When thinking of a divide engendered via technology, I can't help but notice the huge difference in ways of communication between my generation and my grandparent's generation. Thanks to the invention of text messaging and email communication has become less personal and less emotional. Instead of writing love letters to our significant others like our grandparents once did, we send a text message with a heart emoticon. The need for instant gratification has taken over our means of communication, and in my opinion have taken away our romance. Many people I know rather send emails on Christmas as opposed to the traditional Christmas cards. Although technology helps us keep up with the face paced nature of our world, I don't think it should take away the human aspect of communication.
I think that technology creates a divide in our lives daily. The first example that comes to my head is internet communication. People used to have to get off their butts and go outside and find someone if they wanted to talk, or they would write a long hand-written letter to a friend or loved one and wait days for a response. How ever many positives there have been thanks to technology, I feel that thanks to email, Facebook, and other such means of communication has taken the personality and personability of out some people. There are some cases where indiviuals get som wrapped up in their online relationships that they never stop to notice that in reality the personal connection isn't there. For all the great things that technology has helped us accomplish and helped us advance thorough our time, I think that it has also dumbed us down a bit.
I think that technology creates a divide in our lives daily. The first example that comes to my head is internet communication. People used to have to get off their butts and go outside and find someone if they wanted to talk, or they would write a long hand-written letter to a friend or loved one and wait days for a response. How ever many positives there have been thanks to technology, I feel that thanks to email, Facebook, and other such means of communication has taken the personality and personability of out some people. There are some cases where indiviuals get som wrapped up in their online relationships that they never stop to notice that in reality the personal connection isn't there. For all the great things that technology has helped us accomplish and helped us advance thorough our time, I think that it has also dumbed us down a bit.
Technology has created a divide between generations of today mostly in the way we communicate with one another. Whereas us students were somewhat brought up in this new age society where internet and text message flourish, older individuals had to adapt to these changes. I feel that communication as increased dramatically with programs such as facebook, twitter, myspace, tumblr, flickr, e-mail, chat rooms, and other internet services. Let alone that we are constantly on our smart phones and iPhones each and every second of every day. Instead of sending mail or postcards, we can easily send e-mails or wall posts on facebook. Technology today has almost made it impossible to feel alone, much differently than how we used to feel in the early 1990's. Since we are so connected today, it makes it quite easy to get caught up in situations where your spending more time online then you are in real life. This can create somewhat real social problems. However, these advances are just another step in the progression of the world. Technology is growing and developing more everyday and its exciting to see where it will take us next.
I noticed a major difference when smartphones with the ability to text first came out. Texting was a rage, it was fast, it was discreet, and it was a new technology that people were amazed by. Texting brought forth "text talk" where you use letters for words "Idk-cul8tr". The new language of texting definitely has an influence in people's ability to spell and use proper grammar, but since writing is apparently going out and everything is done with Microsoft or some other type of Word Processor with spellcheck, who cares if you can't spell right anymore? With the ability to text so quickly and talk to people without holding their voice to your ear, a great deal of people also text while driving, a dangerous and sadly lethal habit which people don't realize the very real consequences to. Out of the most popular consequences to the ability to text, one of the other more noticeable traits, is that people aren't able to "read" conversations as well as they used to. When you're face to face with a person, you can read their body language, hear the tone of their voice, physically see them. With a text message, you don't get any of that. You don't know if the message they send is in a genuinely good humor or if they're sarcastic and pissed off at you.
Either way, don't be part of the crowd that texts while driving-Kari K
This might seem like a really weird example.. But here it goes. A divide I have noticed in technology and the consequences it created is found in different types of art forms, but one in particular is photography. SLR (single lens reflex) cameras were thought to become obsolete in the face of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras, because these new digitals could do so much more and the capacity to alter the photo was right there before you took the picture as opposed to doing so afterward on a computer. plus the lack of film is a money point. But there are still artists who refuse to withdraw their hands from the film chemicals. The art and beauty a photograph untouched by digital effects is one that rivals the beauty of photos that have been "doctored." Even the divide is evident in the verbiage. the term "doctored" seems so cold and calculated so removed from what people believe are to be. The consequence here is that many people recoil away from this new technology even though it is supposed to enhance the art form. Divisions bloom from these consequences on the very idea of art. On the very principles of Aesthetics even.
