Technology Memoir
Alec Robbins
Lara Asplund
February 20, 2014
Technology: A help or hindrance to our society?
We live in a very interesting time. We are a people steadily becoming more and more reliant on our electronics. Everywhere you look you can find people glued to their smart phones; at stoplights, walking down the street, during meetings, at the dinner table, while shopping, even when hanging out in a group. Sadly, when connecting with others through our devices we are actually disconnected from reality. Our society is changing at an exceedingly rapid rate due to advancements in technology.
The world we live in today is very different from the world we were living in, say, only 10 years ago. Let’s go back to 2004 and compare some differences in technology/social media. In 2004 I was in the 8th grade. The Motorola Razr debuted that year. The device was ahead of its time. It came with a sleek design, large color screen, and a VGA camera. These were some of the best features offered by any company. I wanted it more than anything, but my parents had deemed me too young to own a cell phone. This was an awesome device, but there wasn’t really much use for it beyond phone calls, texting, pictures and some limited Internet browsing. In that same year social media had just began to explode on to the mainstream scene through the social networking website Myspace. I remember being introduced to the website by a friend from school. I was hesitant to make a profile at first because the idea of having an online page dedicated solely to myself was too foreign. I started to warm up to the idea of creating my own profile after hanging out at my friend’s house a few times and watching him connect with other friends from school. It was actually pretty cool to see the profiles of some of the kids I went to school with. I liked the "about me" section because it gave you a new look into your friends’ lives. You could find things out about them that you may not have ever known
Lara Asplund
February 20, 2014
Technology: A help or hindrance to our society?
We live in a very interesting time. We are a people steadily becoming more and more reliant on our electronics. Everywhere you look you can find people glued to their smart phones; at stoplights, walking down the street, during meetings, at the dinner table, while shopping, even when hanging out in a group. Sadly, when connecting with others through our devices we are actually disconnected from reality. Our society is changing at an exceedingly rapid rate due to advancements in technology.
The world we live in today is very different from the world we were living in, say, only 10 years ago. Let’s go back to 2004 and compare some differences in technology/social media. In 2004 I was in the 8th grade. The Motorola Razr debuted that year. The device was ahead of its time. It came with a sleek design, large color screen, and a VGA camera. These were some of the best features offered by any company. I wanted it more than anything, but my parents had deemed me too young to own a cell phone. This was an awesome device, but there wasn’t really much use for it beyond phone calls, texting, pictures and some limited Internet browsing. In that same year social media had just began to explode on to the mainstream scene through the social networking website Myspace. I remember being introduced to the website by a friend from school. I was hesitant to make a profile at first because the idea of having an online page dedicated solely to myself was too foreign. I started to warm up to the idea of creating my own profile after hanging out at my friend’s house a few times and watching him connect with other friends from school. It was actually pretty cool to see the profiles of some of the kids I went to school with. I liked the "about me" section because it gave you a new look into your friends’ lives. You could find things out about them that you may not have ever known