Will technology surpass our wants?

So with our generation's technology increase, it is hard to see where we will stand in the form of technology expansion. We think we have everything, we have computers in our pockets. this is something that thirty years ago would have been fantasy. This makes thirty years in the future way more difficult to predict. What i think is going to happen is that we will be given a huge Utopian world without being able to live. I say that because if we are given every thing, we do not have struggles, and with those we learn. With age we get these experiences, with those we learn to live. so in the future if we continue with this rapid technological expansion, we are loosing the ability to live. Now I fell as though I will be hearing the all of the comments saying that if one struggles to much they then suffer. Now I do believe that no human should struggle, especially when there life deteriorates. With that in mind, I feel as though life experiences come with desires. If we are given everything that we can think of, not in a political stance of course, it takes away from growing and learning.

Technology Gives You a Voice

Over this lovely break, I spent a decent amount of time with my family who were snowed in with me. Unfortunately, my little sister and dad were sick. Because of this I now have completely lost my voice, which was wonderful for rehearsal for the plays I'm in. Luckily for me, I have my cellphone in order to communicate with anyone I need to. Instead of being able to get my parents' attention by talking to them, now I have to text them. This reminded me of the fact that there are people who use their phones to talk. Mute people often need to use an app to communicate to those who do not know how to use sign language, like this one. Text to speech and speech to text help makes communication easier for those who do not have the means to communicate with everyone around them. Luckily for me, my voice will come back over a couple of days.

Snow Days Featuring Technology

I don't know what I or almost any other Shepherd University student would have done over this long break without technology. I don't just mean the video games I played while I was holed up in my room. Many forms of technology helped make my days off less stressful. The rave alerts helped me by telling me when school was cancelled so that I wouldn't have to frantically search around the Internet to figure it out myself. The emails from my professors helped me keep up on my work and made it so the missed days of class did not put everyone behind in their learning. And last but not least, all the social media helped by giving me a way to pass the time while I was unable to leave my building because of the awful weather. Without the help of technology, I would have been extremely bored and incredibly stressed out about these snow days. 

Cellphone Games

Cellphones are commonly seen as a waste of time, a distraction, or sometimes a way to easily keep in touch with friends and relatives. An abundance of cellphones have access to the internet, allowing for many methods of communication and many tools to further general knowledge, and twice as many distractions. Many mindless phone games are being played all around the world, whether it be waiting for a bus or just to spend 30 minutes trying to beat a level that was impossible before bed last night. It may seem useless, yet this website is predicting that “The mobile gaming industry is predicted to reach $54 billion by 2015.” Cellphone games make up “76 of the top 100 grossing iOS apps” and gross billions of dollars every year. It really blows my mind that so much money is being made when many people I know have never spent money on a phone game. What is your opinion?

Live Like It's 1986

I was recently on BuzzFeed and I came across an article that I thought was very interesting. I was about a family that decided that they were going to live only with the technology they had in 1986, for a whole year. The reason the couple chose to do this is because they felt that their children were obsessed with their iPads and iPhones. They used old phones instead of smartphones, encyclopedias, radios, and they even did their banking in person. Anyone who visits them also has to hand over their electronic devices until they decide to leave.

For many of us, this probably sounds like your worst nightmare, but I think the family may have the right idea in this situation. Their kids are reading more and playing outside instead of sitting on the couch and playing video games all day, although they are allowed to play Super Mario. I think living like this family for a week would open a lot of people’s eyes about how addicted they have become to technology. Now people are so concerned with being connected at all times, that they miss out on other important parts of their lives.

Kanye West: Our Generation's "OG," and Apparent Priority

I'm sure by now everyone in class has seen Kanye West's "fire" subtweet marathon supposedly directed at Wiz Khalifa. And it's precisely that which annoys me- why is it that the vast majority of our generation can repeat the tweets sent out by a celebrity, but would have trouble naming all the current presidential candidates? I understand that I'm a news and politics junkie, and that those topics aren't everyone's cup of tea. However, it seems silly to me that our priorities as a culture lean heavily towards celebrities’ subtweets and very far away from things like who the next person to lead our country might be.

I just wish that we as a culture were a little more balanced when it comes to our priorities. If we valued things that actually impact our daily lives as much as we value how much “shade” Kanye “threw” to another rapper over Twitter, I don’t think our generation would be nearly as apathetic as it seems to be. That’s not to say previous generations haven’t been apathetic as well; I know most recent generations struggled with having apathy towards politics and other similarly serious matters. But I have higher expectations for our generation when it comes to being better than the generations before us, and I think part of that improvement includes being aware of the things that truly impact us in society.

P.S. I promise that I’ll make a blog post that isn’t negative or has anything to do with my criticisms of our generation/culture/society sometime soon… probably.

Technology For The Better

Hearing all the negative comments about technology I wanted to add something that technology is doing to improve lives. I recently stumbled across this video that has a 'smart helmet'. It is a motorcycle helmet designed to help the rider see the road in ways they couldn't before. The helmet is called Skully AR-1. This helmet includes a heads-up display so you can view GPS directions, MPH, and even see a full 180 degree view of the road around you. The helmet has built in bluetooth as well so when you're riding you can connect your phone to the helmet and receive phone calls or listen to music without ever touching the helmet while riding. With the product being fairly new the helmet costs around $1,500.
 I think that all helmets should be this way to better help motorcyclist's have a full view of the road. I think it is good that they can have all of those features and not even have to take a hand of the handlebars. With my dad being a motorcyclist himself, he was pretty excited about the idea. He believed all helmets should be made that way. So, I was really happy to come across a post that showed how technology could be helpful to those on the roads.