SammieJay: Life as a WannaBe: Technology Son

hmmm is WannaBe one word or two? The thoughts that go through my head AFTER I post my first blog. You know what? no fucks are given none at all.

oooo fancy huh? I put a cool photo in my blog. I'm all tech savvy and cool!

Well todays blog I guess will be about my daily struggle with technology. I'll be honest I'm not the most skilled person when it comes to technology. I know how to work a smartphone and.... well that's basically it. I obviously I have a handle on computers because if I didn't I wouldn't be doing this blog... Or maybe I'm a ghost doing a blog beyond the grave and I'm omnipotent .... okay that one way bad I apologize for that crap joke. 

My basic knowledge of computers is as such: you turn the darn machine on, go to the internet, go to Facebook, waste hours upon hours of your life on the stupid website, lose all your friends because you spend all your free time online, develop a social disorder, write papers and print it out. The basic skills that will get you through college. 

With all this advancing technology I feel somewhat guilty for not keeping up with it.Technology has evolved over the years. As it changes it has a major effect on people and how they interact with other people. Some would say technology has made our lives so much simpler and easier to deal with everyday tasks. Others would say technology has hindered our ability to do mundane tasks. We act as IMing your family from separate rooms is considered normal, when walking to the next room to tell your family something is too much of a hassle. With every new piece of technology that comes out it says it is even better, faster, and can do more than the last product.(Which is usually BS)  With the latest smart phones it seems like they can do anything. They have the ability to go on the Internet, connect us to our email, it acts as a GPS, and whenever you are bored it has games to keep us entertained for hours.  If technology keeps evolving, the more and more we will grow dependent of technology. 

With ever advancing technology has it hampered our ability to do things on our own in a patient manner or communicate with other individuals? The fear is that technology is starting to hurt us more then help us.

Technology makes us lazier when it comes to doing schoolwork. When we have extravagant projects or papers to write we all go to the Internet for help. Before computers and the Internet were invented we would have to go to libraries and look things up in books and journals. This would take a good amount of time and you were never guaranteed to find what you were looking for. We now rely on computers to look up info and cut our time in half.  It’s expected to be easier and faster but sometimes it does not always show us what we want it to. When the Internet doesn’t work in our favor and turn up the info we need we tend to lose our patience and give up. Social media sites are then visited by teens that give up. They multitask and end up distracting us from our original goal.

We have more things at our fingertips to distract us from our plain task. This is a problem because it distracts us from what is more important. We can always find something fun to do with the Internet but we can’t always find something that will help us get a good grade online. The Internet also doesn’t allow younger generations to build up a good work ethic. We expect everything to be handed to us, or just at our fingertips if it is not. Without it you would have to go to the library and take different books and journals out and read all the way through them to see if you can use it as a source. This hurts us because we have become enable to do things on our own. It’s like it has become a crutch for us. Without it we would be totally lost.

Technology has also changed the way we communicate with people. Nowadays we call, text, e-mail, IM, face chat or Skype with people. Before technology we would go over to someone’s house or office if we needed to speak with him or her. With technology it is like we can cut out almost all-human interaction if we wanted to. Nothing is personal anymore, we feel too awkward when we have to interact with someone. We find it easier and more efficient to just shoot out a text or email. It also makes awkward situations when you’re with someone and no one saying anything less awkward. We use our technology to make a situation a lot more bearable. We use technology to distract us so we don’t have to communicate with people. If everyone has their phone out and they are on it no one will feel like they have to speak up and say something. 

Kids feel more comfortable communicating online. They like it because there is no way for them to really mess up with the other person noticing. In Amy Goldwasser’s essay “What’s the Matter with Kids Today?” she mentions, “We need to start trusting our kids to communicate as they will online…”(Goldwasser, 239) This shows that kids feel more comfortable communicating with others and their feelings through technology. They are used to technology to be used as an outlet for their thoughts and emotions. They use it instead of talking face to face with a person and expressing their problems.

In Sherry Turkle’s essay “Can You Hear Me Now?”  She explains, “The virtual life of Facebook or MySpace is titillating, but our fragile planet needs our action in the real. We have to worry that we may be connecting globally but relating parochially.”(6, Turkle) She explains that we may feel that we are connecting to more people with the help of technology but we are narrow-minded and don’t really connect over everything. Technology helps give us our voices but we can’t always relate with someone over the Internet because you don’t get the feel of a person unless you spend actual time with them. This hurts us because without knowing how to communicate face to face we won’t get anything in life. The way to get a job or express yourself you do it face to face not over a phone or email. A lot of employers hire people based on their personality and you can’t judge someone if you send only emails or do phone calls. We lose the ability to make things personal. With out making things personal you also have a risk of losing friends. You become un-relatable.

When we have technology it becomes a shield over our lives. It gives us the ability to be someone where not. We can have all these characteristics we usually aren't in person. We can be outgoing, funny, charming, and smart. No one would know the difference because. Technology can be a curtain of courage. 

If you want the essays I refer to in this blog please leave a comment and I'll send you the link. They are really good essays on how technology has effected us. They're also really easy reads. Sorry for the long post... my opinion and not very funny... my b... here enjoy this meme about umass boston