Dec
9
My dependence on technology is just that… DEPENDENT.
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So it’s the day before all of our assignments are due and my power is cut off. Instead of instantly freaking out I simply grab my laptop and head off to Panera to access their wifi and steal power from them. This all seems fine until I get attacked my murphys law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This I find out personally when the web browser refuses to let me comment on any of the blogs. That’s great considering I need to finish commenting on blogs to get the grade. Technology is an extremely frustrating thing when it becomes inaccessible. This is extremely easy to know first hand whenever it goes on you. I can live with out everything else it brings but when it comes down to work or school its killer if you depend on it for everyday use. You can take it for granted and expect it to be there waiting for you as you cut your time for finishing assignments down to the wire. In doing this you get screwed if your technology fails you as I’ve just dealt with first hand. Fortunately or not I can find other ways to solve the problem if all else fails but it still puts us all in a bit of a predicament if your technology such as power, you computer, the internet screws you over and fails you. A better lesson would be not to put everything off until the last minute but instead ill say we should depend on our technology less, before it starts running our lives.
Dec
2
Gaming addiction is a new epidemic sweeping the world. This is something many are having problems with but it is just starting to be looked into as a serious problem. Gaming addition or internet addition as its being dubbed has similarities with gambling addiction. Where they do not have any physical draw on them and the addiction is based purely on the psychology involved. This can be cited as addiction because of the way a person becomes dependent upon the video game or internet social cites they are using. They find they need more and more of it to get enjoyment out of it and spend more of their time on the internet or playing the video games then they do socializing with other people. When unable to find time to play or be on the internet they suffer withdraw symptoms and can become angry, irritable, depressed much like a drug addict does when no longer suffering from physical withdrawal. Internet addiction is caused by a need to escape from reality and after awhile it’s the only way an addict can find to make themselves feel better. Some symptoms of gaming addiction are prolonged amounts of time playing the game or on the internet, shirking responsibilities to make time for the game or internet, and becoming irritable and unreasonable when away from the game or internet for long periods of time. Some ways to avoid this addiction is by watching the amount of time spent on the internet or in games. If you find you or someone you know is developing a need to play on a regular basis this is a warning sign that they need to cut back. It is important that people avoid doing to much of any one thing because a person can develop an unhealthy dependence upon it which causes them to start to work their life around the thing they need instead of just living life.
Nov
17
After searching around google for random articles on how violent video games influence kids I happened upon this http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/845.asp. This article is a loose case study on how violent video games influence youth. After reading into it I started to wonder why when violent video games are implicated for why someone acts out violently they point out how long their spent playing these games but not why they had so much time to do so. The question being is it really violent video games that cause kids to behave violently? Or perhaps it’s the fact that instead of spending time with other human beings, like their parents, they are glued to their games?
The media is always very quick to attack the games themselves when seeking a reason for senseless acts of violence. It is even quoted that the teens who committed the violent shootings at columbine were fans of the game doom. What was also attacked was their taste of music such as Marilyn Manson for reasoning as to why these acts were committed. When looking at album sales, game sales, and other music with violent lyrics that is even more popular with the masses then Marilyn Manson we could use the same logic and question why thousands of other teens have not gone on shooting rampages. It is with this that we have to realize this can not be the only answer to why these acts are committed.
When a person is placed in an environment where most of their time is spent alone, and not with another human being, the value of others lives can go down. By adding the only source of entertainment to be something with senseless acts of violence toward other human beings this can also physiologically bring their value of life in general down. By taking a sense of reality out of the equation through solitary and fictional entertainment this causes a people to have a much harder time differentiating between reality and the games and violence they spend most of their time playing. Through this it is possible that violence through entertainment can indeed influence teens to act out in a violent matter in return. This can easily be prevented through more positive human interaction.
When a young teen has good role models and friends who spend time with them the much needed human interaction is reached. This causes them to learn the value of other human beings and take life to be something of high value. Through this real interaction the teens also do not loose site of reality because they are in real life. It is very important to pay attention to the underlined cause and not the violent video games themselves as to why teens act out violently. Through this tragedy’s that are linked to them can easily be prevented.
Nov
12
Is Technology Raising Your Kids ?
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Technology has a huge impact on youth today. Children find themselves logging more hours on the computer or in front of the TV then they do spending time with their parents. Essentially it can be said that technology is doing a bigger job raising children in this modern world then their parents actually do. This can offer some very negative side effects when we look more closely into this matter. Children raised on the internet tend to raise issues socializing in person. They may gather greater courage to saying how they feel in writing but in actuality may develop a dependency on the internet to express their real feelings. The cause of this is often because they do not develop good physical relationships with others due to a lack of interaction with humans early in life. When they become more comfortable with technology then they do human beings, naturally the way they will feel most comfortable communicating with others will also be through technology instead of in person.
With a lack of actual human interaction this can cause an inability to ever be close to a real human being. Sure the child will have no problem becoming close with people through the internet via e-mail or instant messenger but in person they will have a great deal of trouble. Interacting with humans throughout life helps develop very important socializing skills that can help a person throughout life. Without these skills to help them through life it can hinder a person on a mental sense as much as if they were physically missing a limb. This is why it is extremely important that parents spend more time interacting with their children at home and making sure they develop those cue social skills with a live human being.
This was inspired by an article off of opposing viewpoints on teens and technology.
Source Citation:Kendall, Peggy. “Teens Value Technology.” Opposing Viewpoints: America’s Youth. Ed. Jamuna Carroll. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. CCLA, Palm Beach Comm College. 12 Nov. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=
Oct
19
Endless hours lost behind a computer screen, TV, even game consoles is something that is becoming more and more common. As games become more realistic, interactive, and extensive more people find themselves falling into the trap of game addiction. Countless amounts of hours are being wasted in a non existent fantasy world where people level up characters that give them no real benefit to life. The gaming world is becoming less and less of a world with games and more of an escape from reality. People are running away from reality into fantasy worlds to be something they can never be in real life.
