RETRAIN THE BRAIN: Technology links to read and contemplate.
Please read or view/read at least three of these links, and write a comment on this post where you respond to one of the links. Use a quote from the material in the link somewhere in your response, but give me your ideas and interpretations on this subject, please. Make it your own.
Reading and surfing is not just about finding and regurgitating information. It's about interpreting it and giving it meaning and application in our own existence and in our own communities. Yes, information is everywhere and knowledge is at our fingertips. Yet there are no shortcuts to wisdom. You have to put in the work, the time, and the thought. I truly hope you understand this notion deeply, and strive to take your work and yourself seriously.
Your thoughts and ideas matter. Your creative actions matter, and every chance to write is a chance to write well.
I look forward to your responses. Remember, just respond in the Comments section of this post so all our responses are in one place and we can see what everyone is thinking.
Sincerely,
Mike Lohre
8 Links to follow, and our food for thought:
Lavabits is an e-mail service that offered privacy, but is now in a fight with our government.http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000002488802/a-conversation-with-lavabits-founder.html
This is a classic irony. James Clapper, the Director of National Intellegence at the NSA, will lead the inquiry into his own agency's abuses and lies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/james-clapper_n_3748431.html
And here's an editorial calling for Clapper to be fired.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2013/06/fire_dni_james_clapper_he_lied_to_congress_about_nsa_surveillance.html
Comedian Louis C.K. on cell phones. Warning: there is some crass language in this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c
This one got over 25 million hits on You Tube and was made by a young woman just trying to illustrate the distractions in tech life. It's called "I Forget My Phone"
http://youtu.be/OINa46HeWg8
This video is from Rap News, out of Australia. The same guy plays all the characters and two guys compose the lyrics, which take on a lot of alternative ideas on the internet and politics. Some of the language and gestures are crass, so be warned.
http://youtu.be/o66FUc61MvU
Finally, from OSU's student newspaper The Lantern.
http://thelantern.com/2013/10/commentary-kindness-human-interaction-lost-technology/
As mentioned in the James Fallows essay, "Tinfoil Underwear". They are an advocacy group for privacy and technology rights.
https://www.eff.org/
P.S.
Notice the style of this content. This the New York Times, and is a pretty remarkable example of the way composition is being changed by the internet.
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/13/russia/?ref=global-home
The article from The Lantern really touches a social problem in today's society. I agree with the article and worry about the direction people are going with face to face communication skills. As the post said, "We are guilty of avoiding eye contact with friends and strangers alike and feigning deafness when shop and restaurant owners ask how we’re doing". To me I see the problem most with talking with friends and significant others. We text all day long about anything and everything, by the time we see that person we have nothing to say. This transcends to human interaction with other people as well. If we can't hold a conversation with the people we are closest with, how are we supposed to converse with complete strangers?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Even at dinner with friends or family almost everyone grabs their phone and ignores the social interaction the dinner should entail. It's really scary to think that our future generations could lose human contacts completely
DeleteI agree that people especially kids avoid eye contact. I even do that sometimes, it's a hard thing to get rid off but people can do it if they try. I agree with Emily, my family does the same thing when we go out to eat. Sometimes we put all of our phones in the middle and whoever touches it first gets to pay the bill.
DeleteI agree with you on how it effects our relationships with our significant others quite a bit. When I'm in a relationship, I tell the person to not text me through out the day while I'm at school or at work unless it's important. I like being able to see them later that night and discussing how our days went.
DeleteTechnology has really effected our ways of communication. Eye contact, especially, has decreased due to the constant need to be looking at our phones. I agree with your comments made and its really sad how our society has turned to be this way.
DeleteThe idea that we, as Americans, are being constantly monitored by our own government even though one of our basic rights is that of privacy is just shocking. The fact that our government pays companies, such as AT&T or Verizon, to provide information on their customers, such as their calls and text messages, is just incredible that information like that can be kept from us then the "professionals" lie in a court of law while they are under oath. Any other person in such a position would more than likely be facing some form of jail time, but the fact that the same man who lied about his agencies actions "will establish a review group designed to assess the nation's intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities" is just plain wrong. Issues such as this that come up put more and more distrust in our officials and cause a lot of issues within the public opinion of the government.
ReplyDeleteI hate how America used to be looked at as "the lad of te free" yet every day we hear about our right being taken away and abused. I don't see how we can be regarded as such a great country with all of the issues we obtain. I fear for what this country will have to face due to abusive leaders and politicians who lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top. I hardly want to be looked at as an American because our country looks like such a disgrace to other nations
DeleteI think this is just a small link to why so many other countries despise us. We're always getting into other people's business and apparently even within our own culture. The American government isn't the world police and they aren't every citizen of America's parents. There are boundaries and they clearly cross them on more than one occasion.