I seem to agree with most in when it comes to pinpointing a divide created by technology. The sociality of human beings has suffered a giant rift between several generations of people. My grandmother has a hard time figuring out how to email while my mother can manage it just fine. However, in the same parallel, my mom is just mastering how to send texts, while my brother and I have no problem sending out hundreds of text messages within a day. Technology has certainly affected how well and how quickly we communicate with each other and sometimes, it can even create a barrier between two people. Long gone is the intimacy and personal aesthetic of writing a letter or a phone call in the privacy of your own home. I don’t know how many phone conversations I’ve heard on the bus or walking around campus that make me vastly uncomfortable. Nothing is sacred in this digital world. Not only are the mediums in which we use changing and evolving, but our speech is too. Most people rely on shorthand to communicate through texts or emails because it shortens the time it takes to compose a message, sending out the information even quicker. We’re so accustomed to the rapid fire text messaging that I feel our patience as a society has lessened. Instant gratification and technology go hand in hand.
A divide engendered via technology that I can think of deals with communication, particularly when it comes to texting. For example, when sending a text message to another person, one must keep in mind that the person receiving the text message is limited. They cannot see your facial expressions, hear your tone of voice, or see any of your body language. Often times a text message has been sent or received and is interpreted incorrectly. Other times, the meaning of the text is ambiguous and, speaking from experience, the person receiving the text is unsure of how to interpret this message. At this point, the lack of understanding in the conversation hinders the conversation itself and puts a hold on things. Rather than having the ability to continue the conversation, one must spend more time interpreting what the person was actually trying to say rather than what was actually written in the text. Although texting is a great advancement in technology, it comes with its fair share of consequences. For example, due to the lack of emotion in text messages, it is easier for one to become offended or angered due to a misinterpretation. A person is subject to experiencing numerous emotions that were not intended for this person to feel. Despite it being a great technological advancement, texting is a tricky form of communication and can have its consequences.
Coming out of high school just over a year ago into college, I was shocked to see the number of laptops in just about every class I had. Rarely, if ever, did I see a high school student with their laptop at school and certainly never out during class. I have definitely noticed that this cultural acceptance at the collegiate level likely produces more harm than good. While laptops can be a great way to take notes and access class websites, blackboard pages, web links, etc, I know from personal experience they are more often a tremendous distraction from the lecture or class discussion. I’ll never forget, during my first semester at FSU, in my Psychology class there was a guy sitting next to me with his laptop out, earphones in, watching a live soccer game. Attendance was not required, so my question was, why come to class if you’re not even going to pay attention? Often, I choose to not bring my laptop if it is not required because I know I will get distracted. While I’m not much of a facebook user, most students can spend the whole class period on it. In training up this generation of students to use their laptops for everything, the educational system that has worked quite successfully for so long is now changing. As technology advances and society continues to change some of this adaptation is warranted. However, most research points to continually shrinking attention spans of Americans in general and I feel confident suggesting that advanced technology in classrooms (namely laptop prevalence) feeds into this. As a college student, I do feel that laptops and personal computers are extremely helpful and, really, essential in college. I also acknowledge that there are much more prevalent and legitimate unhealthy distractions facing students than bringing their computers to class. Still, when something can inhibit learning when someone has already physically made it to class (which is, on its own, hard enough for some college students), there has to be consequences. Although it’s really up to the student what they choose to do with their laptop in class, the continually expanding nature of technology in classrooms can create distractions for students.
