I HATE it when...

     Everyone always talks about what Technology has done to positively promote our society.  The computer, cell phones, the Internet, Google, social media, smart phones: all of these inventions have brought about an ease and level of engagement in our daily lives that wasn’t there before.  

Take this article for example:

 http://education.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/07/14/study-emerging-technology-has-positive-impact-in-classroom

      

     Because of the modern day technology available in classrooms students are excelling, in this case, on the AP calculus test.  Technology has transformed the traditional classroom and not only enhanced it but through video lectures and online homework made it accessible from anywhere.  In the article IT Opportunities in the Education Market (http://www.comptia.org/news/pressreleases/11-06-28/Making_the_Grade_Technology_Helps_Boosts_Student_Performance_Staff_Productivity_in_Nation%E2%80%99s_Schools_New_CompTIA_Study_Finds.aspx) it is revealed that 78% of K-12 teachers feel technology has positively impacted their classroom.  And 65% of those educators surveyed feel that students are more productive today than three years ago because of the increased technology available in the classroom.  Woohoo!

What about this (a little bigger scale) example:

 http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/01/21/technology-saves-lives/

     According to FOX Business, “satellites were critical in the rescues of 295 people from life-threatening situations throughout the United states and its surrounding waters” (National Ocean Atmospheric Administration). These satellites work with Russia’s COSPAS spacecraft as part of an international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System ( COSPAS-SARSAT for short…not kidding).  Technology is saving human lives!  In the old days if you got ship wrecked you just had to live on a deserted island with a volleyball and deal with it until you could figure out how to make a raft but not anymore.  Thank God Russia can track your every move and find you if you ever get lost…

Ok, one last example:

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/01/04/sci-natural-disaster-software.html?cmp=rss

     CBS News says Smart Phones are saving lives.  After natural disasters there is a new App that could, “streamline aid following natural disasters by helping to locate missing people, direct them to safe zones…and even help identify those suffering from malnutrition”.  And you thought the best reason for that Iphone was Temple Run...noob.  

     Technology and the continued advancement of our culture is a snowball that just keeps getting bigger in a snowball fight that just keeps getting better.  Especially with the invention of the Smart Phone and the ability to take our phone-sized small computers everywhere.  There is really no place technology hasn’t touched.  Our society depends heavily on it and our youth are so exposed to it they don’t even remember a time when they could be more than 10 feet away from their cell phone and not start hyperventilating. 

Speaking of Smart Phones... Oh, do you want to know something that really burns me up about Smart Phones?

I HATE it when:  People with smart phones talk on their blue tooth’s.  I freakin’ hate blue tooth technology.  Here’s why you should never use blue tooth:

1.     You look like you’re talking to yourself and that makes you look crazy and I don’t want to grocery shop next to crazy people who talk to themselves.
2.          Worse: I think you’re talking to me.  So when I answer your dump question in the grocery aisle as to what pizza sauce you should get and you look at me like I’m an idiot and point to your ear I AM NOT THE CRAZY ONE!
3.          You are constantly talking loudly, and pulling from the point #1, you are talking loudly TO YOURSELF.  Don’t look at me like I’m crazy because I asked you to repeat a question when we’re the only two people in an aisle because if I’m standing on the wrong side of your head I don’t know that your talking on the phone.
4.           If you are not dressed in a business suit talking about your very high up position in a company: you look like a tool.

I HATE it when:  I’m trying to have a conversation and you cannot talk to me without surfing on your phone.

     Smart phones have absolutely destroyed America’s attention span.  We never have to be bored because the whole world’s Internet is at the tips of our fingers.  If a conversation lulls, you check your phone.  If a movie gets boring, you check your phone.  If we’re at dinner in March and your team is playing, you check your phone.  Sweet, because the conversation I was just having with you now really feels like something you want to engage in…

I HATE it when: You have absolutely NO technology etiquette.

     Just because nobody has ever come right out and told you what’s what is not an excuse to pretend like you have no manners about when/where it’s appropriate to use your Smart Phone. 

1.     DO NOT use your Smart Phone and talk to your best friend about your cheating boyfriend when you are trying to check out in a grocery line, or any line for that matter.  That’s rude to the cashier who is focused on you and frankly nobody wants to hear about your life when we are trying to pay for groceries and get back to our own.  I would cheat on you too with those kinds of technology manners.

2.     DO NOT get on your phone in public and for a second think that you can actually have a private conversation.  NO!  Everybody thinks that because they’re on their phone and people around them cannot hear the other voice that they are suddenly in their bedroom and nobody else knows what’s going on.  Just because I cannot hear your cheating boyfriend defending himself on the other end of the line doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s happening as you “privately” scream at him two feet away from me.  Seriously, I’m embarrassed for you. 

