Before this class I had never read a blog or had any idea on how to go about starting one. I remember that my sister’s ex-boyfriend said one day that I should read his blog, and I just thought to myself, “um I don’t think so, that’s kind’ve weird.” My conception of blogs at that point was that they were for weird computer people that didn’t have anything better to do with their time, and that it was for internet stalkers who couldn’t find any real people to communicate with. I just thought for some reason that that stuff wasn’t for me. To be honest it freaks me out a little to think that I can post something and anyone can read it and respond back. It makes me feel very vulnerable. When I think of the limitless amount of internet users it scares me, much like the sensation of looking out into to the ocean. I get a chill when I do that and think to myself how can something like this even exist. It is an “awe” moment and it is something in life that I will never truly fathom.
Being part of this class and having to write this blog opened my eyes to how blogs actually work. In reality only the people that know, or the people that are in your circle of friends, are going to end up reading your blog. In this case, that included my classmates, and a few of my friends who I had told it about. Random people never commented on my blog and I never had any weird posts to wake up to. This was a surprise to me and a relief.
However, I am surprised at how long it took me to actually visit a blog post and also to start one. It seemed like it was the thing to do a few years back, except I never hopped on that train. If it weren’t for this class the opportunity probably wouldn’t have presented itself. I think the cool thing now is becoming part of a social networking site and communicating who you are through those sites, and not so much blogs.
I liked the experience but I don’t think I will continue with my post after the class is over. It just isn’t really my style of communication. I would rather have instant responses like I do in Facebook, instead of having to wait around for someone to take a gander at my post. In addition I write a lot less on my social networking sites then I do on my blog. I like this because it takes less time to get the point across. Only when I am in a deep and contemplative mood would I want to post something on my blog.
With the invention of the computer and with the continued advancement of technology communication will continue to thrive through these apparatuses. Because of these things our culture will continue to move from the pen and paper to the keyboard and the touch screen. Pressure is put on society to learn how to use this equipment because big business profits from it, and the way our government is currently set up it supports big business. In addition our culture supports the growing use of technopoly because it makes things simple. I think that Americans in general are trying to find the quick way, the easiest way, and the most economical way to get things done. Computers allow this to happen. I think our society and culture is lazy and we can see that through the fact that Americans are the most overweight people and through the increasing dependency on technology. We don’t want to do things ourselves because we don’t want to think. I was listening to the radio and heard that our brains have actually gotten smaller and that they don’t weigh as much as they used to. This does not surprise me in the least.
With technopoly growing we can sit back and watch the machines do the work. It really is a genius system that we have created. But in the end I believe we only end up hurting ourselves.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Wild Card Entry!!!
I recently bought a car and was so excited that I did it all by myself. There is a lengthy process of signing papers and filling stuff out after you’ve been approved for a loan as I was. I didn’t pay cash so I decided to go through my credit union in hopes of getting a lower interest rate. During the final process of filling out all the paperwork they asked me if I wanted to set up a direct withdrawal from my bank account for my car payment. This is what I had wanted to do from the beginning so I said yes, and gave them all my bank account information. They told me that it wouldn’t be taken out this month but it would be starting the following month. So we finish up with everything and I drive away from the dealership in my new car feeling very satisfied and proud of myself for having used some of the rhetoric I learned in a previous class to negotiate a more reasonable price on the car.
I am very aware that I just did a grown up thing by buying a car and will have monthly payments to make to my bank. Every 5th of the month for the following 36 months I am to have a certain amount of money in my “car fund,” a special account I created to make my car payments. This is scary for me, but something that I am prepared to do. I understand that if the money is not in that account that my financial future will be greatly affected.