There is no longer any reason to spell things correctly because Microsoft Word or even Blackboard will do it for you now. I think that the advances in technology have been very great and helpful to the world as a whole but like my comment in my QQC, I believe technology has also stifled the imagination and crippled our brains. I was reading an article (even I’m plagued by the technology disease) about how Google has changed the way that our brains retain short-term information. Human brains may not be as tasty to zombies now that we don’t store as much short term information as we used to pre-Google. Because subconsciously we know exactly where to find information of any kind, even down to definitions of words, we do not retain information the way we used to. Now when people talk about the good ol’ days, I know what they mean. “Remember when (insert friend’s name here) and you could talk about one topic for hours?...Well, now he can’t because of early onset dementia.” I am convinced that this is where our society is headed with the absent necessity to use our brains. “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” is an unfortunately true adage that comes to mind. As age increases it seems too that the divide between understanding technology grows wider even in just one or two generations. My grandmother, bless her heart, has a cell phone and didn’t realize she had opened a web-site and kept it open for an entire month. Needless to say, the bill for that month was extremely high until my father canceled every type of multimedia capability for her phone. There was also a time when my mom needed help to do a simple function like turn the computer on. I’m not making fun of her because I love my mom and this example is merely to show the gap of understanding that goes hand in hand with the divide that technology creates.
The digital divide is prevalent in our day-to-day lives, particularly when it comes to getting information. This divide splits us into two types of people, those inside the loop and those outside of it. These aren’t groups a person will normally be categorized into for two reasons. One, most people aren’t fully or even slightly aware of this division because they’re usually IN one of these groups and too engulfed by it to be able to see the broader picture. Second, a person may be inside the loop in one area, while outside the loop in another, thus being on opposite sides of the digital divide depending on the issue or area of focus. For example, lets look at two different areas dealing with the way we receive information, the news and social networking. These are two completely different genre’s that often overlap in the use of the same medium. A person, a high school student for instance, may be on the side of the digital divide that’s outside the loop when it comes to news because although they may have the resources available through television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, they may choose not to use it. In contrast, this same individual may be on the side inside the loop of the digital divide when it comes to where they get their social information from because they’re deep into the social networking culture through mediums such as facebook, youtube, and tumblr. Through this we see that the digital divide isn’t an absolute, overarching way in which a person is identified and defined but rather subjective to the situation. Also, the digital divide doesn’t affect people only by its availability but also by the individual’s willingness to use the available technology. The consequences of the digital divide, of whether a person chooses to use the available technological resources or not, will be visible in the way they interact with the people around them. It will affect their social interactions and their general worldview, which as we know, thought shapes words and words shape action.
The first instance I thought of when reading this prompt was cellular phones. As a young child, I remember admiring my mother and my sister, who is three years older than me, for their ability to recall phone numbers from memory. Some numbers, like the home phone and my father's office, were very similar and may have varied by just one digit. Others, like my grandmother, who lives in North Carolina, and my aunt, who lives in Washington D.C., were completely different because of the area codes. My mother, even if she hadn't spoken to a person in awhile, was able to remember these phone numbers and the phone numbers of every other relative, friend and important business. Cellular phones, however, are able to store contacts within their memory. As the use of cellular phones, and technology, increased, society began to shift dramatically. People became increasingly dependent of cellular phones, and the contact lists within them. This dependence was, and still is, a detriment to the human mind because no one was responsible for "learning something by heart", or the traditional concept of memorization. Traditionally, even if one could not memorize a phone number, they used address books or Rolodexes to manually store them. Unfortunately, even my mother, though she still recalls a majority of the phone numbers, has to depend on the cellular phone, not a physical address book or Rolodex, to contact a relative or family member.
I think the biggest divide that technology has created comes from instant messaging, whether that be on the internet or via cell phones. I think that in recent years, as communication as grown so immensely in promptness, we forget that face-to-face conversations are not only important, but vital.
There is no good way to have "the break-up talk" via phone or message, and leaving it to technology has, I think, removed a sense of closure people used to get when they had to do it the old fashioned way, staring that person in the eye. Because things like tone and volume are difficult to tell virtually, it's hard to distinguish when someone is yelling or angry versus joking and casual. This distinction (or not) can change the way an entire conversation happens and the feelings of the people involved.
While it is undeniable that the use of instant messaging is convenient, at what cost? Is it worth losing that sense of closeness to a person for the sake of timeliness? Are we all becoming anti-social drones hiding behind screens for the better parts of our interactions and conversations?
Communication today is startlingly fast and I feel like in the fast-paced world we live in we must not forget that people are in fact, people and not screens.
