Informal Research Internet Magazines TV Shows

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/GB-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DEXT-GB-EN.services
“Meet” The new Motorola DEXT. Slogan: "Take Your Entire Social Life With You". Or "The first phone with social skills". Go to the homepage, and you will see a very encouraging promotional blurb: "Meet the fully customisable home screen that's as unique as you are. Your Facebook™, MySpace and Twitter happenings are right there, along with your emails, messages, news and favorite apps, and widgets. All just the way you like them." If a phone screen can be just as unique as you are, how unique are you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1CDZ408rzM
The protagonists entire social life is racing to get to him through this phone, but the one that really matters to him appears at the end. His “girlfriend” sends him a text and all of a sudden she appears. The consumer can do everything that in other instances he would do in person, miraculously on his phone! The world of technology is providing another world where we can do everything we want on our phones. There would be no more awkward conversations, because you will never actually be in a face-to-face conversation. This technological life that people are living is not a life. It works for you, it thinks for you. It is your entire social life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsE0g-8CDQo
In an HP computer commercial, in which the person advertising it is Jay-Z, a famous rapper, the commercial ironically provides revealing social commentary. Jay-Z states that his "whole life is on this thing". As stupid as that may sound, I can't help but agree. What would we really do without our computers? Our Phones? Our Facebooks? We would be out of the loop. Our social life… Gone. Until of course we get a new one the next day or two. People have lost the ability to live without these things. Facebook has just reached 350 million users. If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. It would be larger than the United States. That’s scary.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article763859.ece
A kid’s relationship to their parents is one of the most fundamental and important things in a person’s life. One’s parents are the closest people to them. You're supposed to be able to talk to them, and tell them things. They should know about your life -- they created it! So when things like Myspace, and Facebook came out, you can see how our generation went downhill. Kids stopped talking to their parents, and started social networking as a way of therapy. Telling basically complete strangers (people you have met maybe once) about all of your problems (a Status), and seeing what people have to say about it.
Patrick White interviews 3 parents whose kids all have Facebook. All three of families said that their relationships with their kids have changed. Two of the three families said that their relationships are worse. One mother even says she thinks that her daughter's generation is losing the ability to socialize in person.

Feed
The book Feed by M.T. Anderson is a novel about a world in which a tiny chip called “The Feed” is stored into people’s brains. “The Feed” had features like “M-Chat”, which was basically texting/Iming from the brain. You never had to talk out loud, you just needed to M-chat someone. I kept making these parallels and connections. The feed itself was the Internet. You could look things up, buy things, and even get high or drunk, from the comfort of your own brain, never having to go anywhere

HW 24 - Short Story 1

It was never about the popularity. I didn't do it for anyone else, I did it for me. I needed something whole in my life. There was something missing, a gap that couldn't be filled. It wasn't always there... this void. Life is like a balloon. When your born your filled with air, but as you go on living the air starts deflating. "No you can't eat the crayons" (air leaves). "You can't go to that school" (air leaves). "You might not go to college" (air leaves). There is no way to stay fully inflated with life.

Big Paper 1 Revised Draft: ; The Polarities of the Digital World

Introduction: Sleeping with another person. Whether it’s a five year old who has a bad dream and goes into their mother's bed for comfort. Or two people who have just had sex and are now cuddling together intimately while sleeping. Sleep is a very intimate thing that allows closeness and togetherness. At our age, most of us don't share a bed with a partner, and if we do its usually not the way we would like to. But almost all of us sleep with our phones right next to us in bed! The problem with America today is that relationships are so superficial. Not that we are fake with our girlfriend or boyfriend, but its that digital media has reduced relationships to a sort of cyber-relationship, where we say the most intimate things in a text, or I-M. We actually have names for it, like "sex text". Meaning that people know what their doing, but are too wrapped up in the addiction of cyber-intimacy to come out of it. In this paper I intend to explore how technology (computers, phones, and television), has impacted the way human relationships are formed and operate. Yes technology has managed to connect us better than ever before. We can now talk to people across the world with the click of a button. We can reconnect with friends we have not seen in years. We can get decades of information with one Google search. On the one hand we have ever been as well connected or had as vast an access to information, but on the other hand we have never been more lonely or anti-intellectual. (In spelling the word intellectual, I spelled it wrong and a little red line came under the word implying that I had spelled it wrong. With one simple “right click”, the correct spelling came up and I checked it. Bada bing bada boom the word is correct, yet I still don’t know how to spell Intellectual.) The digitalized world is a world of paradox. We function on a plane of profound polarity.

