The three most important pieces of communication
technology in my life are my smart phone, social networking sites, and
email. It is amazing how these pieces of
technology can make your life easier. I
could not even imagine life without my iPhone now that I have one. It literally can do anything I need it to. I can pay my credit card bill, manage my bank
accounts, get my email, check my calendar, or watch a sports game on my
phone. If I told someone twenty five
years ago that I could do all of this on my phone they would look at me like I
was crazy. Technology can often make our
lives a lot easier because it gives us access to everything we need much
quicker. I can pretty much contact
anyone I need to at any time. My iPhone
allows me to call, text message, email, use social networking sites, or I could
even video chat people. This means I can
see someone who may be 1000 miles away from me.
A great example of this is when I was able to see one of my cousins get
married over video chat because I was not able to make it due to work. Social networking sites are great because
they allow you to stay in contact with people that you may not talk to very
often. For example, last semester I
could not remember what section our modern algebra quiz was going to be on the
next day. I decided to message a
classmate on Facebook that I did not communicate with on a daily basis because
I could not contact any of my friends that I usually call or text. Email was my third most important piece of
technology because this is how I contact my professors and the third way I
contact my classmates. Most of my
classes rely heavily on email communication.
I also get email reminders about when I am working. It would be so much harder for my boss to
send everyone their work assignments for that week. Email is another way of just making life
easier.
Technology
is great, but there also drawbacks to all of this development in it. I feel that technology makes people
lazier. While I was doing this
assignment I received a text message from my girlfriend who is in another room
about twenty steps away from me. I think
we are all guilty of doing this. In
addition to making people lazy I think all of this technology speeds up
life. Like I said earlier it gives us
access to everything we need much quicker.
This can be good sometimes, but sometimes it is good to take a step back
and think about things. When we do
things so fast all the time we are acting more like robots than human beings. We are hindering our thinking and reasoning
skills.
My
iPhone has definitely impacted the ways I learn new material. Before my iPhone I would learn the majority of
new information from books or the internet if it was available to me. Today when I have a question about something
I learned in math I will automatically Google search the topic and look at the
examples. When I took French I would use
my translator app to help translate specific words and sentences. Before the iPhone I would have to use a French
to English dictionary to translate. Technology
is almost all internet based so now most of my learning comes from the internet
rather than books. Using the internet
for learning can be a very good thing because you need to decide what
information is valid and what may be stretching the truth a little bit. This allows you to critically think whereas
the book is always right.
The
similarities of my technologies compared to the kids in the video are that we
all agree it would be very difficult to survive without them. I also completely agree with the one student
who said his technology is an extension of himself. I think today our devices really are part of
who we are because of the way we use them.
We can show personality and creativity through our technology. I disagree with the one girl that said she
does not like how people shorten words when messaging each other. Technology is meant to make life easier. In no way does that make her seem like a
computer. She needs to understand what
the technology is there for.
I think that what that girl meant was that just because it's easier to type out "u" than "you" doesn't mean you should do it. It kind of goes back to what you said about technology making people lazier. It only takes 2 extra key stroked to type out the rest of the word so why not do it? I always type out every word but that is my own personal preference and I don't look down on people who don't. On the other hand if we use abbreviations, like I did before, why shouldn't we be allowed to abbreviate whole words as well?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that technology actually makes us lazier. I am just like you. I am so used to messaging other people instead of actually calling someone or talking them in person. I like how you say that we are more like "robots" than human beings. I totally agree with you on that. We are lack of actual communication between people since it has been replaced by technology. I don't see why we can't use abbreviations while we are texting. Like what you said, technology means to make life easier. It does save us some time if we use abbreviations. But the thing with abbreviations is that some people might forget that abbreviations should not be used in a formal paper or email, and they will start using "u" instead of "you". As long as you can differentiate when and when not to use abbreviations, I do not see how abbreviations shall not be used.
ReplyDeleteSean-
ReplyDeleteLike many others in our class, you chose your iPhone as your most influential technology. While it is so incredibly handy to be able to manage just about every aspect of your life (payments, emails, life events, ect.) via one mode of technology, I also can't help but agree with your feeling that such a convenience often times creates laziness, and perhaps even further, a great dependence. As a student, it's unbelievable how convenient a tool our smart phones truly are, but I wonder whether the physical act of through an English to French dictionary has a benefit versus using an app for a translation generator?