I feel that a great divide has developed as a response to technology in the way we communicate. Every day we are able to Skype, text, or Facebook anyone around the world. Just today i was sitting on the bus with three other people, only three, and we they were all on their cellphones. Their heads were down and they were completely cut off from the world around them. With such few people on the bus you would think it would be easier for people to strike up a conversation and talk to one another, but that isnt the case. The rapid growth of technology has resulted in a giant consequence: the lack of physical communication between individuals. "Social Networks" on the internet arent anything like a social interaction in real life. People are loosing touch with what it really means to communicate with one another. They think that these anonymous, or isolated forms of communication are substantial enough and communicate purely through them. This is demonstrated through the tremendous amount of people that turn to the internet and date sites to find companions. This shift is greatly affecting our society's social system and while technology is making our world "more connected" i think in a lot of ways it is also pulling us apart.
As soon as I read the question, I thought about the technology generation gap: about how our us younger people use technology for everything, and the stereotypical old person still sits around and knits, and can't figure out a computer to save their life. With the rate of development today, more and more older generations are being left behind, so that now there are even middleagers out of the loop. Even in the rare instances where these people try to keep up with all the changing technology - my grandma doesn't own a computer, but she comes over to our house to book her vacation flights every year online - there is still a giant disconnect. The mere action of booking a flight, or checking her newly set-up email, takes her about an hour, whereas our generation can check their emails in about 3 minutes. Even the not-so-old generations - say 40s, like my parents - experience this disconnect. Both of my parents have a facebook, but the amount of time they spend on it is minimal - especially recently, now that everything is changing so rapidly - and the extend of the user prowess is limited to sending messages (basically just an extension of their email) and maybe commenting on a post or two that shows up on their newsfeed homepage. They don't know how to browse, to actively use facebook to go where they want and find the information that they want. They're more just passive users, onlookers. This gives rise to a question however: when do we retire from our technological savviness and be replaced by a younger generation who knows all the latest technology information, which we no longer care to or are able to keep up with?
When thinking of a divide engendered via technology, I can't help but notice the huge difference in ways of communication between my generation and my grandparent's generation. Thanks to the invention of text messaging and email communication has become less personal and less emotional. Instead of writing love letters to our significant others like our grandparents once did, we send a text message with a heart emoticon. The need for instant gratification has taken over our means of communication, and in my opinion have taken away our romance. Many people I know rather send emails on Christmas as opposed to the traditional Christmas cards. Although technology helps us keep up with the face paced nature of our world, I don't think it should take away the human aspect of communication.
ReplyDeleteI think that technology creates a divide in our lives daily. The first example that comes to my head is internet communication. People used to have to get off their butts and go outside and find someone if they wanted to talk, or they would write a long hand-written letter to a friend or loved one and wait days for a response. How ever many positives there have been thanks to technology, I feel that thanks to email, Facebook, and other such means of communication has taken the personality and personability of out some people. There are some cases where indiviuals get som wrapped up in their online relationships that they never stop to notice that in reality the personal connection isn't there. For all the great things that technology has helped us accomplish and helped us advance thorough our time, I think that it has also dumbed us down a bit.
ReplyDeleteI think that technology creates a divide in our lives daily. The first example that comes to my head is internet communication. People used to have to get off their butts and go outside and find someone if they wanted to talk, or they would write a long hand-written letter to a friend or loved one and wait days for a response. How ever many positives there have been thanks to technology, I feel that thanks to email, Facebook, and other such means of communication has taken the personality and personability of out some people. There are some cases where indiviuals get som wrapped up in their online relationships that they never stop to notice that in reality the personal connection isn't there. For all the great things that technology has helped us accomplish and helped us advance thorough our time, I think that it has also dumbed us down a bit.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has created a divide between generations of today mostly in the way we communicate with one another. Whereas us students were somewhat brought up in this new age society where internet and text message flourish, older individuals had to adapt to these changes. I feel that communication as increased dramatically with programs such as facebook, twitter, myspace, tumblr, flickr, e-mail, chat rooms, and other internet services. Let alone that we are constantly on our smart phones and iPhones each and every second of every day. Instead of sending mail or postcards, we can easily send e-mails or wall posts on facebook. Technology today has almost made it impossible to feel alone, much differently than how we used to feel in the early 1990's. Since we are so connected today, it makes it quite easy to get caught up in situations where your spending more time online then you are in real life. This can create somewhat real social problems. However, these advances are just another step in the progression of the world. Technology is growing and developing more everyday and its exciting to see where it will take us next.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a major difference when smartphones with the ability to text first came out. Texting was a rage, it was fast, it was discreet, and it was a new technology that people were amazed by. Texting brought forth "text talk" where you use letters for words "Idk-cul8tr". The new language of texting definitely has an influence in people's ability to spell and use proper grammar, but since writing is apparently going out and everything is done with Microsoft or some other type of Word Processor with spellcheck, who cares if you can't spell right anymore? With the ability to text so quickly and talk to people without holding their voice to your ear, a great deal of people also text while driving, a dangerous and sadly lethal habit which people don't realize the very real consequences to.