3.     DO NOT complain about your Smart Phone.  We live in America you selfish brat, don’t you realize that phone is a luxury??  If you lived in Zimbabwe you would be worried about how to live past age 39 and not die from AIDS.  (I didn’t make that up, that’s the reason for their high mortality rate.)  The fact that your Iphone battery never lasts all night while you’re trying to partay and you have no service in the back left corner of your basement does not make me feel pity for you.  I am judging you.

     So yes, technology has done a lot of really great things for our society.  And my Smart Phone has made me infinitely more accessible in communication so for that I am thankful.  But if people don’t start paying a little more attention to how heavily and blindly they rely on the technology around them then what’s going to happen when there is a zombie apocalypse and our technology bubble we have tried so hard to build up pops?  Let’s just hope we’re up against The Walking Dead zombies and not the I Am Legend zombies.  

How Technology Shapes Daily Arguments

When considering the impact of technology on my daily life, I can immediately identify many ways in which I have become reliant on technology. Daily communication for many is so deeply impacted by the widespread popularity of mobile technology and instant access to information. Access to this information of course, shapes the very nature of our conversation. Simple fact checking or referencing in the past could not be done during the course of an argument or a discussion. This is where the role of mobile technology has succeeded in changing the very nature of our discourse. For my blog posts, I have chosen to focus on how access to this vast amount of information has shaped our daily interactions and communication. I often find myself in many heated debates with friends and strangers regarding many different subjects. Like most people this usually involves hot button issues such as politics or something as simple as finding out where something is located. Many of these arguments have lead to mobile fact finding through the use of search engines on smart phones. There often is a long break in an argument that consists of each of us using our phones to pull up articles or facts and figures to discredit the others point of view. Many times, this information is gathered from sources that are far from independent or unbiased. This use of technology has not only changed the pace of verbal communication, but also the content through the prevalence of such sources on the internet. But perhaps the greatest way in which this impacts daily discourse is by allowing instant access to such opinions without any critical thinking or analysis. I often notice the increased willingness of people to regurgitate this information without giving thought to the meaning or the message they project. I find this is most prevalent with those that hold a radical point of view such as conspiracy theorists or political extremists. Instant access to information and opinions through the use of a smart phone has aided and hurt public discourse, but most importantly it has shaped it into a new form.

Project Glass- Technology of the Future

Considering how advanced technology is today, can you imagine the possibilities for the future? We have all the information we could ever need at the touch of a button. Google is taking technology to a new level with Project Glass!

Project Glass, developed by Google, demonstrate augmented reality glasses that show users information right in front of their eyes. Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, to view a real-world environment. The elements of the real-world environment are augmented by a computer generated sensory that allows you to be in the moment; showing the viewer a virtual reality.  A day wearing the Google glasses would look something like this:

It seems to be a convenient way keep up with everything going on in your life; it gives you all the information you would have on a smart phone and displaying it in front of your eyes in glasses. Google considers the glasses to be "wearable computing." You can control the information being received on your glasses by voice command. Google is just beginning to test the glasses in the public hoping to receive valuable input allowing Google to make the glasses even more convenient for people to use. Google wants the glasses to look sleek and graceful, not clunky and obtrusive and also comfortable for the user to wear day to day. 

The Google glasses will keep the user from reaching into their pockets to gather information while they are on the run, they can now have everything they need right in front of their eyes. The glasses will allow them to do everything they can with a smartphone like sending messages, checking email, taking phone calls, navigation, turn by turn GPS, and even capturing photos and videos. The pictures will be a display of exactly what you are seeing through the glasses. Employees of Google have compared the look of the glasses to Oakley Thumps. Google considers the project to be more of an experiment rather than a business opportunity. By making these glasses available to the public, Google is allowing anyone to partake in the virtual Google experiment. 

Google is estimating these glasses will cost about as much as a smart phone, $250-$600, and are still making different models for the look of the glasses. Google is estimating that the glasses will be on sale to the public by the end of the year. 

Google God

My blog posts are going to deal with how Google is changing our media environment so much that it even affects the way we view and interact with God. I'll discuss the many aspects of Google with relation to the laws of media (what it enhances, retrieves, obsoletes, and reverses) and the abilities it provides the human race.

Google is basically the epitome of technological development and human achievement. They do everything. I was going to include Facebook in my analysis but I'll use Google+ as the example of the social media instead, even though at the current point in time Facebook is wildly more popular. Apple is another innovator that warrants a shout out, but again, Google caught on fast in the computing and smart phone world, as Android phones are becoming more popular that iPhones. Google is working on self-driving cars, which seem too good and futuristic to be true. One of the scariest and most recent projects that Google has embarked on is Project Glass, which will basically make Tony Stark's invention of Iron Man a reality (minus the rockets, those will come soon I'm sure) and will blur the line between media and real life. There will be no difference between the physical environment and our media environment. We will be always plugged in, always available, and always distracted.

