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In the continuing trend of talking about our culture’s growing infatuation and dependence on our technology, today I will talk about whether or not we are controlling our technology or if it is controlling us. I have to admit when you see that pearlescent blue glow on the zombified face of a friend or loved one as they check their twitter, it is easy to begin questioning who is really in charge. Another thing that scares me is when you climb into one of these new tricked out rolling super computers they call cars now a days and I can literally feel all of the wire and sensors in between me and the actual vehicle. All this aside, I do not think that technology would ever be able to run our lives to the point of subservience. I am not necessarily referring to some Terminator like scenario or even one concerning people getting to the point where they completely control their lives from some control room. Even our discussion of it in a liberal arts prerequisite class shows my point. Our concern of the topic when it is less than a major issue shows that I don’t think we would ever let it get to that point. This also relates to the fact that humans have a natural resistance to domination. I think that the urgency in which we address our electronic devices is more contributed to the dramatic nature we the people tend to have and less to any current real threat. For example, I can remember rushing home every Friday night to be home by four o’clock to catch my favorite show. All I can say for absolutely sure is that I’m not letting it control me, won’t you join me.
                                         

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This thesis statement reflects a growing trend of topics I have been noticing, not just in my English class but many more aspects of my life. That is the fact that many believe that technology is taking over too much of our lives. It’s obvious when you see people who are unable to remove themselves from their smartphones long enough to eat an entire meal or a person who cannot go a single day without checking their email. I am going to be perfectly honest; there is no way to tell how much we have been changed by our technology. It goes without saying that it has changed us but we can’t know how much or if it’s for the better. One of my favorite sayings is that hindsight is twenty twenty. People are excellent at looking back over there past and deciding what was right or wrong about it but that is not the case when it comes to the future or even our present. The simple fact is that new technology is going to continue to emerge and it is going to keep changing us as a whole. Think of how much the invention of fire helped the Neanderthal of or how much women’s suffrage changed our world. All we can hope to do is keep our eyes open and wait for that hindsight to start kicking in and then try to fix whatever damage we have done before we are all floating around in space. This goes to show another old adage that does not inspire much confidence in the certainty of our future, and that is that we like to learn things the hard way.

                                               

A Turkle coming Out of Her Technological Shell

The reason for this blog post is analyze the lecture of Sherry Turkle. She feels that we are becoming too enslaved by our technological devices. Technically speaking she thinks that people are beginning to prefer to interact with each other through their technical devices like your cell phone or tablet. This is actually something I agree with and have given significant thought to.  I have noticed a trend in these people on social websites who cry out for help with depressing status updates and dreary photos. Then these people refuse any physical interactions sometimes hosted through that very social website. Another thing I’ve noticed become more popular is people using these outlets to post things like, “I’m bored, text me.” This shows me that people have begun to relate social websites to how a person would have used to feel about the typical bar scene and text messaging has replaced “asking someone up to your place” for a choice of phrase. A good example of how this is engraining itself into our society is a movie called Robot and Frank. In this movie technology has advanced to the point that these humanoid robots have been developed to care for and provide companionship for the elderly. One line that I really enjoyed from her speech and that really stuck with me was when she said, “the illusions of companionship without the demands of friendship”. I like how she is basically saying that it is easy to like someone’s status on Facebook, but when you invite everyone to your party and how many of them do you actually expect to show up. My generation actually has a phrase for this; it’s called a ‘Facebook invite’. I try to remain physically connected to me friends but I know the appeal of the filter bubble. It’s nice to choose when and where you interact with someone without ever having to leave home. I’m not necessarily concerned with trackers but I do acknowledge that a person should keep the threat in mind. I think the worst example that I can think of that I would consider myself guilty of this is when I was talking about commenting on someone’s status and I said that I preferred to speak that way because you could say everything you were thinking without being interrupted. This is my feelings on the subject and what I took away from Sherry Turkle’s seminar.

Our Own Understanding

This is what I believe is the purpose of the Essay 3 Assignment. This assignment seems to be engineered to summarize the skills we have acquired from the previous to assignments. We were first taught what exactly logos, pathos, and ethos were. We were taught several other literary tools but these seemed to have special focus which told me they would be more relevant to future material. This is most likely because identifying these elements in a piece is most crucial in determining the creditability of the information the author is presenting us. Before we can store and begin regurgitating various facts, we must first be sure of their source and that source’s integrity. We had to use this when we had to identify and analyze these skills in ourselves and decide where we needed improvement and what we had a grasp of. Now we will use this knowledge to gain our own repertoire of information on a subject and using the other tools I neglected to mention before present or own paper that contains coherent and organized data in our own words. This will give us the opportunity to get a road test of all these things we have learned and apply them to a real world scenario. I personally now have a better understanding of what source will yield good, reliable news and what sources could be described as opinionated. This is going to help me write a more scholarly looking essay which has proven difficulty for me in the past. That is the third Essay Assignment to the best of my understanding.