ReplyDeleteOut of the most popular consequences to the ability to text, one of the other more noticeable traits, is that people aren't able to "read" conversations as well as they used to. When you're face to face with a person, you can read their body language, hear the tone of their voice, physically see them. With a text message, you don't get any of that. You don't know if the message they send is in a genuinely good humor or if they're sarcastic and pissed off at you.
Either way, don't be part of the crowd that texts while driving-Kari K
This might seem like a really weird example.. But here it goes. A divide I have noticed in technology and the consequences it created is found in different types of art forms, but one in particular is photography. SLR (single lens reflex) cameras were thought to become obsolete in the face of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras, because these new digitals could do so much more and the capacity to alter the photo was right there before you took the picture as opposed to doing so afterward on a computer. plus the lack of film is a money point. But there are still artists who refuse to withdraw their hands from the film chemicals. The art and beauty a photograph untouched by digital effects is one that rivals the beauty of photos that have been "doctored." Even the divide is evident in the verbiage. the term "doctored" seems so cold and calculated so removed from what people believe are to be. The consequence here is that many people recoil away from this new technology even though it is supposed to enhance the art form. Divisions bloom from these consequences on the very idea of art. On the very principles of Aesthetics even.
ReplyDeleteI seem to agree with most in when it comes to pinpointing a divide created by technology. The sociality of human beings has suffered a giant rift between several generations of people. My grandmother has a hard time figuring out how to email while my mother can manage it just fine. However, in the same parallel, my mom is just mastering how to send texts, while my brother and I have no problem sending out hundreds of text messages within a day. Technology has certainly affected how well and how quickly we communicate with each other and sometimes, it can even create a barrier between two people. Long gone is the intimacy and personal aesthetic of writing a letter or a phone call in the privacy of your own home. I don’t know how many phone conversations I’ve heard on the bus or walking around campus that make me vastly uncomfortable. Nothing is sacred in this digital world. Not only are the mediums in which we use changing and evolving, but our speech is too. Most people rely on shorthand to communicate through texts or emails because it shortens the time it takes to compose a message, sending out the information even quicker. We’re so accustomed to the rapid fire text messaging that I feel our patience as a society has lessened. Instant gratification and technology go hand in hand.
ReplyDeleteA divide engendered via technology that I can think of deals with communication, particularly when it comes to texting. For example, when sending a text message to another person, one must keep in mind that the person receiving the text message is limited. They cannot see your facial expressions, hear your tone of voice, or see any of your body language. Often times a text message has been sent or received and is interpreted incorrectly. Other times, the meaning of the text is ambiguous and, speaking from experience, the person receiving the text is unsure of how to interpret this message. At this point, the lack of understanding in the conversation hinders the conversation itself and puts a hold on things. Rather than having the ability to continue the conversation, one must spend more time interpreting what the person was actually trying to say rather than what was actually written in the text. Although texting is a great advancement in technology, it comes with its fair share of consequences. For example, due to the lack of emotion in text messages, it is easier for one to become offended or angered due to a misinterpretation. A person is subject to experiencing numerous emotions that were not intended for this person to feel. Despite it being a great technological advancement, texting is a tricky form of communication and can have its consequences.