As the 5th of the following month comes around I am eager for my first payment to get withdrawn. I have put the money in the “car fund” account many days before the payment is to be taken out. When the day comes I check my online banking in the morning, evening, and before I go to bed, and nothing. They next day I check online again and still nothing has been taken out. I then wait another day and when nothing happens yet again I start to panic. I think to myself, “this is supposed to be easy, I put money into the account and they take it out, and I can transfer and manage everything through my computer.” Then I think maybe I should have done it the old fashioned way, by just writing a check and sending it via mail. I mean that way would have been way less stressful at this point. So I call the bank and tell them that I am looking at my online banking account and that money that is supposed to be taken out of my one of my account’s has not been taken out yet. They do some research and let me know that my online banking account has been frozen because someone tried to access it one too many times with an incorrect password and so that froze my entire account. I’m thinking “o geeze,” just my luck. Once I get my account unfrozen and things taken care of, the next day I check and the money has been taken out.
In regards to this assignment I am thinking that if I had done it the old fashioned way then I could have been spared this very stressful and confusing situation. If someone hadn’t of tried to hack into my online banking account through a computer then my account would have never of frozen and things would have been fine. But this is a risk that you take when you do things over the computer and next time I will be better prepared to manage a situation like this.
In our textbook it talks about how we can resist Technopoly, however I think this is a very difficult thing to do. When something is so prevalent it’s hard to stop it from progressing. In the above example I just gave, even though I had trouble with my first car payment, that doesn’t mean that I am going to stop managing my accounts online or using a direct withdrawal system. When I weigh the benefits of using a computer against the cons, the computer wins. This is how you know that you have a very powerful enemy, when it wins regardless of mistakes in the system, mistakes that can be very detrimental, such as mine that could have affected my credit. I would have to say that this is something Postman didn’t discuss, how powerful the computer, internet, and technology in general actually are. This makes being a resistance fighter all that more challenging and a difficult attribute to build within people.
I am very aware that I just did a grown up thing by buying a car and will have monthly payments to make to my bank. Every 5th of the month for the following 36 months I am to have a certain amount of money in my “car fund,” a special account I created to make my car payments. This is scary for me, but something that I am prepared to do. I understand that if the money is not in that account that my financial future will be greatly affected.
As the 5th of the following month comes around I am eager for my first payment to get withdrawn. I have put the money in the “car fund” account many days before the payment is to be taken out. When the day comes I check my online banking in the morning, evening, and before I go to bed, and nothing. They next day I check online again and still nothing has been taken out. I then wait another day and when nothing happens yet again I start to panic. I think to myself, “this is supposed to be easy, I put money into the account and they take it out, and I can transfer and manage everything through my computer.” Then I think maybe I should have done it the old fashioned way, by just writing a check and sending it via mail. I mean that way would have been way less stressful at this point. So I call the bank and tell them that I am looking at my online banking account and that money that is supposed to be taken out of my one of my account’s has not been taken out yet. They do some research and let me know that my online banking account has been frozen because someone tried to access it one too many times with an incorrect password and so that froze my entire account. I’m thinking “o geeze,” just my luck. Once I get my account unfrozen and things taken care of, the next day I check and the money has been taken out.
In regards to this assignment I am thinking that if I had done it the old fashioned way then I could have been spared this very stressful and confusing situation. If someone hadn’t of tried to hack into my online banking account through a computer then my account would have never of frozen and things would have been fine. But this is a risk that you take when you do things over the computer and next time I will be better prepared to manage a situation like this.
