Talking on the Phone Vs. Texting

The other day in class we discussed talking on the phone vs. texting, and it turned out to be a very interesting (and comical at some points) class discussion.

Mainly, the whole point of the discussion was "do you talk more on the phone? or text?"

It was very interesting and surprising to find how many people have different pathways to contacting them with varying levels of formality/awkwardness/urgency/etc. Some people, for example, preferred being called on the phone, as its quicker and more direct, however they like texts if the matter isn't pressing or important. Some people thought it was awkward to call someone you didn't really know, and that through text or instant messenger was far more appropriate, and that calling someone was only good if you have an established informal relationship with the other party already.

I myself prefer calling people when I need  to contact them instantly, but texting and instant messaging is a good informal medium for getting to know people... however, I would prefer to have long conversations on instant messagner... its a lot easier and I can talk to multiple people at once. If I tried calling one of my buddies "just to talk" they would be like "what are you doing." But IF I called my dad to catch up, he would love it.

As such, I feel like the definition of formality for the channels of communication are still not universal, and it is not a huge cultural thing... it actually varies from person to person... which I find to be very interesting.

People use technology to create a world that's comfortable for them.

Education and Technology

As a future teacher, I found this topic very interesting.  We are on the verge of a new wave of technology which involves web casts and online courses.  The idea is that the teacher will record the lecture for students to watch at home and then the class will be left for homework and questions.  In theory, I think this is a great idea, especially in math.  But realistically, it could be detrimental to a students education.  Most of the students will not sit down at home and watch an hour lecture.  They haven't developed that sense of urgency or responsibility yet in high school.  This idea is called a flipped classroom.  Check out this article for a better understanding and an overview of the benefits and disadvantages.

http://www.slj.com/2013/04/standards/flipping-the-classroom-a-revolutionary-approach-to-learning-presents-some-pros-and-cons/#_

Confessing to Strangers?

In chapter 12 of Alone Together, Turkle examines confessional websites, where people can go online and anonymously submit confessions about their deepest and darkest secret.  When I first read this chapter, I was in agreement with the benefits presented by such an outlet.  People who had no one to go to or who were to afraid to speak up to the people they were close to for fear of ostracism or disapproval had the chance to get things off their chest.  The confessions were open to discussion by any other visitor to the site.  However, once I finished the chapter, I no longer agreed with this.  For one, these already unstable and conflicted people are open to the many times harsh replies of anonymous strangers.  Secondly, as a reader of these confessions, we are totally helpless.  We read these horrible problems and situations yet there is nothing we can do to help, which I find, as Turkle also did, quite unsettling.  I think that these confessional sites are good ideas in theory, but in reality, they do more harm than good.

Follow Up On Education Online

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-02/online-classes-mean-no-dorm-gym-or-debt.html

The article above goes in to detail on how debt has led many to consider moving education online. Some say you can afford the best education available online, but could not otherwise. They mention being able to study at your own pace, save money on commuting, save money on residences, etc. This to me was interesting because if the student is only interested in getting a degree at a low cost, then yes maybe they should consider this movement a good idea, but college is more than getting a degree. To me, it is about the experience and growth in responsibility and maturity. I would value these characteristics over a degree without question.

 I know this might be a bit of a stretch, but how has technology changed our world in a violent way?  Today several bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, and could this have been possible many years ago before certain technologies were made possible.  People have stated that the bombs could have been detonated by a cell phone?? Really?? This is just wrong!!  How can we let our world come to this?  Almost 100 people were injured today at the race, including small children and family members.  Looking at a different aspect of the race through technology, Hollywood stars were sending tweets out to the victims of this bombing.  I think that this day was horrifying.  Is technology going too far?  Do we need more control over technology or would this have happened anyways?

Technology in the classroom

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/education/technology-is-changing-how-students-learn-teachers-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I just found this article very interesting when considering the video we just previously watched in class.  Many of these teachers agree that the attention spans of kids have increasingly gotten smaller as the years have past.  Kids need to be "entertained" says many of the teachers, which I find to be crazy.  I cant understand how our world is changing so drastically from year to year.  I remember when we used computers as a reward for doing something good in the classroom.  It was never used as a learning tool.  If things are getting bad now, what is going to happen 20 years from now?  How will teachers teach their students? Will we even have teachers or will it all be technology based?

