I find generational gaps fascinating. I use email, my cell phone, and digital music on a daily basis, where my grandparents find many of these technologies very foreign to them. My grandma refuses to learn how to use email even though she is quite the talker on the phone, or my mom blames myself or my siblings when something goes wrong with the computer, because since we use it more we probably created the malfunction in the computer. My parents have used the internet for some practical purposes but for the most part still rely on paper or conventional methods before they turn to a computer. This makes me think of the various changes that will emerge in our generation.
As we marry have kids, will we be a past generation who is inept at the new technologies, having us at the mercy of our kids to teach us? Or will we be a generation that will keep up with the times? Since we have been so used to constant development and advancement in technology I wonder if we will be able to progress right along side the next generation because we are used to learning new Com Techs.
Obviously only time will tell, because Diffusion come into play, which generations will accept new technologies, or if our generation will continue to place the same importance on technology as we do today, ( what we will value in the future), or what our motivations will be in adapting in society. As I said only time will tell.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Technology Failing
In the past two weeks I have heard about more and more people speak of how slow their internet was, or their cell phone breaking or blackboard not working and this has turned into a feeling of frustration in their lives.
When technology fails it messes with our daily lives and makes us not only think about how much we may rely on technology but also we find other alternatives in completing our task. Now I was thinking about whether we are unhealthily dependent on technology or if has just simply become a method that we rely on just as we do in our ability to talk or hear. Email has become just about as effective as a phone call. Or where a hundred years ago when the writing letters was an important mode for communication, we would naturally get frustrated if the post services were down.
My theory for why we see technology as the bad guy is because technology has come into our lives very quickly and penetrated into many areas of our lives in both a good and bad manner. It diffused quickly and was first seen as a luxury and now it is becoming more and more of a necessity.
Unless it consumes us completely I have decided I am not that opposed to the way in which technology has diffused. And I think that we should acknowledge the realistic role it plays in our lives so that we can better examine it in the future...
How it affects our relationships- with God, family, friends.
How it affects our temperament.
how it affects society as a whole.
When technology fails it messes with our daily lives and makes us not only think about how much we may rely on technology but also we find other alternatives in completing our task. Now I was thinking about whether we are unhealthily dependent on technology or if has just simply become a method that we rely on just as we do in our ability to talk or hear. Email has become just about as effective as a phone call. Or where a hundred years ago when the writing letters was an important mode for communication, we would naturally get frustrated if the post services were down.
My theory for why we see technology as the bad guy is because technology has come into our lives very quickly and penetrated into many areas of our lives in both a good and bad manner. It diffused quickly and was first seen as a luxury and now it is becoming more and more of a necessity.
Unless it consumes us completely I have decided I am not that opposed to the way in which technology has diffused. And I think that we should acknowledge the realistic role it plays in our lives so that we can better examine it in the future...
How it affects our relationships- with God, family, friends.
How it affects our temperament.
how it affects society as a whole.
Effective Presentations
For the past few class periods we have sat through a number of various presentations and some obviously stood out above the rest as better presentations. A thought that I would like to process through this blog is what makes a great presentation and what makes another boring. I believe that technology has a role in this and can work for or against the presentors.
A pet peeve that I have developed is when the person goes up to the front and seems to have spent a decent amount of time preparing the information to present in a power point form and he or she simply read the information off of each slide. To me this is incredibly boring. I do not see why people see reading off of a power point as much different than reading their notes. Because the only difference in my opinion is that you can make the words move, the audience can see the notes and there may be a cool background. This is an example when technology has become a crutch in the art of presenting. The time taken to prepare the power point only brings out a boring slide show rather than a stimulating presentation. So I think that if a person chooses to use technology they should make an effort to spice it up a bit with interaction, inflection in their tone, better eye contact, the ability to move around, and not as much detail on the slide but providing that detail in explanation when presenting.
People are using technology out of convenience, because sometimes it does not require much creativity. And because the technology is between the presenter and his or her audience, a social distance is formed... where the notion that people can feel like they can approch the presenter is lost.
I frankly admired the people who got the audience involved, smiled, seemed to have fun up front... and unfortunately only and handful of my classmates come to mind. More information is not always better. Personality, simplicity and quality is more widely appreciated.
A pet peeve that I have developed is when the person goes up to the front and seems to have spent a decent amount of time preparing the information to present in a power point form and he or she simply read the information off of each slide. To me this is incredibly boring. I do not see why people see reading off of a power point as much different than reading their notes. Because the only difference in my opinion is that you can make the words move, the audience can see the notes and there may be a cool background. This is an example when technology has become a crutch in the art of presenting. The time taken to prepare the power point only brings out a boring slide show rather than a stimulating presentation. So I think that if a person chooses to use technology they should make an effort to spice it up a bit with interaction, inflection in their tone, better eye contact, the ability to move around, and not as much detail on the slide but providing that detail in explanation when presenting.
People are using technology out of convenience, because sometimes it does not require much creativity. And because the technology is between the presenter and his or her audience, a social distance is formed... where the notion that people can feel like they can approch the presenter is lost.
I frankly admired the people who got the audience involved, smiled, seemed to have fun up front... and unfortunately only and handful of my classmates come to mind. More information is not always better. Personality, simplicity and quality is more widely appreciated.
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