Paragraph 1 (Social Connectivity vs. Lonliness)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1CDZ408rzM

The new Motorola DEXT. Slogan: "Take Your Entire Social Like With You". Or "The first phone with social skills". Go to the homepage (http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/GB-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DEXT-GB-EN.services), and you will see a very encouraging promotional blurb: "Meet the fully customisable home screen that's as unique as you are. Your Facebook™, MySpace and Twitter happenings are right there, along with your emails, messages, news and favorite apps, and widgets. All just the way you like them." If a phone screen can be just as unique as you are, how unique are you? This commercial ironically provides revealing social commentary. Jay-Z says in an HP computer commercial that his "whole life is on this thing". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsE0g-8CDQo). As stupid as that may sound, I can't help but agree. What would we really do without our computers? Our Phones? Our Facebooks? We would be out of the loop. Our social life, gone. Until of course we get a new one the next day or two. Facebook has just reached 350 million users. If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. It would be larger than the United States.

Paragraph 2 (Access to information vs. Anti-Intellectualism)

"Droid by Motorola. Enough Brainpower to think ahead for you." On one hand, how can a phone think for you? But on the other hand, we do so little thinking during usage of technology that it is very possible that the phone does actually do more thinking than us.

$100 dollar laptop

The decline of print media in favor digital media, particularly free digital media on the internet, has allowed for an unprecedented breath of information to be obtained, but theres also no quality control. so the quality of information is often compromised. as is the rigor with which it is examined.

Paragraph 3 (Freedom of Expression vs. Culture of Surveillance)

Technology has allowed for a culture of surveillance. Video Cameras in shops: everybody is a potential thief? On the other hand people have never had more freedom. Internet etc.

Loss of privacy while at the same time people on youtube sometimes become world famous. The everyday person can become as a celebrity. That guy who defended Britney Spears. He is a household name now. Chris Crocker. Meanwhile people like Jay-Z who make music and try to sell it are suffering because of the internet.

Paragraph 4 (Interviews): Over the course of the year we had had a chance to interview our family members, our friends, and some strangers on different aspects of digitalization. I had a general outline for the questions I wanted to ask, such as "how many hours a day do you spend using something digital and how productive is it". Most of the answers I got were similar. Most people spend from 3-6 hours a day using digital things, and they say that half of those hours are productive. But after reading the answers and really thinking about them, I realized those were not the questions I needed to be asking. So I decided to ask some more questions. They went as followed:

Q1: What form of digital media do you spend the most time on?

Q2: Where is your phone during the day? The Night?

Q3: If someone asks to see your phone, for no apparent reason, what do you say? And why?

Hannah:

A1: Text Messaging.

A2: In my pocket. At night it’s right next to my bed.

A3: No.

Jacara:

Q1: My computer and my ipod.

Q2: In my Pocket, and at night it’s charging right next to my bed.

Q3: No because my phone is my business I don't let just anybody look at it.

Sarah:

Q1: My Phone. Texting.

Q2: In my hand or my pocket. At night it’s either right next to me on my night table or in my bed with me. It’s on and on vibrate.

Q3: No, a phone is my business.

Paragraph 5: (Pros) Facebook: Stay in touch with friends

Paragraph 6: (Cons) Facebook: Rips Families Apart

Phones: Distracts from work/ rips family apart

Paragraph 7 (Connection): In my past relationships, and a lot of my friends’ relationships, a big problem between the couple is that they don't spend enough time together. When in a relationship, at least one of the partners always wants to be with the other. I know that’s how it is with me. Obviously no one can spend every second with a person, yet we do it with our phones. People are so over protective of their phones that they don't let anybody see them. They won't let anybody use them. They want them all for themselves. They share information with their phones (pictures etc.), don't want anybody to use them, and sleep with them. Sound like a girlfriend or boyfriend?