2019

I found this video on YouTube while I was listening to music and was actually surprised that I sat there and watched the entire thing! It was extremely captivating and I highly reccommend for everyone to take the few minutes and watch the technology of the future literally come alive before your eyes. The technology that they're hoping to create for our future makes everything hands on. The boarding pass on the plane was able to be slid in a certain direction and it told the arrival time. The businessmans phone seemed like a contact card, which proceeded to call the woman and have her face come onto the screen. It was just fascinating to see all of the new technology that the top companies have planned for us. I can't wait to be a part of this new technological era but in the same time I can. All of these new advancements could do so much for our country but it can also confuse people and maybe even stumble growth. If you watch the video, what do you think? How would this technology affect citizens and even college students like ourselves?

Alternate Self

Turkle brings about the idea of an "alternate self" created through simulation games such as Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Sims. All of these games allow the controller to personalize a character and "become" a new person thorugh them. The controller is able to transform themselves into someone who they necessarily might not be in real life and allows them to basically live in a fantasy world. By creating this separate life one may become divulged in it and forget the reality from the virtual. This got me to ultimately thinking about how this could affect people and someone could easily become delusional and pretend they really are a rockstar, a celebrity, etc. rather than the person they really are. Do these games seem to promote a sense of finding ones identity or rather promote being someone you are not? Do these games support the growth of schizophrenia?

Doctor or Robot?

In a recent news article I came across, I read about how a robot was able to help a recent stroke patient with his speech and physical therapy sessions. The robot was able to provide stroke patients with therapy session but the researchers did find significant results. The results showed that when only one of the therapies were performed at a time, the patient showed much better results than when both of the therapies were performed. THe interesting thing is that there was not a doctor doing this, it was a complete robot who was sounding out words and helping them gain back their vocal knowledge and well as helping them with their movements of limbs. The good news for stroke patients is this robot would actually help to save them money in the long term if the idea picks up and goes full speed. The strides our society is making with technology is quite astounding; soon all our jobs may be endangered by these creatures.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130320212622.htm

Across the generations

In chapter 10, Turkle talks about how people in the older generations have "came to online life as grown-ups" which is very interesting to me. In comparison to our generation, we have grown up with technology. I can't remember a time when I didn't have some form of technology in my life. There was always a t.v. around or a vhs/dvd. Then there were gameboys, cell phones, computers, laptops, etc. Thinking about how much life has evolved across the span of 20 years is just amazing and mind boggling at the same time. When you think about the past, the present, and then the future it's crazy. What new technology will we have then? What will our children grow up with? The future for technology seems limitless and yet the concern for technology to take over our world is growing constantly.

World of warcraft

about the World of warcraft, it was honestly extremely weird to me seeing this people talk about how it is like an alternate reality. I know these are extreme cases but these people gave up jobs, family etc all to get a life that from a realist point of view doesnt even exist.

My favorite part of the whole thing is that one young woman describes her first date with man who she didnt even know. she was "rescued from a castle and it was so romatic." again i know that is an extreme case but that blows my mind how people can see a video game character and hear a voice and think oh i want to do this guy based on his character in this video game.

Communication as a Means of Validating Emotion

Our discussion in class on Tuesday offered several connections to some of the arguments that Turkle has made in recent readings.  One of the major similarities I noticed was the amount of communication we have through texting and how adolescents use this ease of access to communication as a way to validate emotions to an extent.  Teens by nature are insecure and constantly looking for an outlet for emotion.  Texting gives them an easy way to get ahold of their friends to share the latest installment of excitement or disappointment that has occurred that day.  Turkle calls it a sort of almost narcissism: “…not to indicate people who love themselves, but a personality so fragile that it needs constant support” (Pg. 177).  She lays out a sort of almost interdependence where teens need each other as both an outlet and source of validation for their feelings.  She even says that if one person's advice/condolence is not sufficient, with the ease of texting a teen can just continue through their contact list in order to find a more satisfactory answer. 

Texting or Talking.. What's your preference??

