Blog 6: In a digital world

Many of the things in which Mark Wesch made a point in his web 2.0 video I believe are true for most of us who participate in this class. It was interesting to see how many people shared the same situation that I do in respect to their education. Mark said they had done a project where a blog had been edited 376 or so times to come up with some statistics about how often a certain things happen. I find that I do spend more time on the internet than doing any one other particular thing during the day besides sleeping. I don't always read my text books and sometimes find it easier to look up terms and references on the internet using sources like wikipedia and google. I read more emails in a year than I read pages in a book and spend more time watching youtube videos and other online video sources than I even do watching TV. The information age that we live in has sure changed the mediums that we use to access information. I think we are falling behind in some areas like our educaitonal institutions on how we incorporate that into our study. I would be lost without resources like the internet. A card catalog in a library just does not seem a likely place where I would venture to seek information. I would probably be in the dark on a lot of topics and issues. Because of the internet I have achieved the status of where I am in life today. I have been able to learn what others have not been able to teach me. I have been able to learn about things that would have otherwise not been available to me. I know about technology and computers systems because I have been connected to the knowledge and contributions of all others out there who have come together to share to create something bigger than themselves.

Technology taking over our lives.

"And finally, this one: I'm driving down a busy Chicago street when a man driving a shiny new Mercedes while talking on his cell phone pulls out of a parking lot and into my path. I slam on the brakes of my humble blue Corolla, narrowly avoiding his expensive bumper, and reflexively I show my annoyance by honking the horn. In turn, he shows his annoyance at having his conversation so rudely interrupted by raising aloft the hand in which he holds his phone, its antenna extended in a high-tech gesture of obscenity. In astonishment and glee my daughter cries out, "Hey, dad, that guy just gave you the phone." The occupants of our car dissolve in laughter, and a new family idiom is born: to give someone the phone."

Although I didn't agree much with the article by Dennis Baron or find any of it's information insightful I did get a good laugh out of the above paragraph. I do believe technology shapes how we communicate and I have personal proof about how it has affected me. I used to have nice cursive handwriting when I was younger but ever since teachers made a big push toward typed assignments my handwriting has gone down hill. It was easier to type and more fun to use different colors and clipart to write a school assignment. Now my writing is a mixed form of cursive and print, whichever form is the easiest and quickest to write for each letter. I even super-impose text over scanned documents if I have to fill in a form, just because I can change sizes and fit in more information quicker than writing it all out by hand.

I thought it was noteable to remember how we thought computers would change the amount of information in physical print form. It has proved to the contrary where at the touch of a button we can print out hundereds of pages, plenty of which we probably don't need, just because of the ease of reproducing the information.

The article and audio clip about Amila's mother was definately entertaining. It shows how one can be influenced or controled by the media and communication when they don't think for themselves. Amila on the receiving end is probably haunted by the ease through which her mother can get in contact with her. She even wished long distance calls were more expensive to distance herself a little more.

It's amazing how impossible it is to get away from communication. Jet Blue recently announced it will be providing wireless internet service on at least one jet-liner and if the experiment is successful they will roll it out through their whole fleet. Some people have commented that advances in technology like this, allowing people to work 24 hours a day, if they wish, is removing that necessary part of our lives where we need downtime to recuperate and let our minds rest. Pretty soon there won't be a part of the world you can escape to where there won't be an easy way to get fast communication from the farthest reaches of the globe.