So how does this deal with God? I view my relationship with God like a relationship with any other person, though I try (and fail) to give it the most importance. It takes time, effort, and hard work. Basically, when I look at Google's ever-expanding technological efforts, I see the human race trying to live life with the least effort possible. We're trying to gather as much information as we can while saving loads of our precious time. However, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. And the question I ask is this: What are we saving our time for?

My Parents vs. Technology

Over the past few years, I've seen personally the rise of quick talk technology. Since my first smartphone purchase, I've been able to compartmentalize my life onto one tiny device. I'm able to check my email, surf the web, watch movies, listen to music, and talk to my wife and friends anytime. The possibilities of this new technology made me feel limitless in the connection to my world. Unfortunately, when I found out my parents were both using smart-phones, I had a sinking suspicion that my new world would suddenly seem not as calm. I can now admit that I have somewhat of an "addiction" to my smartphone. I immediately check it when I wake up, and look at it till I fall asleep. Essentially, I have created my own "media ecology." This environment I've created is by my own doing. But, I feel it is a happy existence. But since my parents have joined this "environment" of mine, it has certainly seen better days. When I had to spend 4 hours of combined help to teach my parents how to turn on and off the phone and the basic functionality, I had hoped that it would end there. Soon I started receiving texts from my parents, my mother more so than my father. Then inevitably my parents soon faced their worst enemy: autocorrect. The action of which the phone begins to predict what you are trying to say in texts, became a whirlwind of a journey for both my parents.

Obviously funny to the outside, it has taken all of my brain's neurons to decipher the texts my parents send to me. With such websites as www.damnyouautocorrect.com , society has put a humorous spin on those who feel the unforgiving wrath of autocorrection. The biggest argument I would like to make is how dependence on such technology has and sometimes will slap us back in the face. How many of us have made a simple text to a friend or family member and realized all but too late that it came out perverted? My ultimate fear is that someday, when technology has passed me by, my own children will have to deal with my interference into their "technological world."

How Technology Complicates Relationships

For a college student in this era it is hard to remember life without constant cell phone and Internet exposure. I personally had my first cell phone at age 13 because my parents wanted to always have access to communicating with me. While cellphones, smartphones, and the Internet have a limitless amount of positive possibility it also can create endless problems. I recently just ended a one-year relationship with a girl that ended with her literally and physically punching me in the face. The cause of it was because of Instagram. Instagram is a popular social media app that originated for the iPhone and has now also moved to Android platforms. Instagram is basically the visual version of Twitter. You post images and people can comment on them and like them. What set my ex off was that I simply liked another girl’s picture that she didn’t approve of. While obviously there was some immaturity also involved with the relationship it made me do some thinking about how things used to be so different. Less than 30 years ago forms of communication included telephone use, face-to-face, and written letter. They didn’t have cell phones that listed every person you called, received a call from, or a missed call from. There wasn’t as much opportunity to stalk through someone’s life and create new insecurities. They didn’t have grouped text and Facebook messages saved to a platform that a crazy girl could go through while the guy is asleep. Other students have commented on how they found out more about their boyfriends and girlfriends from Facebook than by actually communicating with them at first and I feel that this will only get worst. Recently Google released this video to demonstrate new glasses they are producing: 

Google Glasses

These glasses seem to have what I mentioned before, a limitless amount of positive possibilities, but can you imagine how far being able to just look at someone and know everything about them can go? Perhaps you’ll meet a gorgeous girl that really takes you in and then take one glance at her and find out she has opposite political, religious, and social beliefs than you all from your glasses being linked up to her Facebook. The traditional love story the way Shakespeare saw it in his time is quickly slipping away. This faster than ever spread of technology will complicate and change human behavior more than anything that has come before it. 

Media that Causes Friction-- Now a days media is used for everything when it comes to communicating with other people. Although this helps us access things fast in our busy day to day lives, is it also hurting us as well? A lot of times media can be the source of all the problems when it comes to relationships with other people. Not being able to have face to face communication anymore can be harmful in many different ways. Listed below are a few ways media can cause friction to a relationship. -Texting, tweeting, or updating statuses on facebook can cause a loss of what a person is really trying to say. A lot of the time people don't convey the right message and the receiver of this message interprets it in the wrong way. This causes a communication block of understanding between two or more people. -Sending e-mails before proofreading can also be another way to distort a message so that it does not get the point across that you wanted to convey. -Pictures can lead to assumptions about people that aren't always true. Sometimes jokes can be seen as going to far when posting pictures, or without a clear description of a picture people could get the wrong idea. - Facebook is a huge crotch when it comes to conveying messages that aren't always true. Sending and posting things to try and get a rise out of people or reading things on others walls that you don't understand can lead to a lot of confusion when it comes to media relations. When people are able to see through all the clutter, that is when true communication will be accomplished. Until then we have to separate what is real and what is not when it comes to dealing with media outlets.