Feed: I kept making these parallels and connections that was getting me depressed. The feed is the internet, M-chat was texting/iming. Up-cars were GPS's. Everything that the characters in Feed had, we had less extreme versions of. These thoughts were getting me depressed because I really do not want to live in a world where people can sense when I'm there, they can know what I'm thinking, they can just get into my head on command. But the problem is I can't picture a world without a phone; without the internet. I tried to stop thinking about it, so I wouldn't be so depressed, but then I remembered what M.T. Anderson said. That "We can only become responsible citizens of the world once we start to acknowledge that there's a complex world out there that's not easy to assimilate.". Meaning that we can't just avoid the topics we don't want to think about our whole lives, we need to access them, and really think about how we can change it; If not for the world, then at least for ourselves.

In Feed there are many tragedy's going on. Some of them collide with each other making them even more tragic, but some are just tragic on their own. We talked in class about the tragedy of Violet dying, and of Titus and his "crew" not even knowing about the Feed taking over their minds, but I think the tragedy goes deeper than that. The only person who tried to resist the"feed", ended up getting killed by it. Does that not say something about our society?

Paragraph 8 (OPV): About 99% of people over the age of 13 in the United States cell phones so he's basically telling us that we're all going to have tumors. People know what is said about cell phone usage, and it's their choice if they want to use it. On wikipedia

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health),

scientists say there is no real health risks from using mobile phones. There have been tests as recent as 2007, saying that the radiation coming through the phone, is not nearly enough to really have a significant effect on your health. People say that cancer takes about 10 years to develop, so some say the 2007 test is not viable, but over 4 other national tests have been done and 10 years later, no cancerous effects have been found.

I find this interesting because so many people just go along with people when they say the Cell Phones give you brain tumors, but no one has actually stopped to do the research and find out for themselves. I am still skeptical about mobile phones and cancer, but for now i have to trust the scientists. It's their job to find out.

A kids relationship to their parents is one of the most fundamental but important thing in a persons life. They are the closest people to you. You're supposed to be able to talk to them, and tell them things. They should know about your life -- they created it! So when things like Myspace, and Facebook came out, you can see how our generation went to the shitter. Kids stopped talking to their parents, and started social networking as a way of therapy. Telling basically complete strangers (people you have met maybe once) about all of your problems. Seeing what people have to say about it.

In an April article of Globe and Mail

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article763859.ece),

Patrick White interviews 3 parents whose kids all have Facebook. Three of the three families said that their relationships with their kids have changed. Two of the Three families said that their relationships are worse. One mother even says She thinks that her daughter's generation is losing the ability to socialize in person. I couldn't agree more.

Revised Draft

Introduction: Sleeping with another person. Whether its a five year old who has a bad dream and goes into their mother's bed for comfort. Or two people who have just made sex and are now cuddling together intimately while sleeping. Sleep is a very intimate thing, that allows closeness and togetherness. At our age, most of us don't share a bed with a partner, and if we do its usually not the way we would like to. But almost all of us sleep with our phones right next to us in bed! The problem with America today is that relationships are so superficial. Not that we are fake with our girlfriend or boyfriend, but its that digital media has reduced relationships to a sort of cyber-relationship, where we say the most intimate things in a text, or I-M. We actually have names for it, like "sex text". Meaning that people know what their doing, but are too wrapped up in the addiction of cyber-intimacy to come out of it.

Paragrph 1 (Interviews): Over the course of the year we had had a chance to interview our family members, our friends, and some strangers on different aspects of digitalization. I had a general outline for the questions i wanted to ask, such as "how many hours a day do you spend using something digital and how productive is it". Most of the answers i got were similar. Most people spend from 3-6 hours a day using digital things, and they say that half of those hours are productive. But after reading the answers and really thinking about them, I realized those were not the questions i needed to be asking. So i decided to ask some more questions. They went as followed: What form of digital media do you spend the most time on? Hannah: Text Messaging. Where is your phone during the day? The Night? Hannah: In my pocket. At night its right next to my bed.

If someone asks to see your phone, for no apparent reason, what do you say? Hannah: No.

Q1: Jacara: My computer and my ipod. Q2: In my Pocket, and at night its charging right next to my bed. Q3: No because my phone is my business i don't let just anybody look at it. 