ReplyDeleteComing out of high school just over a year ago into college, I was shocked to see the number of laptops in just about every class I had. Rarely, if ever, did I see a high school student with their laptop at school and certainly never out during class. I have definitely noticed that this cultural acceptance at the collegiate level likely produces more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteWhile laptops can be a great way to take notes and access class websites, blackboard pages, web links, etc, I know from personal experience they are more often a tremendous distraction from the lecture or class discussion. I’ll never forget, during my first semester at FSU, in my Psychology class there was a guy sitting next to me with his laptop out, earphones in, watching a live soccer game. Attendance was not required, so my question was, why come to class if you’re not even going to pay attention? Often, I choose to not bring my laptop if it is not required because I know I will get distracted. While I’m not much of a facebook user, most students can spend the whole class period on it.
In training up this generation of students to use their laptops for everything, the educational system that has worked quite successfully for so long is now changing. As technology advances and society continues to change some of this adaptation is warranted. However, most research points to continually shrinking attention spans of Americans in general and I feel confident suggesting that advanced technology in classrooms (namely laptop prevalence) feeds into this.
As a college student, I do feel that laptops and personal computers are extremely helpful and, really, essential in college. I also acknowledge that there are much more prevalent and legitimate unhealthy distractions facing students than bringing their computers to class. Still, when something can inhibit learning when someone has already physically made it to class (which is, on its own, hard enough for some college students), there has to be consequences. Although it’s really up to the student what they choose to do with their laptop in class, the continually expanding nature of technology in classrooms can create distractions for students.
There is no longer any reason to spell things correctly because Microsoft Word or even Blackboard will do it for you now. I think that the advances in technology have been very great and helpful to the world as a whole but like my comment in my QQC, I believe technology has also stifled the imagination and crippled our brains. I was reading an article (even I’m plagued by the technology disease) about how Google has changed the way that our brains retain short-term information. Human brains may not be as tasty to zombies now that we don’t store as much short term information as we used to pre-Google. Because subconsciously we know exactly where to find information of any kind, even down to definitions of words, we do not retain information the way we used to. Now when people talk about the good ol’ days, I know what they mean. “Remember when (insert friend’s name here) and you could talk about one topic for hours?...Well, now he can’t because of early onset dementia.” I am convinced that this is where our society is headed with the absent necessity to use our brains. “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” is an unfortunately true adage that comes to mind. As age increases it seems too that the divide between understanding technology grows wider even in just one or two generations. My grandmother, bless her heart, has a cell phone and didn’t realize she had opened a web-site and kept it open for an entire month. Needless to say, the bill for that month was extremely high until my father canceled every type of multimedia capability for her phone. There was also a time when my mom needed help to do a simple function like turn the computer on. I’m not making fun of her because I love my mom and this example is merely to show the gap of understanding that goes hand in hand with the divide that technology creates.
ReplyDeleteThe digital divide is prevalent in our day-to-day lives, particularly when it comes to getting information. This divide splits us into two types of people, those inside the loop and those outside of it. These aren’t groups a person will normally be categorized into for two reasons. One, most people aren’t fully or even slightly aware of this division because they’re usually IN one of these groups and too engulfed by it to be able to see the broader picture. Second, a person may be inside the loop in one area, while outside the loop in another, thus being on opposite sides of the digital divide depending on the issue or area of focus. For example, lets look at two different areas dealing with the way we receive information, the news and social networking. These are two completely different genre’s that often overlap in the use of the same medium. A person, a high school student for instance, may be on the side of the digital divide that’s outside the loop when it comes to news because although they may have the resources available through television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, they may choose not to use it. In contrast, this same individual may be on the side inside the loop of the digital divide when it comes to where they get their social information from because they’re deep into the social networking culture through mediums such as facebook, youtube, and tumblr. Through this we see that the digital divide isn’t an absolute, overarching way in which a person is identified and defined but rather subjective to the situation. Also, the digital divide doesn’t affect people only by its availability but also by the individual’s willingness to use the available technology. The consequences of the digital divide, of whether a person chooses to use the available technological resources or not, will be visible in the way they interact with the people around them. It will affect their social interactions and their general worldview, which as we know, thought shapes words and words shape action.
