Tuesday, September 28, 2010
R.I.P.
Here's one to get you started. A lot of early American authors wrote about the changes they saw happening in the new republic, the growing pains associated with the building of a nation. Irving is famous for this. Both "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Devil and Tom Walker" reflect a concern over the general direction of the country. It seems like Irving was worried that some quality of life was slowly diminishing. I'm wondering how applicable that is to our society today. RVW seems to show that as society moves ahead quickly, some human quality is left behind -- and some might argue that this is the general pattern of modernity. Every advancement is accompanied by some kind of loss, and what's lost usually involves a quality of life issue. If we look at this in a modern context, we might consider any one of a number of technological advancements that have "improved" society. Take, for instance, cell phones. Most would agree that they have improved certain aspects of daily living in a very noticeable way. But at what price? What is lost? Do you feel like the advantages of cell phones (or any other technological advancement... television, computers, internet) outweigh any collateral damage they might do? Feel free to rant and rave, shoot from the hip, tell stories, speculate wildly, or otherwise sort out your thoughts in writing.
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I'm not sure if the advantages ever outweigh the disadvantages, or if the disadvantages ever outweigh the advantages; the standards just change. Although cell phones are reassurances of safety, they also, as we discussed in class, potentially cause superficial relationships between people. It's not really fair to say safety is or genuine relationships are more important than the other; they're just too different of aspects to determine if one is better than the other.
ReplyDeletehi there
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aly, however I think that on some particular instances the past and present are close enough to be compared; such as writing styles.
ReplyDeleteBefore cell phones came out, most communication was done through writing. Due to this, many people have a 'good hand' for writing, or at least had a great deal of writing experience outside of school. When the cell phone came out however, many people switched to simply talking on the phone, removing this writing experience. How much this actually affects the social behavior or the 'human quality' is not really measurable.
To continue on it though, with the introduction of texting, emails, and instant messaging, the writing experience has improved significantly. I know personally that these mediums have influenced how I write significantly.
I think that Aly is right in a way. Something cannot be said to be more important than another, but when it comes to new advances in our society, it think that there definitely is some negatives and positives which could come close to outweighing one over the other.
ReplyDeleteCell phones are indeed a good thing for things in case of an emergency, to get ahold of someone else quickly, and just as a means of communicating. BUT cell phones i believe can also be a very bad thing. It absolutely creates a different form of communication that takes away from talking to someone face to face or such as Matt said, the talent in writing. The internet also applies to this. The internet is good for many things such as looking up information, staying up to date with the news, emailing, etc., but it is also very bad in the sense that to some it is becoming an addiction.
Everything has positives and negatives but its the way you interpret it and making a conclusion to if one seems to outweigh the other.
First of all, I would just like to say that we, high schoolers, probably aren't the best group to ask about the issue of modern technology. This is technology we have grown up with, and I personally don't know what life would be like without it.
ReplyDeleteWith that out of the way, I have to say that the internet has greatly improved some aspects of our lives, but obviously impacted others. The internet gives us bundles of information, news, and allows us to keep in touch with people. However, anyone who has ever seen conversations in comment spaces such as this knows that the internet can expose the ugly side of people. Without the actual face to face contact, people take on a different persona and become much more aggressive and just plain rude. The art of carefully constructing an argument goes out the window as the complete lack of rules online lets people go crazy with power and anger. If the internet is used properly, it can be wonderful, but it's just too much power for some people to handle.
The purely talking part of cell phones has been beneficial to most people in my opinion. While the human contact is minimized, it's still present, and people are more likely to be themselves. Texting, however, does little to help the general populous. Granted, it's entertaining and convenient, and I do it more than enough, but if something is important enough to talk about, it makes much more sense to just make a call and talk in a more human way. Texting is great for trivial conversation, but once people try to be serious over texts or IMs, it can be hard to understand what they are saying, since you can't hear their voice or tone, and the discussion can be arduous or misinterpreted.
I think the question of whether a certain type of technology is good or bad is absurd. A society constantly changes and everything is relative to your time period. For example, people used to attend musical performances , or concerts back when CDs and ipods had not been invented. Today, instead of going out to listen to your favorite band, it is more popular to just stay home and listen to your mp3 player. This is not to say that concerts are no longer existent. CDs simply gave people another, more convenient way of enjoying music. Cell phones also present people with a convenient alternative. You guys talk as if people no longer communicate in person. The truth is, people adapt to an easier way of life as time goes on. If a change in society isn't useful, or doesn't make people happy, then it won't happen in the first place. People don't adapt according to technology, technology adapts according to people. In conclusion, advances in technology are always for the better of our society.