Sarah: Q1: My Phone. Texting.

Q3: In my hand or my pocket. At night its either right next to me on my night table or in my bed with me. Its on and on vibrate. 

Why do you keep it on during the night? In case someone calls me i'll see when they call me in the morning.

Paragraph 2(Connection): In my past relationships, and a lot of my friends relationships, a big problem between the couple is that they don't spend enough time together. When in a relationship, at least one of the partners always wants to be with the other. I know thats how it is with me. Obviously no one can spend every second with a person, yet we do it with our phones. People are so over protective of their phones that they don't let anybody see them. They won't let anybody use them. They want them all for themselves. They share information with their phones (pictures etc.), don't want anybody to use them, and sleep with them. Sound like a girlfriend or boyfriend?

Rough Draft

Introduction: Sleeping with another person. Whether its a five year old who has a bad dream and goes into their mother's bed for comfort. Or two people who have just made sex and are now cuddling together intimately while sleeping. Sleep is a very intimate thing, that allows closeness and togetherness. At our age, most of us don't share a bed with a partner, and if we do its usually not the way we would like to. But almost all of us sleep with our phones right next to us in bed! The problem with America today is that relationships are so superficial. Not that we are fake with our girlfriend or boyfriend, but its that digital media has reduced relationships to a sort of cyber-relationship, where we say the most intimate things in a text, or I-M. We actually have names for it, like "sex text". Meaning that people know what their doing, but are too wrapped up in the addiction of cyber-intimacy to come out of it.

Paragrph 1 (Interviews): Over the course of the year we had had a chance to interview our family members, our friends, and some strangers on different aspects of digitalization. I had a general outline for the questions i wanted to ask, such as "how many hours a day do you spend using something digital and how productive is it". Most of the answers i got were similar. Most people spend from 3-6 hours a day using digital things, and they say that half of those hours are productive. But after reading the answers and really thinking about them, I realized those were not the questions i needed to be asking. So i decided to ask some more questions. They went as followed:

Paragraph 2(Connection): In my past relationships, and a lot of my friends relationships, a big problem between the couple is that they don't spend enough time together. When in a relationship, at least one of the partners always wants to be with the other. I know thats how it is with me. Obviously no one can spend every second with a person, yet we do it with our phones. People are so over protective of their phones that they don't let anybody see them. They won't let anybody use them. They want them all for themselves. They share information with their phones (pictures etc.), don't want anybody to use them, and sleep with them. Sound like a girlfriend or boyfriend?

Controversy over google books (all big libraries together and converge all books into internet viewable files, etext.)

Outline: The Secret Love Affair of the Phone

Sleeping with another person. Whether its a five year old who has a bad dream and goes into their mother's bed for comfort. Or two people who have just made sex and are now cuddling together intimately while sleeping. Sleep is a very intimate thing, that allows closeness and togetherness. At our age, most of us don't share a bed with a partner, and if we do its usually not the way we would like to. But almost all of us sleep with our phones right next to us in bed! The problem with America today is that relationships are so superficial. Not that we are fake with our girlfriend or boyfriend, but its that digital media has reduced relationships to a sort of cyber-relationship, where we say the most intimate things in a text, or I-M. We actually have names for it, like "sex text". Meaning that people know what their doing, but are too wrapped up in the addiction of cyber-intimacy to come out of it.

In my past relationships, and a lot of my friends relationships, a big problem between the couple is that they don't spend enough time together. When in a relationship, at least one of the partners always wants to be with the other. I know thats how it is with me. Obviously no one can spend every second with a person, yet we do it with our phones. People are so over protective of their phones that they don't let anybody see them. They won't let anybody use them. They want them all for themselves. They share information with their phones (pictures etc.), don't want anybody to use them, and sleep with them. Sound like a girlfriend or boyfriend?

Everything bad is good for you

For the first time in high school history, I actually enjoyed an excerpt that we had to read! Partly because i really agreed what they were saying, but i had trouble understanding the main ideas. I wasn't sure if it was saying that today's TV shows are getting us smarter because of the interweaving plots and how you have to figure shit out, or if we're getting smarter in order to understand the more complicated plot lines. But basically the excerpt was saying that Television is not as bad as people think it is for them. It's actually working our brain out and possibly making us smarter.