In our textbook it talks about how we can resist Technopoly, however I think this is a very difficult thing to do. When something is so prevalent it’s hard to stop it from progressing. In the above example I just gave, even though I had trouble with my first car payment, that doesn’t mean that I am going to stop managing my accounts online or using a direct withdrawal system. When I weigh the benefits of using a computer against the cons, the computer wins. This is how you know that you have a very powerful enemy, when it wins regardless of mistakes in the system, mistakes that can be very detrimental, such as mine that could have affected my credit. I would have to say that this is something Postman didn’t discuss, how powerful the computer, internet, and technology in general actually are. This makes being a resistance fighter all that more challenging and a difficult attribute to build within people.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Week Six: Ages of the Internet
For the first generation I decided to interview my boyfriend. He is twenty three years old and spends hours on the internet. He spends a lot of his time looking for new songs by his favorite artists. His favorite music is regeatton and that genre isn’t particularly popular in the United States so he looks for a lot of songs of that sort online. Secondly he spends a lot of his time in front of the computer looking for cloths. He is pretty picky in what he wears and usually likes higher end designers and brands. He has an obsession with shoes and likes for them to be unique in their design and color. It’s hard to find that kind of stuff around town and so he browses different sites to find what he likes. All of my boyfriend’s family lives in Chile and so he never gets to see them. I know that he writes his mom ocassinally and his brother who is in Argentina right now almost every day. This is really the only way he can stay in touch with them without spending a tone of money. He also spends time chatting with his buddies on Facebook or MSN about weekend plans, girls, sports, and really anything they have on their minds. In addition he stays in touch with what is going on in the news in Chile by reading their newspapers and watching the T.V. broadcasts over the internet. My boyfriend has no trouble finding his way around the internet. I don’t think he’s ever asked anyone for help, but that is the same I think for anyone his age. He says that when he spends a whole day without a computer he is so bored and feels like he has no idea what is going on in the world. He feels lonely, which I find funny that not having internet access can have that affect on people, but not uncommon. When a tool such as a computer has such power to do so many things for you, you become attached to it and dependent on it a way. I feel much the same about my cell phone. Probably because I have internet access on it and I make calls and text from it as well.
I interviewed my mom for the second generation. She says that during the past few years she has learned how to manage a lot of her finances over the computer. She pays most of her bills over the computer now and does online banking which she says is very convenient and helpful at times. When she needs to transfer money from one account to another she just logs in and it only takes her a few minutes. She likes it because it leaves her from making trips to the bank and more time to spend with my stepdad and six year old son. She has also recently created Facebook account which my sisters and I have gradually helped her learn how to use. She hardly ever posts anything and rarely gets on it but she says she wanted one to keep in touch with her daughters. My sisters and I all live apart and I am the only one that lives close. We are all over 21 and have different lives so she says it’s a way for her to stay connected to us and see what we are up to because she knows that we post regularly. She also likes that she can see our pictures. She uses email to connect with her brother who lives in Texas and with my sister who lives in Arizona. She can easily browse the web when she needs to find an answer to something, for example she told me she needed to find the recipe on how to make a roast. She likes the usefulness of the internet and she says it doesn’t bother her that society is pushing promotes thing the use of this kind of technology. What she told me was that you can make what you want of it. It is a choice to use the internet to accomplish tasks and if it’s something that you don’t like to use then you don’t have to. She still balances her checkbook every week and she still sends checks and letters in the mail for some things. She uses both, the old way and the new way of doing things. She says that the way she uses the internet has affected her life for the better. She has no addictions to it and said that she would be sad if she didn’t have a computer or internet connection at home and that’s it’s worth paying for because of how it simplifies and makes other areas of her life easier.
For the last age group I Interviewed my grandpa who is a native of Mexico and comes to visit family during the summer so he can spend time with his grandkids. He is sixty five and when I asked him what he thought about the internet and if he used it at all he said he doesn’t even know how to use a cell phone much less a computer. He wasn’t bitter about it he just laughed and said there was no way he could ever learn how to use a one. I can understand where he’s coming from. He grew up in a house that had no electricity and in a town who shared one phone. He has worked in the sugar cane fields all his life and technology is something that he is unfamiliar with much less computers and the internet. When I asked him how it had affected his life he said it hadn’t. Since he never started using it in the first place his life has stayed exactly the same. When he wants to pay his bills he drives directly to the place and either pays cash or with check. Most recently he has been using his debit card although at first he was cautious about it. He isn’t comfortable using the computer because there are so many steps and so many clicks of a button to get to where you need to go. Secondly he says he doesn’t know how to type so he rather just send something in the mail or deliver it himself. He is a sweet old man and I don’t blame him. His understanding and upbringing simply make the internet something far too complex for him. He sticks to the old ways and if that works for him.
