Things and Devices

Borgman repeats over and over that things require participation and some amount of work behind them. Devices on the other hand are things that may get the job done but they don't require work nor participation from the user. The problem with devices is the fact that we really don't know the insides and outs about how they work. Using the well vs. spicket example, if something was to go wrong with the water we were drinking and we were using the "well" then we would be able to fix the problem and go along with the process of getting clean water. Whereas with the spicket, if something was wrong with the water that was flowing out of the spicket then we would really have no idea what the problem was and we would have to call proffessionals to fix the problem. This is where the detachment becomes important. We don't know the means anymore, all we know are the ends. Technology has blessed us with the ability to be able to virtually do no work at all; but at the same time we then have no knoledge how to fix something or know when a device is not completely functioning properly. Borgman uses the computers as an example, he says almost everyone in America has a computer but almost no one knows a lot about how it works or be able to trouble shoot. Being an athlete this reminds me of an athletic example, the fans that come to the games on saturday afternoons see us playing a game for an hour or so and they enjoy the baskets scored, the picks set, the defense that is played and they think we played pretty well and some fans may think that they want to be a part of the team because it looks like a lot of fun. But they don't see the hours of practice, the loss of sleep because we had to ice till 3 a.m. from the practice before, or the 4 hour bus ride that we had to take in order to get to the game. The point is that in many situations people see the ends having no idea what it took to get there. Technology is definately aiding the ends, but it's not doing a whole lot for the means. In the example of downloading a trip to the grand canyon on your i-pod instead of actually going there, this is a total disengaging idea and in Borgman's eyes this would be the epitimy of total loss of participation and tradition. Half of the experince of going on vacation and experiencing things is dealing with the external factors like not having water to drink, getting lost, asking people for help, and coming out of your comfort zone a little bit. I believe technology is a great thing as long as we all don't lose touch with reality.