 I don't watch that much TV but I always thought that it couldn't be that bad for you. With all the thinking you have to do. Not only that but say someone's dream is to play basketball, and they don't have enough money to go see their favorite players in person. They get a lot of joy out of watching basketball on TV. Some shows take thinking, and figuring out. Like the article said, there are interwoven themes and plots you need to remember. It definitely makes you think. But at the same time there are some shows that just do everything for you. The show CSI Miami, has a lot of complicated plot lines, and different characters, and different options for solving the mystery, but sometimes you don't meet the person who actually did it until they figure it out. You really don't need to think they just give you the answer in the end. It's for pure vegging out, and more shows on television these days are more like that, than something like the Sopranos. 

Paralells

I finished reading "Feed" last night. I was up at 2 in the morning laying in bed when I finished it. I was thinking a lot about how the book is an allegory or modern teenage life. I kept making these parallels and connections that was getting me depressed. The feed is the internet, M-chat was texting/iming. Up-cars were GPS's. Everything that the characters in Feed had, we had less extreme versions of. These thoughts were getting me depressed because I really do not want to live in a world where people can sense when I'm there, they can know what I'm thinking, they can just get into my head on command. But the problem is I can't picture a world without a phone; without the internet. I tried to stop thinking about it, so I wouldn't be so depressed, but then I remembered what M.T. Anderson said. That "We can only become responsible citizens of the world once we start to acknowledge that there's a complex world out there that's not easy to assimilate.". Meaning that we can't just avoid the topics we don't want to think about our whole lives, we need to access them, and really think about how we can change it; If not for the world, then at least for ourselves.

In Feed there are many tragedy's going on. Some of them collide with each other making them even more tragic, but some are just tragic on their own. We talked in class about the tragedy of Violet dying, and of Titus and his "crew" not even knowing about the Feed taking over their minds, but I think the tragedy goes deeper than that. The only person who tried to resist the"feed", ended up getting killed by it. Does that not say something about our society?

Double Digital

Jesus F***** Christ!!!!! I just watched 8 straight episodes of The Office. It's 10:30 and I'm usually not tired at this time but I feel so lazy and tired. I feel like a complete bum. I can't hold a thought and it takes me about 3 tries to complete a sentence. I honestly don't know what I'm thinking. I have a huge head ache and feel like eating a lot for some reason. My brain hurts.

Research

First of all let me start by saying that I don't appreciate how Andy says that cell phones cause radiation tumors. About 99% of people over the age of 13 in the United States cell phones so he's basically telling us that we're all going to have tumors. People know what is said about cell phone usage, and it's their choice if they want to use it. On wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health),
scientists say there is no real health risks from using mobile phones. There have been tests as recent as 2007, saying that the radiation coming through the phone, is not nearly enough to really have a significant effect on your health. People say that cancer takes about 10 years to develop, so some say the 2007 test is not viable, but over 4 other national tests have been done and 10 years later, no cancerous effects have been found.

I find this interesting because so many people just go along with people when they say the Cell Phones give you brain tumors, but no one has actually stopped to do the research and find out for themselves. I am still skeptical about mobile phones and cancer, but for now i have to trust the scientists. It's their job to find out.

A kids relationship to their parents is one of the most fundamental but important thing in a persons life. They are the closest people to you. You're supposed to be able to talk to them, and tell them things. They should know about your life -- they created it! So when things like Myspace, and Facebook came out, you can see how our generation went to the shitter. Kids stopped talking to their parents, and started social networking as a way of therapy. Telling basically complete strangers (people you have met maybe once) about all of your problems. Seeing what people have to say about it.

In an April article of Globe and Mail
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article763859.ece),
Patrick White interviews 3 parents whose kids all have Facebook. Three of the three families said that their relationships with their kids have changed. Two of the Three families said that their relationships are worse. One mother even says She thinks that her daughter's generation is losing the ability to socialize in person. I couldn't agree more.

Video Project GHIJK

Hannah,

I appreciate you taking the time out to write a long and thought out response to my video. I like how you made it personal by calling me "Mr. Ego", and also telling me about parts of my post that was similar to your. What you said about how both of our brothers are addicted to digitalization hit home because so many of our younger siblings are really gravitating towards these stimulating digital things, and its taking a toll on their well being. I have seen your brother and though digitalization is not physically having the affect on him that it's having on my brother, I'm sure it is still affecting his, and probably your life.