DeleteThe article on James Clapper just amazing (or amuses) me. Especially with his quote, "When that statement was later revealed to be false, he told NBC News that "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful, manner.". First off, good thing he's not leading the group of "outside experts". The man lied to a fellow government employee, Senator Wyden. All his words are lies or some way to beat around the bush. He was wrong and Congress needs to deal with it appropriately, and by appropriately, I don't mean how they are currently dealing with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's not a great thought that the man heading up our nations biggest security installation is a liar. If he's willing to lie to protect his reputation, what else would he be willing to do? I'd rather the person who is making ethical decisions be ethical themselves.
DeleteI agree. If everything someone says is a lie they shouldn't be put in charge of anything. He definitely needs to be dealt with.
DeleteI agree it is almost amusing as to the whole situation that Clapper is involved in. I do feel like a lot of how our government works needs to be reevaluated and redesigned, too much of what we have can be corrupted too easily.
DeleteThe article, or video more or less defiantly addresses common issues in today's society. Teenagers everywhere are glued to their phones. I am no stranger to this problem because I am also constantly on the phone. This video is actually very accurate to because a couple of time when i would go out to eat with my friends and forget my phone and it would be very weird. I realized that what i was trying to do the whole time was create conversation and what my friends were doing was trying to keep up with there social life while barely listening to the conversation going on around the table. I feel as though its an epidemic that we have absolutely no control of.
ReplyDeleteThis social life is not going to change because there is a lot of things that you can do on your phones and for some reason people think that social life on the virtual world is better and more important then social life in the real world.
DeleteI completely agree with you. My friends and I all can not stand when people do not interact with one another face to face. Maybe this is because we didn't grow up with smart phones, I don't know exactly. We actually play a game when we go out to dinner. We all put our phones on the table, and the first one to touch theirs has to pay for everyone's meal. Obviously, if there is an emergency, it's understandable.
DeleteIt is almost sad as to how our social lives have evolved, it has more or less become strictly technology based. There are measures that can be taken to help get away from this, but realistically it wont happen, where are society is headed embraced technology too much to not have our social life in technology.
DeleteThe article in the Lantern that addresses kindnedd in society is the one that I relate to the most. I work at the mall in a store where we are forced to greet and service our customers. The article in the Lantern says "Sometimes the most common niceties can come as a shock, but as someone who has been pegged as a Midwesterner in Washington, D.C., for asking a store greeter how they were doing — the simple gesture was that rare there, I was told — I’m proud to offer a friendly response to the people I interact with in a day." The reaction the writer had to the worker is something I enjoy seeing because it makes my job a lot easier and more fun. Unfortuately a lot of people act the way she explains earlier in the article. They're reactions range from ignoring me to actually being rude after I simply say hello. Experiencing this has given me a mix of both views. There are still social people out there looking for people to talk to, but those people who are used to the automated service of today's world have lost the desire to do this.
ReplyDeleteIt's like this in my job too. I don't understand why people have to respond that way when I'm the one that's making the effort talking to them first. I think everything has both a good and a bad side. Technology helps us advance but it reduces the physical social interaction that I think is necessary for humans.
DeleteMy job is just like that, as well. I like it and its sometimes frustrating when a customer gives me negative looks just because I said hi to them or they would just ignore me because theyre on their phone. its really sad how some people have become this way.
DeleteThe Lantern article titled "Commentary: Kindness, human interaction lost with technology provides numerous truth to the examples it provides. I am guilty myself of passing by a stranger but avoiding eye contact. I think our generation was not taught the correct way to communicate. We rely solely on technology to talk to friends, family, etc. Human interaction is so minimal in today's society, it scares me about our future, we are relying on technology for almost everything. Pretty soon i am afraid that all of our jobs will be taken by machines, and money will become a thing of the past. no one will know how to make it or how to make their living because a machine will be doing it all for us. "One day, I walked into the local branch of my bank to find the tellers had been replaced by machines." Americans today are lazy, and i think we need to take the time out of our day to say hi to a stranger, i notice in my job at MC Sports, customers really hate being bother by an associate, they want to be left alone, and i think that needs to change. We need to accept the help of other humans, otherwise we are going to be giving birth to robots.
ReplyDeletei agree with your statement that social interactions are at a low point, and something needs to be done. If you look at a school you can find students that done know people in their own classes, if someone spends so much time in the same location you would expect them to know the people around them, but that's not true anymore. Now students are on their phone before, during, and after class.
