THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Cellphones, computers, televisions, and ipods are a big part of our lives. Whether we want to admit or not most of us are addicted to some sort of digital stimulation. Now the real questions are why are we so addicted, who made us this way, and what will it be like for future generations. Throughout this paper we will be looking at evidence to try to gain some insight to these questions.
Argument 1:
On the train we see people constantly using their ipods. While they are walking down the street, they're texting. When kids get home from school, they turn on the tv to see what's on. People are constantly checking their facebook pages and emails. It's a non stop world of digital interaction out there and people have come to really depend on it. Although I have tried to figure out why we are so addicted before I still don't have every possible reason I think. I have talked about boredom, social status or awkwardness, and even being accustomed. But there might still be possibilities out there such as social acceptance, to show economical status, an escape from reality.
All of these are good topics to touch on. In the book Feed all of these topics are looked at. Such as boredom. Whenever the kids get bored they start watching stuff on their feed. Or with social status or awkwardness, Violet confesses to Titus that her parents never had feeds when they were younger and how people use to make them feel less of what they really were because they didn't have feeds. They got Violet a feed because they didn't want her to go through the hardships they went through without the feed. The kids being accustomed to the feed is shown when they disconnect them from the feed after the old guy causes them to malfunction. They are so used to it they don't know what to do when they don't have it. And when their friend Loga comes to visit and she still has it they all crowd around her, jealous that she still has her feed.
Social acceptance is kind of how Violet's parents get her a feed so that she is not made fun of in school or looked at differently than the rest of the kids. They give into the "feed". The economical status part is when we find out in the book that Violet couldn't afford a feed for a long time. So it shows us that there are still poor people in this world that can't afford the feed. If you do have the feed your obviously up in the financial class and your looked at differently than someone who isn't. The feed is also an escape from reality and they show us that all throughout the book. Like when Titus is upset and he just starts playing games on the feed to get away from thinking. Or when they are in the hospital and Loga is describing what's happening in that teen soap opera show and they are all so into it. Even the guys who usually don't watch it. They become so involved in the feed world that they don't even focus on what's going on in the real world.
Argument 2:
Now we can't blame being dependent on anyone really. No one put a gun to our head and said use this cellphone until your brain explodes. But maybe there are people that we should point the finger at. Such as our parents. My parents are always complaining about how much I'm on my cellphone but at the same time they pay for my bill and allow me to use it so what's the problem. Or how they say that we rarely spend any quality time together but when we are together the tv is on. Little things like this affect what I'm going to do with electronics.
I think we also put the electronics too much in little kid's faces. From such a young age we are teaching children how exciting new electronics are and how much we need them. For example, my 5 month old brother LOVES cellphones. I don't think he understands what they are but he likes the light and sounds it makes. My family encourages him playing with it by buying him a play phone or flashing their phone in front of him. We also just recently opened his walker and it has a play ipod on it that plays nursery rhymes which he loves. Things like this affect his development whether we believe it or not. When he gets older and starts to understand what they are we’re going to have even more of a problem trying to get him away from these devices. This has to be true with a lot of American children. I know and I was one of a lot of children I know that got their first cellphones before hitting double digits. Why do we need cellphones at such a young age?
This leads me to my next people I want to blame, the industries that make these things. They push and push their supplies until we fall into their traps. They make us think that the ipod that just came out is better than the one we have even though it works perfectly fine. Here is an example of companies doing this. Verizon is coming out with their own version of the iphone and just by the advertisement being this interesting I’m sure tons of people are going to go out and buy it. Here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYM-XTqcec
The commercial is set to make people think that other phones don’t do everything that the “Droid” (name of their phone) does. But in reality who really needs all those things on their phone. We have computers for a reason. People however don’t think about this. They think they need to get this phone because the commercial showed them how much better this phone is then the one they have.
Last of all, I want to blame ourselves. We continue to give in every time they come out with something new. We buy it and then advertise it to our friends and family without ever really thinking about if it's really worth what we spent. We let ourselves be fooled by how good it looks on tv or how "cool" we would look if we had it. Companies know this so they play off of that.
Argument 3:
For the future (if there is one past 2012) what do you think the electronics are going to be like? How much more dependent are we going to be? Will the computers ever crash like they were once suppose to or will robots soon dominate our world? These are all good questions to think about and ponder.
When you think about future generations, at least personally I do not want to think about them with chips in the backs of their heads walking around knowing everything. I’d like to think that they will have at least a little bit of independence in them from electronics. I don’t know whether this is realistic though. Here’s an article I found where the author talks about how dependent we are:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_205232.html
She describes how it started and even gives a brief about how it might be. But she admits that she’s dependent and needs the technology.
If people of right now need it then just imagine those coming. Here’s a book called “The Engineer of 2020” by National Academy of Engineering. They discuss in this book how the world will be in 2020 with technology. Here are the attributes just to give you a summary:
-The pace of technological innovation will continue to be rapid (most likely accelerating).
-The world in which technology will be deployed will be intensely globally interconnected.
-The population of individuals who are involved with or affected by technology (e.g., designers, manufacturers, distributors, users) will be increasingly diverse and multidisciplinary.
-Social, cultural, political, and economic forces will continue to shape and affect the success of technological innovation.
-The presence of technology in our everyday lives will be seamless, transparent, and more significant than ever.
This is the summary of the book and it’s contents. Now I didn’t read the whole book but I skimmed through it and they are saying that the engineers are going to be the same but made more complex because of the impact technology will have.
I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like for future generations and how they will be with technology. Hopefully we can save the next couple of generations from technology frenzy by just rearranging out priorities with digital electronics.
Alternatives:
Now there are also those that say technology is the best thing that could have happened to us. It helps us develop our minds and the world. It’s a gift to communication between people. Without it we’d be lost. Things along that line. This website I found tells us the “9 rules for GOOD technology” (whatever that means):
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/04/nine_rules_for_good_technology.htm
They put things in our head to justify the way we use technology and maybe if we use
them like this we will be ok.
Conclusion:
Now that we have seen some evidence towards are questions why are we so addicted,
who did it to us, and what will it be like for the people to come we can make the
conclusion of whether or not technology is bad for us. This paper probably sounds bias saying that technology is bad for you but I don’t think it really is. I don’t think you need to cut digital things from your life just moderate how you use them or what you impose on others.
Works Cited
-“Feed” by M.T. Anderson
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYM-XTqcec
-http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_205232.html
-“The Engineer of 2020” by National Academy of Engineering
-http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/04/nine_rules_for_good_technology.htm
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