What you said about me being in the gym all the time also made me think. Am I in the gym all the time trying to be somebody? Or steer away from somebody? Am I doing it purely to stay in good shape? Or are there other reasons that I'm not thinking of, like staying away from someone I don't want to be...

As funny as my video was, and I'll admit a little bit fake, it is still a reoccurring thing in my life. Digitalization is taking all of us away from things that we need to be doing at this point in our life, like homework. I think our videos are different though. For me, digitalization is taking me away from something I need to get done, for you, you are using something digital to do something good. In the fucked up world that we live in, finding something as pure as acoustic guitar playing is hard, and whatever it takes to do something like that is good. So using an electric tuner is fine in my eyes.

I'm not saying that all Digital things are bad, but at this point in our lives, I think we need to focus on the things we need to get done in order to be better adults, and anything that stands in our way is evil. Lets not let distractions get in the way of our future. Thank you for your comment and I look forward to your next praise, advice, or criticism.

Comment on triangular group Videos.

Hannah,

I'm glad that you really followed the format of what Andy wanted. You did your own thing and let people watch which is hard to do. I didn't exactly follow the format but both of our videos representations of digitalization.

I feel like your video is saying that digital shit is taking up most of the time in your life. Even when your playing guitar, your using an electric tuner. That really shows what the world has come to.

I see when your texting in your video your kind of looking around, I don't know if that is subconscious or not, but when I'm texting I kind of feel awkward, like you awkwardly looking around.

In future videos I would make a few more "statements" about technology, but the guitar with the tuner is a good example of how digital is taking over our lives.

Your video really makes me think about what the world is coming to. What can we do that is not technology based??? Even in the gym when your working out, there are usually TV's in the room, and most people are listening to their Ipods. I wonder how the world will turn out.

Once again i enjoyed your post and look forward to future ones.

Jace

(Amon didn't have a video so I commented on his survey)

Amon,

Your question, is by far the most articulated and well stated question i've read. You asked the exact question I was wondering about, but I didn't know how to articulate it as well as you.

I agree with your brother and best friend when they say that Digitalization is coming at us so fast and strong, there's no way to get from it. I agree with Stranger #1 when he says it helps us do work faster and more efficiently, but I also agree with Stranger #2 when he says its taking us away from the real world.

Overall, I feel that technology is fine in moderation. Too much of it can be over stimulating, but if your don't use it you will be lost in the world.

I really enjoyed reading your post. I agree with a lot of your thoughts but do the rest of your work so we can read it!

Jace

When I watch my own video, I feel like i should have made a video of me simply watching TV, or web surfing, but I wanted to show a problem that I actually do have a lot, even if it's not completely real.

In the video I get angry pretty easily, and give up. I don't mean to do this and i definitely don't do it in the physical aspects of my life, but it seems like sitting in front of the computer makes my vulnerable to hostility. Even not on the video, Im realizing it now.

I already have a brother who spends most of his time on the computer, tv, or his phone. It is disturbing and it really is affecting his health. He is gaining weight and stays up all night. Although it doesn't seem to be affecting his social life, i'm afraid that if he goes on like this, then it will.

My hand on the phone looks very big, and I never noticed that. I also noticed that when I am texting I am very entranced by it, and don't pay attention to anything else, but I kind of knew that already.

If someone can do something digital that they like, such as the Wii, and stay active at the same time, It's still taking you away from something better you could be doing. Unless its the only active thing you really do in our life, then Its a must.

Interviews and Surveys

I interviewed my Mom Judy for the Family Member survey.

Question: How many hours a day do you spend using anything digital? (Computer, TV, Camera, Phone etc.)
Answer: 5 hours

Q: Out of those 5, how many do you use doing work or something productive?
A: 4.5

Q: Do these digital objects make your life easier?
A: Yes, it also in some ways makes it more difficult because sometimes i discuss important topics over email or text, when we really need to set-up a meeting and talk face to face, but yes digital things makes it more convienient.