ReplyDeleteThe first instance I thought of when reading this prompt was cellular phones. As a young child, I remember admiring my mother and my sister, who is three years older than me, for their ability to recall phone numbers from memory. Some numbers, like the home phone and my father's office, were very similar and may have varied by just one digit. Others, like my grandmother, who lives in North Carolina, and my aunt, who lives in Washington D.C., were completely different because of the area codes. My mother, even if she hadn't spoken to a person in awhile, was able to remember these phone numbers and the phone numbers of every other relative, friend and important business.
ReplyDeleteCellular phones, however, are able to store contacts within their memory. As the use of cellular phones, and technology, increased, society began to shift dramatically. People became increasingly dependent of cellular phones, and the contact lists within them. This dependence was, and still is, a detriment to the human mind because no one was responsible for "learning something by heart", or the traditional concept of memorization. Traditionally, even if one could not memorize a phone number, they used address books or Rolodexes to manually store them.
Unfortunately, even my mother, though she still recalls a majority of the phone numbers, has to depend on the cellular phone, not a physical address book or Rolodex, to contact a relative or family member.
I think the biggest divide that technology has created comes from instant messaging, whether that be on the internet or via cell phones. I think that in recent years, as communication as grown so immensely in promptness, we forget that face-to-face conversations are not only important, but vital.
ReplyDeleteThere is no good way to have "the break-up talk" via phone or message, and leaving it to technology has, I think, removed a sense of closure people used to get when they had to do it the old fashioned way, staring that person in the eye. Because things like tone and volume are difficult to tell virtually, it's hard to distinguish when someone is yelling or angry versus joking and casual. This distinction (or not) can change the way an entire conversation happens and the feelings of the people involved.
While it is undeniable that the use of instant messaging is convenient, at what cost? Is it worth losing that sense of closeness to a person for the sake of timeliness? Are we all becoming anti-social drones hiding behind screens for the better parts of our interactions and conversations?
Communication today is startlingly fast and I feel like in the fast-paced world we live in we must not forget that people are in fact, people and not screens.
I feel that a great divide has developed as a response to technology in the way we communicate. Every day we are able to Skype, text, or Facebook anyone around the world. Just today i was sitting on the bus with three other people, only three, and we they were all on their cellphones. Their heads were down and they were completely cut off from the world around them. With such few people on the bus you would think it would be easier for people to strike up a conversation and talk to one another, but that isnt the case. The rapid growth of technology has resulted in a giant consequence: the lack of physical communication between individuals. "Social Networks" on the internet arent anything like a social interaction in real life. People are loosing touch with what it really means to communicate with one another. They think that these anonymous, or isolated forms of communication are substantial enough and communicate purely through them. This is demonstrated through the tremendous amount of people that turn to the internet and date sites to find companions. This shift is greatly affecting our society's social system and while technology is making our world "more connected" i think in a lot of ways it is also pulling us apart.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I read the question, I thought about the technology generation gap: about how our us younger people use technology for everything, and the stereotypical old person still sits around and knits, and can't figure out a computer to save their life. With the rate of development today, more and more older generations are being left behind, so that now there are even middleagers out of the loop.
ReplyDeleteEven in the rare instances where these people try to keep up with all the changing technology - my grandma doesn't own a computer, but she comes over to our house to book her vacation flights every year online - there is still a giant disconnect. The mere action of booking a flight, or checking her newly set-up email, takes her about an hour, whereas our generation can check their emails in about 3 minutes. Even the not-so-old generations - say 40s, like my parents - experience this disconnect. Both of my parents have a facebook, but the amount of time they spend on it is minimal - especially recently, now that everything is changing so rapidly - and the extend of the user prowess is limited to sending messages (basically just an extension of their email) and maybe commenting on a post or two that shows up on their newsfeed homepage. They don't know how to browse, to actively use facebook to go where they want and find the information that they want. They're more just passive users, onlookers.
This gives rise to a question however: when do we retire from our technological savviness and be replaced by a younger generation who knows all the latest technology information, which we no longer care to or are able to keep up with?
~erika higgins