ReplyDeleteAs David said, we teenagers have never lived in a society without the access of information whenever we want it. I think that in general, the recent advancements in technology are a good thing for society. With all new things there will be some negative consequences but I think the advantages of the "shrinking world" outweigh the bad side effects.
ReplyDeleteWith the growth of technology and the development of programs to connect people to others all around the world (texting, facebook, myspace, twitter, skype), people have become more connected and more knowledgeable about the world around them. I think this is a great thing! Of course, humans could survive without all the technological luxuries that we now possess but who really wants to go back to the days when sending a letter from Europe to America took three months? My parents always complain to me that I text too much and do not ever actually talk to people on the phone, which is quite true. However, contrary to my parent’s beliefs, texting people actually can strengthen relationships! If you do not already have a good relationship with someone, then an awkward “texting friends” only relationship can blossom, which is fantastically awkward and is a punishment for not getting to know someone before communicating with them only through technology.
The only thing that I disagree with so far on this blog is David’s comment about people “taking on different personas” through technology. For example, on people’s formsprings, people write things that they would NEVER ever say in person. Sometimes, they might say something really mean, but usually who ever writes it has a problem with the other person and what they say might be justifiable but confronting them in person might be rude. Therefore, through technology, people can say what they really think and feel without feeling as if they need to modify their beliefs to be accepted socially.
In the process of becoming a more connected world, maybe a few people have lost some of their social skills because of communicating through technology but the benefits undoubtedly outweigh the negative consequences.
Technology, by definition, is something that improves upon a previous way of
ReplyDeletedoing something or replaces the human aspect of completing a task. So, per this
definition, almost anything in the world can be seen as technology. If someone
uses a rock to smash another rock, it's technology, because they are eliminating
the need for their own involvement in the action. Now, if this rock was
technology, you could do many things that were "bad" with it, like use it as a
weapon. However, one cannot argue that the technology itself is bad- if you
throw a rock at someone's head, are the negative consequences resulting from
this choice the rock's fault? Of course not. The fault is all yours. You're the
one who decided to throw a rock at someone, right?
Smiliarly, the negative results of our society's technology cannot be attributed
to the advancements themselves. The use or abuse the technology available to us
is solely based on the judgement of the user. So, while it is true that cell
phones can be used for good, like contacting people faster or using them for an
emergency, or bad, like identity theft or eliminating face-to-face conversation,
we should remember that these choices do not reflect the technology itself, but
a change in societal thinking and communication. The availability of technology
may cause new opportunities for good or bad to arise, but we should focus not on
the bad that can be done with them, but rather on the cultural shift that led
these actions to be seen as acceptable. A cell phone doesn't force you to stop
talking to people one-on-on or send innapropriate pictures to everyone; it just
provides you with opportunity to do so. The ones at fault for the negatives
associated with technology are not Apple or AT&T; the ones at fault are the
users of these products, who allow themselves to succumb to societal changes in
what social behavior is acceptable and what is not.
Some pretty fascinating comments. It deems natural that the tone might be somewhat defensive on your part, since (as David pointed out) you have have grown up completely in in a cell phone world. Having seen the pre cell phone world, I have a little bit of a different perspective. I'm really not sure about the "social interaction" argument -- I talk to high school students every day of my life and I don't see a lot of evidence of diminishing social skills. I am sometimes bothered by the fact that the cell phones take you completely away from where you are. Living in the moment is hard enough; a blinking and buzzing cell phone makes it virtually impossible. So many people, it seems, are beholden to their phones. They think they control their cell phones, but their cell phones control them. In the end though, I think I'm with those who believe that we get to choose. Thou mayest let your cell phone become an addiction, but we all get to choose our addictions, right? Lee would never carry a cell phone, and if he did he certainly wouldn't allow himself to be controlled by it. Timshel, right?
ReplyDeleteSee you at school tomorrow.
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ReplyDeleteare we allowed more than one comment?