Q: Do you sometimes find yourself doing work on the computer or phone, and not really thinking about it, because you are so used to digital things doing the work for you/making it easier? Such as spell check?
A: (At first she said yes, but after "thinking" about it for a little while she said): I would say most people do, but I'm not that type of person. I don't rely on those type of things to do work, I usually try to spell things correctly and do the best i can do.

Q: Do you think that the generations are getting dumber and lazier, because their spending more time in front of the TV (killing brain cells), on the computer (doing work for them), on the phone (giving us brain cancer), and texting (making us use language that is not correct in the English Language):
A: Yes, I think that this access to all this information is rather frightening, and people dont need to excersice thier minds quite as much to get all of it. People are not using it correctly. The technology is doing everything for us and we are sitting there letting it happen. Usually after using the computer for social networking or something of the sort, i actually feel dumber. I get concerned also of what kids have access to now-a-days because a lot of it is inappropriate.

Q: If it was up to you, what would you eliminate in all of this Digital Media:
A: Texting, not computers or phones, but texting and IMing. Also some of the unnecessary sites that people have access to.


I Then took it to the street and interviewed some complete strangers. The questions i asked goes as followed:

Q1: How many hours a day do you spend using something digital?
Q2: How much of this digital media time spending is productive or work related?
Q3: Do you think that digital things are making are generation dumber and lazier?

Answers

2 middle school kids:
A1: About 10 hours a day.
A2: Probably about 2 hours
A3: Computers are making it easier to do work, and Facebook is a good thing because you can keep in touch with people who live far away.

20-something year old man standing on the corner with a box?:
A1: 3 Hours
A2: 1 Hour.
A3: In terms of making us dumber, it is definitely taking away from the social intelligence aspect of life. You are getting disconnected by using computers. Now that I think about it Everything is making us disconnected. Social Networking is fine in moderation, but too much makes us disconnected from the world. There's a certain type of intelligence which is social intelligence, and people are not getting that now-a-days. They spend all their time talking to their friends on the computer or phone (texting). Even Ipods, when you walk around with your headphones on, no one wants to talk to you. On the flip side though it is making civilization move along faster technologically.

SOF teacher Scott:

A1: 3 hours.
A2: 1.5 hours.
A3: Computers are making us work more, but its also making it much easier. At the same time it is more efficient.

I then went on aim to interview one of my best friends who is now a freshman at the University of Rhode Island.

David:

A1: 3.5-4

A2: Almost all of it. (I then asked him if he was doing work right now, while talking to me on aim, and he said no, and I told him that this is part of using digital stuff, so you can't say you use all 4 hours doing work. and he says that "You said productive. I'm being productive right now". I asked him how and he said " by expressing my emotions and setting my state of mind through music. And talking with a friend from home who i don't often get to see. I agreed.)

A3: Well if u consider an electric drill a digital thing, which it is since its machinery, putting it through someone's head would make them dumber. If you waste all ur time watching barny the same may be true, however if your doing something productive rather than destructive with something that is digital, like trying to map out the melodies of beethoven, then you can be doing things which are productive. In conclusion, just like everything, you can use digital devices progressively or destructively.

HW 4 - Triangular Comments 1

Kareem,
I like how you sticked to the topic that digitalization is making us lazy. You said things that everybody could relate to and it really is a scary thought what the world is coming to.

It is so easy to not leave your house but get all the amenities that you need, even ones that you don't need, like Netflix and online gaming.

What your saying is something I have been thinking about for a long time. As generations go by, people are getting dumber and dumber. Lazier and lazier. It's like Katherine said that peoples thumbs are getting bigger so they can text better.

What you could have done better is make the arguments more succinct and organized. You were kind of all over the place with your ideas, even though they were good, you could have taken time to expand them.

I look forward to reading more of your posts, because I feel the same way.

Initial Thoughts

I feel like digital/electronic media is slowly taking the ability to think for ourselves away. Whenever you type something on the Internet browser, it always finishes your website for you. It knows what you want before you even know what you want. On Microsoft word, if you type "Dear Person", a little computer pops up in the corner and says "it look like your trying to write a letter! do you need help?". Even right there when i was typing "you" i almost typed "u". It is taking our intellectuality, and our individuality away from us.