DeleteYes, I agree with you. Human interaction has become very minimal. Its sad to think about and I never thought about what it would be like in the future. That's kind of crazy to think about!
DeleteThe video titled "I Forgot my Phone" overviews the common issues rising in our generation linked to technology. Growing up in this generation I often find myself consumed in texting conversations and constantly updating my face book news feed to get the latest news. We are losing the connection other generations have with communicating by having face to face conversations. The article published in the Lantern also addresses this problem of technology ruling our lives. The author observed that in this day in age, "We lose the skills of conversation by becoming dependent on texting and friendships fall through in the shuffle of missed or ignored messages." We need to regain the communication skills we are losing. Texting conversations can sometimes be misread and lead to hardships. It will not hurt you to put your phone away when you are out eating with friends or when it is time for bed. I believe that it is important that we cherish the moments and opportunities we are given in life and if we are stuck behind our phones we will never be able to create those memories face-to-face.
ReplyDeleteThis is 100% true as well. I absolutely hate talking on the phone, however I noticed that is all the older generations do because they love to hear the persons voice, however I grew up in the texting age and that's all I know how to do. When we are forced to communicate in class we don't know how or what to say and I think that is because we aren't bring taught to vocalize our opinions. Everything we do is a part of texting and social networking, out generation is losing its human ability to communicate!
DeleteI feel exactly the same. It is slowly strangling our ability to have simple human interaction. The worse part is that we all see it happening but we aren't doing anything to change it.
DeleteI really enjoyed the video of Louis C.K as I am a really big fan of his but I had never seen that video, it really opened my eyes as he was completely right about us relying so much on technology. I can look back to when I first got a cell phone and then look before then. My life was spent on my phone essentially and since then it has only escadladed to where I'm on my phone more than ever. I do also agree with his point about kids being mean through technology as cyber bullying is becoming a bigger issue in today's day and age.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's okay to spend time on phones but there is essentially a line that has to be drawn. I think phones are okay until they get in the way of what needs to be focused on more. I don't really see cyberbullying as an issue because you have the choice to just walk away from the computer or not respond.
DeleteI feel the same way about some other things too. Sometimes it's a game or a video, but there's always something there waiting to distract me. Fortunately, it's easy to avoid those things when you're around other people, but they still work their way into my everyday life and wreak distracted havok.
DeleteI've never listened into any of Louis C.K.'s interviews but he turned out to be really funny. When he first starts off talking about how children should not get their hands on technology because he "thinks these things are toxic, especially for kids", I completely agree. The attention span of the younger generations is getting smaller and smaller. Some of us have the inability to communicate with each other because of all the shortcuts that there are. I think that's what's going to ruin people's lives. If everyone is constantly texting or telling every single detail about what's going on their lives on social media networking sites, how will anyone find anyone interesting?
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely true people lose their interests by doing everything on their phones. They don't "listen" to the outside world. I have listened to Louis C.K.'s stand up and a lot of the jokes that he tells are related to kids or technology.
DeleteI agree, the attention span of the younger generation is getting smaller and smaller because of technology just like the article we read If Google is making us stupid, we skim things now we do not actually read them. We are losing our communication skills as a generation and we need to go back to before the technology age to gain those skills back.
DeleteI thought the Louis C.K' interview was actually pretty funny. I liked the quote at the beginning, "my kid needs to be stupid, so they don't feel weird" mocking some parents comical attitudes on buying their children cell phones. It really is true that cell phones are doing more than ruining attentioin span, but also hurting people's ability to communicate. I liked how he touched on this epidemic affecting himself and other adults as well, as I feel some adults view this as a problem amongst the youth, yet exclude themselves from the equation. His points on how we need to be sad and cell phones are taking that away were interesting, though I'm not sure if I agree or disagree, even though it was funny. Overall, this does bring to mind how we as humans should strive to minimize the ever present temptation of being distracted by the use of cell phones and technology in general, and take effort to have quality time with people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that cell phones are especially a factor in ruining people's attention spans and their ability to communicate. I'm in the middle as well about how cell phones are taking away our sadness. Maybe what he meant was that as technology is getting more advanced we're able to temporarily block what's making us sad by having immediate access to watching a funny video on YouTube or a game or something that'll make us happy.
DeleteHave you seen some of his other videos? They can get hilarious. He's one of those people who can teach you something about life while making you laugh at the same time. I agreed with most of his presentation and I think the story he told was kind of interesting. It showed that he wasn't just looking for laughs but also watching what was going on inside of himself.