ReplyDeleteEvery summer for the past 8 years, I have gone to camp in Maine for 8 weeks. There are no cell phones, no iPods, no computers and no TV. We don’t even have electricity in our cabins. Basically, it is as rustic as it can get. And while some of you might cringe at the thought, I can tell you from personal experience that those 6 weeks are the most refreshing time of year for me. The temptation of technology that burdens me for the other 46 weeks of the year is dissolved. The bonds I make with my camp friends in those 6 weeks every year are just as close, if not closer, than the ones I have with my friends that I spend my entire year with. This may not have any direct connection to the lack of technology, but whenever we are spending time together, we are focused on what is going on at the time, not texting our other friends somewhere else, or going on Facebook. So what does this have to say about the relationship between our addiction to technology and our relationships with others? One of my biggest pet peeve’s is when you are with a friend and they are texting someone else! How can you help thinking that they might rather be with that person? I don’t think I could go as far as to say that technology is destroying personal bonds with friends or our ability to interact in person, but I think it does have a negative affect on people and our relationships. And it may only get worse. Progress is inevitable, whether it is good for us or not. We will never be able to go back to a world of writing letters or sending telegrams again. Backwards progress does not happen in history. And I disagree with Gonzalo. Something that makes you happy its not always good for you. Eating candy all day would make some people happy. Drugs make some people happy. Human nature is not always to do what is best for us. And David, what about when letter writing was the only way people could communicate? Is that different from texting or emailing? I mean, clearly texting has changed the English language for good, but who is to say that the English language isn’t ever changing? Technology clearly has is benefits, for example in the medical field, but it also has many disadvantages that may someday hurt the earth more than we anticipate.
ReplyDeleteIt was 6:30pm at night, the sun was slowly setting on the pacific ocean, and I was exhausted after two full hours of La Jolla Impact soccer practice with the 12 year olds...I was ten and a half by the way. As I wait in the parking lot for my mom, ten whole minutes went by that felt like ten whole days. I started feeling a little scared, but when my coach came up to me and asked if he should stay and wait, of course I immediately told him, “I am not a baby anymore coach!, (while rolling my eyes).” I knew that just before getting out of the car, I told my mom that she had to pick me up because my teammates in my carpool were on vacation. Finally, it gets dark and a leaf or something must have hit my eyes because they started tearing up. Just thirty seconds after, I busted out balling and panicking that my own mother forgot me and I was going to have to sleep on the field and possibly die. If you put yourself in that little boys shoes, what would you do, what would you think? When I look back at my near death experience, I realize that if I had a cell phone, I could have called my mom and told her that practice was at Allen Field and not Kate Sessions Park! For moments like this, a life threatening emergency, cell phones are life savors! Not only can you be connected with your friends, but you can also buy products, take pictures, and manage finance on any cell phone that has internet access. Everyday new and improved cell phones are being manufactured with even more conveniences. For example, some cell phones have GPS and maps that can tell you where ever you are in most parts of the world. However, I believe that these devices can often consume way too much of one’s time and life. For example, an average American teenager spends three hours on their cell phone everyday! Technology such as ipods, ipads, iphones, ichat, itv, itunes, and irule, are all great devices that make my life more interesting and convenient. Henceforth, nerds around the world should keep doing what they are doing because I love playing with insane and complex devices that make my life amazing, such as sparknotes and spell check!
ReplyDeleteThou mayest let your cell phone and facebook control thou? This is definitely a choice, but it takes a great deal of determination not to get sucked into the world of cell phones, facebook, and television. In the world that we live in, most of our friends are constantly immersed in technology. Not being in tune with these often leaves one out from information and conversation. Socially, it is disadvantageous to not communicate and use technology. This may make one ask, "Why can't I just have a facebook, TV, and cell phone, but just not use them often?" The curiosity of knowing that all the information and gossip one could ever want is just a click or text away is very enticing. One often wants to be the first to know what all of their friends are posting.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, without modern social networking, we wouldn't be able to get a grade on this assignment. We need to "blog" about are feelings about technology. We are required to use Internet in almost all classes as well. In this way, "modern technology", and constant access to information is a good thing. In this way, constant information and updates on the world's current events is a good thing. We have a constant supply of information to learn if we mayest. Although technology can be addicting, constant updates can be used constructively. :-) lol <3
Jennie, perhaps you are right when pointing out how people don't necessarily take on a different persona, but what I was trying to express was that the lack of human contact can expose an ugly side that is hidden for a reason. Imagine if Cal had always said what he was thinking? I don't think he would have been like-able at all if he actually expressed the ugly side of himself that he tried to expose. And Jose, I think we've all had one of those frightening experiences where a cell phone would have helped so much. And Mr. Harrington, what you are seeing is Parker students. Most of us have become pretty adept at speaking with adults, but some of my volleyball and soccer teammates who go to large public schools aren't quite as capable. It's sad, but it's the truth. I'm not totally sure if technology is to blame or if upbringing/crappy schooling is, but I definitely notice quite a difference between how Parker students and other teenagers interact with adults. Once again, this may just be me, and i really hate to sound like an elitist, but that's my observation.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as Zack just demonstrated, technology lets us have fun emoticons.
