2005-09-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

REACTION TO TECHNOLOGY ARTICLES

     I never thought I would say this, but I do feel kind of weird at the fact that I am being asked to post my school work online, I guess I'm just used to the old notebook and pencil type of classroom, but although I do work and live most of my life around doing this same type of stuff to be paid, I just feel this is different. At least "psychologically" speaking.
     After reading the articles related to technology and the way it has taken over our lives, I can't stop asking the same question all of these articles pose: "How much should we allow the use of technology run our everyday lives?".
     There really isn't a right and wrong answer to this, all of these technologies are so new for most people, that it all depends on how much experience you may have with all technological devices. There are obviously pros and cons to the use of technology in our everyday lives; one of the pros is the fact that we are open to a whole new world of information we probably wouldn't have otherwise been able to know, and at a minimum of cost. But one of the cons is that we have so much information fed through all this technological devices, that it takes us less time to keep a reaction to a piece of information, so what it used to be relevant to most of us in the past, it now is forced to go to a second level and a new piece of information goes to take first place, and so on.
   My personal opinion is that at the same time we are free to gain access to
mounds of information, we lose more and more the personal touch that makes us humans. We no longer need a face to remind us who we are talking to, only a nickname and a few clicks of the mouse to get inside a person's brain. Is that the wave of the future? Is that really what we want? Doesn't anyone miss talking, or expressing a loud laugh in the middle of a joke being told in a bar with a group of friends? I know that even the shyest person can become very extroverted expressing online, but if you put this person in a setting like the one I mentioned before, this person will not be able to communicate the same way they do it online. In that case, I believe technology is making us walk backwards.
I still appreciate a birthday card that comes via regular mail, with a stamp that my best friend carefully took the time to buy and lick on the envelope, and that I usually put up on top of my desk until I get sick of it, as opposed to a link to a hallmark card that I will easily erase after seeing my card two times at most. But I do appreciate all the knowledge and easiness that having a computer and internet connection bring to my life, and as I said at the beginning of this blog, there isn't a right or wrong answer to this, we just have to let time tell what we are doing right or wrong. It's all a try and miss at this point.

communications lab