Tuesday, March 24, 2009

How many more devices can we take on?

It is interesting to note the use of electronic devices as a key part of our everyday lives. We are on a computer, laptop, blackberry, cellphone, ipod, etc. and sometimes we are on all of them at once. This is something that has developed over the past 5o years, and continues to grow with each year of innovation. I specifically thought of this one cellphone advertisement that just recently aired on television. This cellphone allows you to record a program on your tlevision form your cellphone. The advertisements shows a middle aged man at a party realizin h forgot to tape the hockey game that night. He simply reaches for his cellphone and opts to record it from the coach he is sitting on at this party. What is the world coming to?! Do we need to have more of these 'efficient' devices? Are they even efficient or more time consuming?


This advertisement is for the new LG Arena, which allows you to do pretty much anything on your cellphone. It is a television, a phone, a browser, a music player a GPS, etc. Is this really what we want our lives to become? It is interesting that we think this is easier than having several devices for each of these functions. In reality, I believe that this i just a way for us to waste more time on technology and send less time on what really counts in life. We are becoming so socially detached from one another that soon communication will be a thing of the past? Is this something that could happen? I certainly think so!

4 comments:

  1. I agree big time. I think that Snacking plays a big part in how we use technology as well. Technnology speeds up the way we live and allows us to do many things at once, which is what the guy taping the hockey game demonstrates. We're overwhelmed with devices, devices, devices. We're intrigued by different devices so instead off relying on one or spending lots of time on one, we snack to get different information quickly from many different forms of technology. I personally would've taped the game on a video cassette...does that happen anymore? No way...there's PVR for that now. I actually wouldnt have, but just to help me make my point. Soon enough perhaps people won't even have to leave there homes. More and more devices in the future could definitely lead to more isolation and less social adventuring. There's benefits of course, but that's all we hear about. I think we need to take into account both sides of the coin, and use equal amounts of technological and social forms of communication...or else we'll turn into robots, yes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that a major problem here is that communication mediums and devices are essentially businesses out to make a profit and are more or less unregulated. We spend ridiculous amounts of time with our faces in devices and essentially disconnected from the "natural" world around us. This is true to the point that even for our education we spend crazy amounts of time in front of a computer screen. Often instead of taking a real break we will look to facebook, msn or our cell phones as an escape.
    We are now at the point where companies are selling us devices that are engineered to reduce the number of devices we need to amalgamate them into a super device. I feel like we are getting to the point in society that our ability to communicate via technology is more important than our ability to communicate face to face.
    The summer job I recently applied for is a prime example. I sent my resume in via email, was offered an interview via email and upon reading further I discovered that the interview was over the phone. At the end of the interview I asked if they would like to meet with me or required any further information and the response was no. How much can they possibly know about me? I feel like the technology allowed them to make large and likely incorrect assumptions about who I am.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree that we are becoming more and more technologically dependent and it is incredibly scary to think of where our society will be in five years, how it will function and what it will look like. Through these technologies we are in a sense becoming robots in that these devices become extensions of ourselves...which relates to McLuhan's ideas about media being an extension of our physical selves. I disagree with LCR in that I don't think communication will ever disappear it will just become more and more mediated through technology. We are becoming socially detached with these technologies but we are still communicating. I think the real question is what new innovations are ahead of us and when considering our social state today what will the future of social communication look like?

    ReplyDelete
  4. What strikes me is we have so many wireless devices to stay connected; we're mobile but still attached. I also do not agree that communication will disappear. If anything communication is the driver of everything we do in life. However our forms and ways of communicaiton have changed quite drastically over the past 50 years. We live in a society where it is the norm and it expected that you are not necessarily available but reachable. We see this assumption thrown at us all the time. When you fill out forms it is now standard to ask for both a home and cell number. I know personally when I turn my phone off and friends get my voicemail the first question they ask is "Why is your phone off??" As if I have committed a crime. I now with Crackberries being so highly used it definitely raises questions as to where communication technology will take us.

    ReplyDelete