the need to answer every call and
not let his phone ring all the way through because he could be losing
business. However, do any of you agree
that technology impedes on our daily lives and relationships? I found this article about relationships and technology that summarizes main points about its effect on us.
This article explains why we hide
behind our phones and how it has had a negative effect on us and others which I
agree with. When I am sitting on my
phone often efreshing Twitter and Instagram while my friends and I are
together, I feel isolated and in a different world than them. None of us are talking, each of us is just
refreshing their phone. When I talk
about it, I realize how ridiculous it sounds.
This relates to the other point in
the text that nobody forces us to buy any technology or download any apps. We choose to do that. All of these people willingly download it and
it starts to dictate our lives because we let it happen. Technology is the catalyst or
instigator. It causes people to become
lazy or antisocial. However, technology, like email, is one thing that people assume everyone has especially at Ursinus
because that’s the school’s form of universal communication. However, we control how we use technology. The Columbine students learned about guns and
decided to use them to kill students just like people use technology for
whatever reason. We cannot disown the
things we create as the text states.
Have you
guys realized the huge impact technology has had on us? It has changed the way we interact, how we
see ourselves, and what we do with our time.
For instance, we mentioned in class how people search for that external
validation to get likes on their photos, but does that really matter to a
person? I don’t appreciate that today in
society people need reassurance and they seek that through posting a picture
and seeing how many likes they receive. What
should matter is that you like that picture and you want to post it because you
like it not because you want feedback from others.
Cell phones and all these new inventions have caused a myriad of
problems too. For instance, cell phones
cause the lethal texting and driving and distraction during work. We have become so caught up in cell phones
and getting the next one that comes out that we don’t realize how much it
controls us. We have become so dependent
on technology that it is difficult for us to survive without it. This is mentioned on page 61 how some people
can’t imagine being without it. However,
how about during urgent times like a hurricane when all the power goes
out? For example, when Hurricane Sandy
hit New Jersey my family was without power for a few days and it was very difficult to
deal without power but we got through it.
However, it’s not the end of the world if that happens because people go
through that a lot in certain areas of the world and have it worse.
Things like that make me want to
start having mini cleanses with technology.
Each week I’m trying not to use a certain social media app to see how I feel
and how much time it saves. I really want to find out why I use these apps and if they even benefit my daily life? Because I enjoyed
the media fast I want to experiment with other technology and set rules for
myself so then maybe I can appreciate technology and focus on other important
things like schoolwork and sleep. I
think we could all use mini cleanses to remind ourselves of what is important
and to see how much technology affects us. Do you think you could do it? A greater appreciation and wiser use of technology may come out of
it.
-Bri Keane
I 100% agree with you that technology impedes on our daily lives and relationships, especially after doing the media fast assignment. I couldn't get over how “naked” I felt for those 24 hours without my phone, and the fact that everyone around me were always using some sort of technology made the struggle even worse. Doing the media fast for 24 really isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but growing up with technology constantly around me made me accustomed to always being connected to the world all the time, in one way or another. This goes along with the idea noted on page 25 in Slack and Wise’s text, which states that “once you have [technology], you have to use it” and that “there is ‘no going back’, ‘no regressing’, and ‘no going back to the cave’”. Due to the fact that the majority of people in society engage in the technology craze, those who try to “go back to the cave” will most likely suffer the consequences of being left out or uniformed. However, I too, Bri, want to try to do “mini cleanses” with technology and try not to use different social media apps as much (which can be thought of maybe visiting “the cave” for an hour or two, then leaving). In fact, with the start of my new classes along with practice, I find myself checking Twitter and Instagram once, maybe twice, a day (which is a lot less than I normally would!). From just the few classes we’ve had, this Technology & Culture course has really opened my eyes to how much of a distraction technology and social media sites can be, and so I really am trying to make an effort this semester to avoid non-necessary technology whenever I’m doing homework. I believe the distractions with which technology provides us, are all a part of the effects Slack & Wise talk about on page 47. When using the computer to do school work, for instance, it has the purpose to enable a student to use programs such as Microsoft Word to type papers and Internet Explorer to do the necessary research for the papers. Unfortunately, the Internet is home to many social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which then become a distraction to the student. With the intent to be used for solely writing papers and doing research, the social media sites found on the computer could be classified as “unintended effects, secondary effects, side effects, or even revenge effects”. These side effects are trade- offs from using the technology, and as people engage in the habitual acts of skimming through these social media networks, it becomes more and more difficult to escape these effects.
ReplyDeleteYes exactly Tori, I agree with everything you said. I wonder if people could challenge themselves to limiting their time to social networking sites and apps. Because when I think about it, I spend SO much time on these sites and I don't know why I even do it. It seems like it just sucks the life out of me too. For instance, over winter break I would literally sit on my couch refreshing each site every few minutes and then after I was done, I would say now what? Looking back, it's really sad how much time I spent on those sites over break. Break was meant for relaxing and winding down but those sites don't really do that for me. So why do I keep going back on these sites?! It's a question I ask myself every time I refresh Twitter. I wish I could have the willpower to just stop using all of them but it's difficult when everyone else around you is using them and then you're left basically talking to yourself. I think it would be awesome if everyone all together could just stop using them and be mindful of each other more.
DeleteThe points you brought up and pages you used to cite were really interesting. I agree with them that the computer should be used for academic purposes to get work done and then once the work is done I would want to use it for leisure purposes. I can't even count the number of times I get distracted while doing an assignment. It's literally an impulse to go to another site when I'm doing homework. I just want to challenge the class to these mini cleanses because I think each of us could use them. Maybe it will allow us to pick our heads up more and say hello to people when we walk on campus instead of staring down at our phones!
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