A look back

I know we did sociable media a while ago, but i found this cool blog about a sociable media group that investigates issues concerning identity and society in the networked world.  It is now on my RSS feeds!

Google it!

This is one of the most common used phrase today. It also shows just how much google has invaded our lives. Although some may see this as a bad thing and argue that google has made us dumber, I disagree. All google has done is make information more available. It has helped to make us active learners. Google, along with other search engines, makes it possible to seek information that was previously unavailable or hard to reach. I have learned a lot of things from search engines. Perhaps more than I have in school. Now instead of not knowing, I am actively seeking answers. Search engines are useful because they guide us through the cluttered maze that is the internet.

Cell phones for kids

Here is an interesting article that examines the pros and cons of giving your child a cell phone.  It also discusses cell phones that are targeted to kids as young as 8 years old such as Firefly Wireless and  Disney’s cell phones .  I found it very interesting because I did not know that these cell phone companies existed.  It just shows that the target age for cell phones is getting younger and younger.

Forget Barbie, give me a cell phone!

Today over 18 million American teens own cell phones and that number is growing by the day. Now, instead of Barbies and water guns, today’s kids are demanding cell phones from their parents. As “Shibuya Epiphany” by Howard Rheingold points out, recent marketing for cell phones have been targeted towards the younger generation. Rheingold made some rather interesting observations following his epiphany at Shibuya Crossing.

I received my first cell phone at 18 because my parents thought they may lead to trouble. When I did receive my cell phone the independence was overwhelming. Now I was able to talk to talk to whom I wanted to when I wanted to. There were no restrictions because it was my phone. “Ito believes that mobile phones triggered an intergenerational power shift in Japan because they freed youth from the tyranny of the landline shared by inquisitive family members, creating a space for private communication and an agency that alters possibilities for social action” (Rheingold, p 4). It is safe to say most adolescents are addicted to cell phones. Although this appears to be an obvious statement, it is important to examine the possibilities and concerns this observable fact raises.

Dependence

Earlier in the semester, after my blog about the unfortunate incident of losing my cell phone, Brian C. posted a comment saying since they are so prevalent; cell phones are no longer considered a luxury. Although it is quite difficult (if not impossible) to picture our lives without cell phones, believe it or not people lived fulfilling lives without them. Thirty years ago, before cell phones were invented, people communicated with friends and family, received directions, saw movies, met up with friends and told their loved ones how much they loved them. The only difference is they were not able to do this in real time. With cell phones, you can discreetly text while you are in class, find out exactly where in the mall your friend is waiting for you and tell your partner how much you love them every hour on the hour. My point, however, is that all these things are not necessary for survival, yet we continue to say things like “I need my cell phone.” Our lives may be inconvenient for a while but in no way do we need our cell phones.

Enhancements

It is important, however, to examine the benefits that we receive from cell phones. “Because they can take their time to compose a message, and because they don’t have to face rejection in person…” (Rhiengold, p 26). One of the reasons cell phones are so popular among teens is because they offer alternative ways of building and maintaining relationships. For example, when I met my boyfriend in my junior year of college, the first thing he asked for was my AOL Instant Message screen name. Our first conversations were on the computer through instant messaging. It then slowly moved to text messages after he finally asked for my cell phone number. Our first voice conversation was a couple weeks after we started dating. Our relationship was built on text and instant messages.

Would we have still started dating if we did not have cell phones? Of course that is an impossible question to answer. Maybe he would have found the courage to ask me out in person or maybe the fear of rejection would have stood in the way of us getting to know each other. Although many would say technologies such as text messaging are weakening our social skills, we need to look at the ways in which it enhances us as social beings. Instant messaging, text messaging and cell phones allow us to build relationships we otherwise would have missed. They provide alternative ways of overcoming rejection. People may have lived without cell phones thirty years ago but how many potential relationships may have passed them by?

The shift continues

Our continuing shift from an industrial society to a digital society is evident in “Digital Memories in an Era of Ubiquitous Computing and Abundant Storage” by Mary Czerwinski, Douglas Cage, Jim Gemmell, Catherine Marshall, Manuel Perez-Quinonesis, Meredith Skeels, and Tiziana Catarci. However, with the increasing numbers of ways of storing and managing things digitally come many issues and concerns. “Accordingly, some of us today have filing cabinets full of paper, not because we believe we will use every document again, but because we cannot predict which papers we may actually need again” (Czerwinski et. al, p 48).

Digital memories are extremely necessary in an era when the experience economy is booming. How else will we be able to keep track of the things we want to remember? Are we capable of storing everything successfully? Are we capable of storing things so that we can retrieve them when we need to? Are we able to store things so that it is safe from others? These are the questions that this article raises. I do believe that we are able to overcome these obstacles. As humans, we have discovered significant ways of handling potentially problematic situations. Nonetheless, how can we guarantee that our abundance of saved memories will be safe? The answer seems to lie in the further development of technology. Because people are relying on digital technology more and more, it is extremely important for researchers to make these issues a top priority.