The fact that you are reading this right now is essentially the focus of my project for this blog. Without technologies advances, it would not be possible. Knowledge is a powerful thing. The fact that we have more of it in a pocket-sized box we carry around with us at all times than in our actual intellect is perplexing when you really think about it. Sometimes I think about what it'd be like to live in a different time period. One where we couldn't just look up anything on Google. One without these screens that control everything we do. Technology has changed the way we live completely. As we have learned, there are pros and cons to this revolution. At a basic level, technology simply makes things easier. And that's great... right? Well, it depends on what side you look from. The way we entertain, communicate, teach, learn and so much more is just more effective with what hardware we have nowadays. This begs the question, what do we truly gain from making all of this possible? I think I was able to, at the very least, analyze this confounding question with the sources I incorporated into the project. I found that the implications of our world of screens and the future of said world are both good and bad, depending on your perception.
Baron taught us that new things like the pencil, computer, and telephone are simply replicas of each other in how they were introduced/how they evolved. This made me harken back to one of my favorite HBO series "True Detective" (season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit). Anyways, the famous line from the show's finale is "time is a flat circle." This is true for a lot of things when you think about it. As Baron said it best, "Whether the computer will one day be as taken-for-granted as the pencil is an intriguing question. One thing is clear: were Thoreau alive today he would not be writing with a pencil of his own manufacture." I do think one day the computer will be taken for granted as much as the pencil is today. Will we be alive to see it? Maybe not. As I mentioned before, we, as humans, are inherently unhappy with what we have. Its the same reason some people who win the lottery become depressed. We're always going to be trying to find easier ways to communicate with each other as we saw with the technologies referenced in the article. We're always looking for the "next best thing" and its been like this for ages. Its why we're here today. Who knows what kind of technology will be around in 10, 100 or even 1000 years. It's dumbfounding when you think about it, especially since the computer was only introduced a couple of decades or so ago.
My next three sources again showed the good and bad sides of technology in society. In regards to one of the most popular forms of expression, music, it has changed the way we listen to and create sounds. This is truly an amazing thing. In the third source, I decided to use a Ted Talk that taught us something we don't usually think about until we see a family at dinner, each of them buried in their phones. Human interaction is how we built this revolution in a way. Without people working together and communicating, the phone wouldn't exist. Its a double entendre in that we have effectively diminished the human aspect. Its pretty ironic. Whatever your beliefs may be, I don't think we were put on this earth to stare at screens. Finally, my last source delved into what this revolution has done to our education system, for better or worse.
In conclusion, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog. It was a great outlet for some realizations/life lessons I've experienced in my time. Not only that, I think this project was an effective way for me to explore my creative mind rather than writing formal papers as with previous writing classes. It was less conventional/structured and more genuine in my opinion. With regards to the topic of technology, I hope that I was able to shed light on not just the benefits, but the dangers. Its kind of a paradox in that we have made ourselves more connected than ever but in doing so, we have made ourselves disconnected on a real level.
You're point on what it would be like to live in a different time period is very interesting because technology has created immense changes to society and our lives.
ReplyDelete-Aaron Morrow
I really liked how this almost sounded like you were having a conversation with the reader. You could hear your voice actually coming out too, like when you mentioned "season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit." This writing style make your reflection easy to read.
ReplyDelete-Abigail Mulloy
Really like the intro into the post. I like the different viewpoints you took with your soucrs and how they talk about different aspects of our inquiry.
ReplyDelete