I think it’s harder for our older generations to move towards computer technology because they grew up in a world where hard work and durable goods sustained the economy. The shift from that to an information seeking and technology advancing society is quite large and the gap is far too big for people such as my grandpa to close. I can understand why our older generation struggles with adapting and learning how to use the internet. It can be complicated and hard for someone who has no tech skills whatsoever. When I think of how my sisters, my boyfriend, and even my mom grew up, it was so different then my grandpa’s. Background and upbringing I think play such a big part in how you use the internet and computer as an adult. In our book it talks about how CMC contributes to innovation and communicating new ideas. For people like my grandpa, communicating new ideas would come from face to face interaction with friends, family, and people in general, not over a computerized social system. This is just one example I could think of from the book that is a clear distinction on a younger generations use and view of technology vs. the older generations use of technology. I am sure that there are older people who do get online, I just don’t know many, and they are few compared to the other age groups.
I interviewed my mom for the second generation. She says that during the past few years she has learned how to manage a lot of her finances over the computer. She pays most of her bills over the computer now and does online banking which she says is very convenient and helpful at times. When she needs to transfer money from one account to another she just logs in and it only takes her a few minutes. She likes it because it leaves her from making trips to the bank and more time to spend with my stepdad and six year old son. She has also recently created Facebook account which my sisters and I have gradually helped her learn how to use. She hardly ever posts anything and rarely gets on it but she says she wanted one to keep in touch with her daughters. My sisters and I all live apart and I am the only one that lives close. We are all over 21 and have different lives so she says it’s a way for her to stay connected to us and see what we are up to because she knows that we post regularly. She also likes that she can see our pictures. She uses email to connect with her brother who lives in Texas and with my sister who lives in Arizona. She can easily browse the web when she needs to find an answer to something, for example she told me she needed to find the recipe on how to make a roast. She likes the usefulness of the internet and she says it doesn’t bother her that society is pushing promotes thing the use of this kind of technology. What she told me was that you can make what you want of it. It is a choice to use the internet to accomplish tasks and if it’s something that you don’t like to use then you don’t have to. She still balances her checkbook every week and she still sends checks and letters in the mail for some things. She uses both, the old way and the new way of doing things. She says that the way she uses the internet has affected her life for the better. She has no addictions to it and said that she would be sad if she didn’t have a computer or internet connection at home and that’s it’s worth paying for because of how it simplifies and makes other areas of her life easier.
For the last age group I Interviewed my grandpa who is a native of Mexico and comes to visit family during the summer so he can spend time with his grandkids. He is sixty five and when I asked him what he thought about the internet and if he used it at all he said he doesn’t even know how to use a cell phone much less a computer. He wasn’t bitter about it he just laughed and said there was no way he could ever learn how to use a one. I can understand where he’s coming from. He grew up in a house that had no electricity and in a town who shared one phone. He has worked in the sugar cane fields all his life and technology is something that he is unfamiliar with much less computers and the internet. When I asked him how it had affected his life he said it hadn’t. Since he never started using it in the first place his life has stayed exactly the same. When he wants to pay his bills he drives directly to the place and either pays cash or with check. Most recently he has been using his debit card although at first he was cautious about it. He isn’t comfortable using the computer because there are so many steps and so many clicks of a button to get to where you need to go. Secondly he says he doesn’t know how to type so he rather just send something in the mail or deliver it himself. He is a sweet old man and I don’t blame him. His understanding and upbringing simply make the internet something far too complex for him. He sticks to the old ways and if that works for him.
I think it’s harder for our older generations to move towards computer technology because they grew up in a world where hard work and durable goods sustained the economy. The shift from that to an information seeking and technology advancing society is quite large and the gap is far too big for people such as my grandpa to close. I can understand why our older generation struggles with adapting and learning how to use the internet. It can be complicated and hard for someone who has no tech skills whatsoever. When I think of how my sisters, my boyfriend, and even my mom grew up, it was so different then my grandpa’s. Background and upbringing I think play such a big part in how you use the internet and computer as an adult. In our book it talks about how CMC contributes to innovation and communicating new ideas. For people like my grandpa, communicating new ideas would come from face to face interaction with friends, family, and people in general, not over a computerized social system. This is just one example I could think of from the book that is a clear distinction on a younger generations use and view of technology vs. the older generations use of technology. I am sure that there are older people who do get online, I just don’t know many, and they are few compared to the other age groups.
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