ReplyDelete@(o_o)@ ಠ_ಠ
I agree with Jenny that the benefits of new technology definitely outweight the disadvantages. Advancements in technology have made us more up to date on what is going on around the world.
ReplyDeleteThe internet not only gives us instant access to what our friends are currently doing, it also makes us more aware of what is going on in the world around us because it is easy to access news and current events. The internet is also beneficial because instead of having to do all your studying and research in the library all day,like people had to do before the internet, we can now find out what we need to know by typing it into google search. Although there are many benefits to the internet, there are also disadvantages. The internet can be dangerous because of all it has to offer. Cyber predators, identity theft, and fraud are just a couple things that make the internet dangerous. Also, like Ashly said, people are becoming addicted to the internet. The internet is very distracting and it is easier than ever before to procrastinate the time away with everything there is to do.
Cell phones are also beneficial. I don't think that they cause people to lose face to face conversational skills. Cell phones make us more social than before. Without cell phones, I don't think kids would hang out with each other as much because it is so easy just to call up some friends or text them and see if they want to hang out. This makes us more social because before cell phones it was harder to get a hold of someone. I don't think texting is all bad. While having too many meaningless text conversations may be a bad thing, sometimes you just dont have time to talk to someone on the phone and so you have to text them. Cell phones do have some negative consequences as well. Cell phones make it hard to go on vacation and just relax and not worry about work or school. Because cell phones are capable of accessing the internet and email and so much more, it is hard to get away from it all because you are pretty much always expected to check your emails and facebooks.
Technology does have its disadvantages, but the benefits of new technology outweigh these disadvantages.
@ maddie. Human nature is ALWAYS to do what is best for the individual. Humans are naturally greedy. Every human decision and/or act is heavily based on greed. Just think about the foundations of capitalism, which Benjamin Franklin very clearly explains. Also, you said that "something that makes you happy isn't always good for you." I believe that anything that makes you happy is right, and who are other people to tell you that you are wrong for enjoying a different life style?
ReplyDeleteI was about to put a little note at the top of my post that said, "My spell check doesn't work on my computer so don't make fun of me for spelling things wrong." And then i realized that this has everything to do with the prompt. I definitely agree that when some new technology is created, something else disapears. Therefore, because I've grown up with spellcheck, I am a terrible speller. And as much as I love and appreciate spellcheck, I don't like not knowing how to spell things.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Aly's comment about how technology creates superficial relationships, I definitely agree. You don't know how many times I log onto facebook and some wallpost pops up on my news feed that says something like "OMG baby girl luv u so much! we totes need to hangout again! bffffs foreva!" and you know thats these people only met each other once or twice, definitely are not best friends, and probably won't ever hangout. Also, the way people start relationships has changed. Now if you want to go out with someone you have to text first, then add them on facebook, then 'poke' them, etc. And the worst part is that you are not technically 'offical' until you post it on facebook. Even though a bunch of people, including myself, follow this 'rule' i guess you would call it, you have to admit that this is pretty embarrassing.
Overall, I think that once technology is used for another purpose than what it was originally created for, results with a greater disapearance. For example, facebook was orignally created so people from all over the world can communicate and so people can stay intouch with people from their past. An even though people still use facebook for these purposes, now (especially in high school) it's pretty much a website for people to have as many things (like pictures, friends, wall posts, etc.) that show that you have a social life/ are doing cool things and for other people to stalk you. And with cell phones, there original purpose was to help communicate with people in other places, but now there is literally an app for EVERYTHING. it's crazy! and because there is an app for pretty much everything, people begin to lose things that they should know how to do (like spelling). Even though i've been ranting pretty much through this whole post, i actually think that in the long run, technology has way more advantages than disadvantages; It just takes some people longer to adapt to these changes thatn others.