DeleteI enjoyed his clip as well, as I am a huge Louis C.K. fan, Mostly because of his use of real problems in society to fuel his comedy. It all makes a disturbing amount of sense. He is right about it all though, even though it is told in a comedic manner, some are serious problems that will grow and cripple our future generations.
DeleteI feel like everyone is writing about the C.K. video, but I'm going to as well because I couldn't understand the rap one and I really like the cell phone video. It's interesting how he puts a few of the things in that video, specifically about the happiness/sadness. When I was growing up we never really had anything like that, mostly because my parents didn't want them, so I know what it used to feel like all the time and how it feels now that I do have a computer and a phone. Being 'connected' all the time wears on you and it really does make you lose some of that happiness and the sadness he described. That's a really good video that I'm probably going to show everyone I know during Thanksgiving break. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, having my phone with me and always being connected just gets in my way sometime. It wears me out and the few minutes I spend on my phone throughout the day adds up and I find myself later wishing that I was not so attached to my phone. These videos have really helped me step back and realize that being connected to the technology world is not always a good thing.
DeleteI also watched that video and it got me thinking that when I was younger my friends lived int he same neighborhood as me so we would walk over to each others homes and do something, because we didn't have cell phones. So we had social interactions back then, but now kids are using cell phones to text their neighbor to watch a movie or something.
DeleteAlthough I liked the videos a lot, I think my favorite article was the one from the lantern. I thought it was very interesting and mind opening. It made me think about my life and the places I go to where I feel the most human interaction and communication. I instantly thought of my local starbucks. I go there a lot (don’t judge me!) and they workers know me by name and know my regular order. Every time I go to get my iced black tea sweetened with easy ice, I am always greeted by a friendly face and the worker usually asks me about work and if it’s been a busy day or not. I love the communication and interactions that I get when I get my starbucks. It’s slipping away from so many places due to technology. Humans have been replaced by machines and its effecting our communication with others as well. This article made me put down my phone and think about how all the technology around me is effecting myself and my relationships with others.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, machines are taking over for humans and we are losing our face-to-face communications with humans. Yes I do like have my phone with me almost all the time and use it to text my friends or call my family but there is sometimes where I find my phone just getting in the way of other things that I have to do in my day.
DeleteI think the video "I Forgot My Phone" had the most poignant points of the few that i looked at. Obviously the government spying on its own people is a distressing article, however I feel like the video showed how bad people are getting with just subtle human interaction as technology progresses. The thought of how socially awkward our generation and possibly future generations are going to be distresses me much more than governmental espionage. In all seriousness, that is something they have been doing for sometime, so it's no surprise the got caught doing it eventually, so now they just have to cover their tracks so they can resume. In the circumstance of the things that were going on in the video, that's something that isn't just going to disappear. It'll only get worse as people try to fulfill that need to be important as Louis C.K. said on the interview with Conan. I wholeheartedly believe it is a more discerning problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely that people are socially awkward now, and cant interact properly. Its like you feel naked without your cell phone on you. Since you brought up the government spying on us, it go me to think that all this technology and spying actually could go hand in hand. Because with all this technology people are putting more out there, and it gives the government more to use as the spy.
DeleteOut of the few that I looked into I really like the Conon interview with Louis C.K.. Part of this is because it was entertaining to watch, and with the short attention span that most people now have to do a single thing, it was a easy watch. Other then that it actually had many valid points. I have thought about this subject a lot, about how people are using cell phones and losing human interactions. People these days submerge themselves into technology and lose much of the empathy, like Louis said, with other people. In modern days kids are getting cell phones at younger ages, and I find this pointless, what is a fifth grader going to do with a cell phone besides call their mom who would be with them most the time. Also they talked about people texting while driving, and why people do it. They said people do it so they don't have to be lonely while in a car. This is actually right because people, including myself, do this to have some interaction with someone else. Also it has to do with people not being able to do one thing for to long anymore, so while driving they decide to talk to someone. This is a problem with people these days and is ruining the lives of many people.
ReplyDelete"Obama announced the creation of an "independent group" of "outside experts" to review privacy issues raised by the nation's surveillance programs during a Friday press conference." This was an interesting piece i noticed, I will never understand why anything that the government does that makes a topic like such be reviewed by biased experts paid to report back biased numbers and data. Any type of security or privacy issue should be help at the national level, and should be correlated with all privacy issues and help create a plan for the future on what is private, what is public, and what the government has access to, to collect and analyze and display this information as a whole to the public. Then allow voting on what restrictions need made.
ReplyDelete