You have to wonder how far with the video game world suck people in as it grows in the coming years. As new developments in video games make the lines between realities blur and make games more marketable to everyone and not just original gamers you have to wonder. Will virtual reality become the new reality for people? A first hand account on this would be the hours I myself have clocked on certain video games. When something is brand new and the need to finish it or play it over rides the desire to do school work it starts to become an issue. More people are shirking their actual duties to in fact play video games. It is now not even uncommon for romantic relationships to be left at the waysides because gamers are too engrossed in their fantasy world to realize the neglect of their significant other.
Sep
24
Violence & it’s influence
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Does violence in the media on the internet influence young people to be violent? A Finnish journalist on one blog seems interested in this question. This blog topic can be found here link. Even the Finnish prime minster looks to blame some shootings done by young adults on the influences of the internet on them. This is a very similar problem to ones the U.S. has faced before.
Shootings in school have become more and more common in the current decade. Thirty years ago this was not so. The internet is also a very recent development in society; this is the correlation that many media outlets are trying to make with the recent rash of shootings amongst young people. So it is here the media looks to blame the online media and its violence as reasoning for such violence amongst young people. I think that this is more grasping at straws then an actual answer, and that taking away the outlet the internet provides, or monitoring what is on it, will only cause greater damage than good.
So the real question is do the youth of today have a strong enough will to make their own choices instead of being influenced to do things they see, read, or play games involving? I would say it is up to young people to take a stand on this matter. Are they being influenced to do something they normally wouldn’t do? Is it their peers putting this pressure on them? Or maybe it’s the media around them, the internet, or youtube? Or does the youth of today make its own decisions that are only loosely based on what is around them? Is perhaps the violence, on TV, the media, the internet, is actually caused by the influence of the youth and not the other way around. The lines on this are already blurred, and it just becomes a question of which came first the chicken or the egg.
Sep
17
My Life is on Live Journal
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The internet is a certain technology that has opened up a brand new avenue of communication, but sometimes in doing this a lot of real communication is lost. Instead of asking how your friend’s day was, you can just surf over to their blog and read about it. There it all is on the internet, with out ever having to go out, or pick up a phone to find out from the actual person. This is in fact something I find myself doing on a regular basis for people that are not living close by anymore. This is where it starts to feel strange, live journal is like a public version of someone’s day to day life for all to see on the internet. Sometimes this is a useful way of getting to know someone but it is quite peculiar how many people are taking a voyeuristic attitude with their lives. This comes down to the amount of things people seem to forget to filter out of what the post on the internet. Just because its in writing it seems like people find it to be less outrageous to let loose with it.
This makes me wonder, when did our entire life start becoming public domain? Is this an influence of the internet? It seems like more and more, as kids grow up with the internet different social attitudes are changing and reflecting this phenomenon. In some aspects people are becoming more and more open about themselves, but it is really only a façade when you look into it more deeply. “Susie” may tell everyone on her live journal about her Dr. visit, and how sick she is, but she may leave out that its caused from an std she picked up; or she might not even be able to tell anyone in person about it with out walling up about the subject. People are more open, but only with the details they choose to give you, other details (often things that might reflect badly on them) they might choose to omit from the story all together. This is only one side effect of the internet, this fake persona side that people create on cyber space of themselves. Added to it would be the fact that sometimes people can be completely open in writing about themselves, but when you try to speak to them in person it becomes a brick wall of a subject. This brings a whole new aspect to the old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”. You have to question where do the details omitted stop and the truth of the person begins, and who is this other side of them wandering cyber space.
Sep
3
A Breif look into My Topic
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This blog will cover the different aspects of how technology influences the human race. A brief example of what I mean by that would be this blog itself. It has become a lot more common in the modern world for people to keep journals on the internet and through a computer then writing one by hand. Through this we have become more open and social with our writing and made it public domain in a sense. This also cuts the time it takes to do something as simple as a spell check.
This is simply one example of how technology influences people, each post will cover different pieces of this all with the same central meaning. I choose this topic because it is something that is very important in modern world. Technology is all around us and is shaping the culture of the future into something completely different from the past. Sometimes technology is helpful but other times it sets us back from some of the most fundamental parts of life by making it easier for us to avoid things such as talking face to face with one another. In other aspects it controls us, where would some of us be without our cell phones, our laptops, and Google for that matter. A lot of us would lose our heads without the help of personal organizers provided by modern technology today.
The human race has become intergraded with modern technology, and it is often hard to see where it stops and the person starts, even when it comes down to something as simple as a blog entry. When reading one, you might wonder how many of the words they pick we’re of their own choice, or did Microsoft Word help them by giving a synonym or two.
Sep
1
Welcome to Technology
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Without technology we would find ourselves missing out on a great amount of entertainment; such as two cats inside a Christmas tree hitting each other. New innovations have brought us the camera which inurn with the invention of the computer turned into the digital camera. Now everything does not have to be live and before us, we can listen to prerecorded music, and even download it before it even goes on sale.
In this modern world with each year we invent more and more things to better our lives and also provide a great deal more entertainment for us. Imagine how much time you would have on your hands if you didn’t have a TV, or a computer, if suddenly the only way to get anywhere was walking. The world at the very least would be a lot more boring place and you would find yourself with a lot more empty hours to fill or you would be filling them by walking to a destination that you needed to get to.
Technology has opened our world to new possibilities and broadened our ability to make choices for how to spend our time. With all these new inventions its also made the world a lot more interesting and given us a lot more time to do things that amuse us and not just provide for us.