While reading this week's selections, I decided to step outside my previously pessimistic perspective and ask the questions, "What do I like about technological evolution, and what is my real attitude toward new technology?" Since our articles have allowed us to trace some of the evolution, I thought I would try to trace my attitude from an historical perspective as well.
1. Spring 1995-- The first time a professor posted semester grades solely on the Internet. I was livid. After all, I had to go to the same building every day, so why couldn't he just post it outside his office using the last 5 digits of my SSN like always? The fact that our connection speed ranged between 2600 and 5200 bps may have had something to do with my frustration, but I truly saw no real benefit to the Internet. Hah!
2. Fall 1995--My first experience with instant messaging. They didn't call it IM back then, and with good reason. The messages actually appeared character by character, scrolling across the screen. I thought it was so great. I could communicate with my friends at other colleges in "real time." Of course, all it took was a sarcastic fraternity brother to put things in perspective. One evening while reading over my shoulder, he declared, "Wow! Just think, maybe someday they'll invent a device that you can talk into, and your friends can have a similar device on their end, and you can have a live conversation and actually hear each other!" Point taken (but I still liked it).
3. Summer 1998--I get my first pager. My company would use it to update us on sales call information and to request that we contact the office. Of course, I had no cell phone, so every time I got paged with a call request, I would have to find a pay phone. Ah, the convenience of technology. I did like the automatic sports and weather updates, though.
Flash forward to today.
--I'm furious if a company or organization does not have a website. On top of that, it better be user friendly with myriad ways to accomplish the same goal.
--I dropped the pager long ago and (obviously) now have a cell phone. I don't use it a whole lot, but I can't imagine not having one now, so that says something. I did somehow manage to live 22 years without a cell phone having never felt a void in my life.
--I just purchased my first HD-ready TV. I don't actually subscribe to any HD programming. I just want to be "ready." It doesn't feel like a need (yet).
I guess this last fact illustrates my point. I think we should all approach technology personally. What do I do? What does this new technology do? Can it help me? I'm always cautious with new technologies, trying to stay above the hype and waiting for others to try it, identify, and (hopefully) work out the kinks.
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2 comments:
Isn't it amazing how much things change? Now think of it this way, you can remember a time without your cell phone and pager. You remember having to find a pay phone. (me too -- anyone remember calling cards?) High school and most undergraduate students in college today cannot remember either of those things. For them it is a time that does not exist. The same with the VCR, CD player, MTV, etc. How has the fact they take these technologies for granted change the way they look at the world?
I know I think of my world differently than I used to because of my use of technology (she says as she is hanging out at the library, hooked up to her ipod which holds her entire CD collection and then some). But I can track those changes -- what must it be like to have it be a given rather than a series of systematic changes?
I think an undergrad's idea of technology's evolution would show different things. I'm sure they remember life before facebook, the iPod, and texting (though they've always had cell phones)--although they can't imagine life without them now... :P! But seriously, I bet they are much more aware of the gradual upgrade of the world wide web to web 2.0 than we are.
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