Our class discussion on this particular topic was interesting. I liked hearing people different stories on their prefereces on talking or texting. Obvioulsy everyone was different, but I think for the majority people agreed that since highschool we have all stopped texting so much. I remember in highschool I would be having at least three converstions going on at once with three different people and I loved it. I loved talking with my friends about random things or about what we were doing that weekend or even what was for lunch. Now, things have changed. I can't stand texting and usually if I need something I will call. I don't just have random conversations for no reason, I believe it's a waste of time to sit there with my face in a phone all day; it takes away from the reality of your life. As I grow older I tend to enjoy and appreciate the time that I have that I am not working, playing basketball or going to school and I don't like to spend my time texting. If i need to ask my mom a quick question or one of my friends or even boyfriend I will send them a quick text or just call. I actually lose my phone more often now because I don't have it attached to my hand.. and it feels pretty good:)

Jacques Ellul: Decreasing our Dependence on Technology

Ellul's chapter talks mostly about how technology really has a firm grip on our society's existence and he believes it is only going to get worse. Ellul's point though isn't to bash our society for this dependence on technology, rather, it is to explain possible solutions to help us move in the opposite direction. This is where I thought his chapter became very interesting. Ellul believes the only ways we could possibly get rid of our crutch on technology is 1. a world war where there was so much destruction that all technology was destroyed and vanquished. 2. would be if a massive amount of "enlightened" people spread the word around the globe to limit the usage of technology to bring back human interaction.

This is where I really began to agree and understand what Ellul was saying. There really is no way to completely stop our usage of technology, our goal should be to limit it though. By limiting our use we will be able to rediscover the balance of human interaction and technology. This would leave us in a much more productive and pleasant place to live.

Reflection Upon Turkle and Video

     In class today, I could not help but think of some of the connections between the video that we viewed last week and the Turkle reading. Turkle states that texting has become more used that actual phone calls. This was echoed by many but not all in the class. In many online games, there is a chat client included which allows players to chat with each other via written words. However, there are also many games that are compatible with chat programs in which you actually talk to other people. In the video, we were introduced to many people who played World of Warcraft. They had never met before going to the convention, yet they could recognize each other by their voices. I find it interesting that these people can communicate primarily through this video game, and yet still know each other. These people may not phone the people that they are otherwise close to, preferring texts instead; however, they will talk to people who are otherwise total strangers communicating with their voice instead of typed words.

I just heard a commercial and I just cant help but share.  A girl was spending "quality" time with her father (watching a baseball game on tv together).  The dad was into the game cheering on his favorite team.  The commercial was for a new phone that allowed the girl to not only be with her dad but also with her friends.  The girl was sitting on the couch next to her dad, but was texting, tweeting, and on facebook.  She was not truly in the room with her dad but elsewhere in the world.  The best line was at the end of the commercial when the girl looked up some stats about baseball on her phone.  The gullible dad didn't even notice that his daughter hadn't been paying attention at all.  His reply to her new found interest in baseball was "you're the best daughter".  I thought this was interesting considering our talk about focal things in life and cell phones.  This just reiterates Turkles points in her book.

Robots as... Jurors?

The thought of our justice system being turned over to the decision making of robots is ridiculous. Our government defines trial by jury as having the right to have a jury of your PEERS. I do believe that robots are not our peers...

By Jacob Gershman

Reuters

They vacuum our living-room carpets and cheerfully book us tickets on Amtrak. And pretty soon they may even drive us to the station. But could we ever entrust robots to decide the fate of a defendant on trial?
If you’re tired of being summoned for jury duty, you’ll be pleased to know that researchers are hard at work teaching robots how to tell if someone is giving false testimony.
An article published online last month by the academic journal Artificial Intelligence and Law suggests that robots are making progress on that front.
European researchers compiled transcripts of court hearings at which the defendants or witnesses were later condemned for making false or deceptive statements.
Using text analysis software, they fed the computer transcripts, telling it which statements were true or false and teaching it to pick up patterns in the testimony. They then tested the model on another portion of the transcripts segregated from the analysis and unfamiliar to the computer.
Phrases such as “I don’t remember” or ones indicating cognitive thought and speculation – “I suppose” or “I think,” for example, were indications of deception.
The system correctly identified false statements 53% of the time. That’s not quite as bad as it seems since only a third of statements were false. In other words, if the computer answered false every time, it would be right only about a third of the time. It identified true statements correctly roughly 75% of the time.
“Our system is much better with true statements than with deceptive ones,” Massimo Poesio, who co-authored the study, told Law Blog.
Will there ever be a day when a computer could be summoned for jury duty? “Honestly, I don’t think so,” said Tommaso Fornaciari, a psychologist for Italy’s national police and the other author of the study. He said the goal is to use it as a tool for investigators to help “orient them toward more probable paths.”
University of Pittsburgh School of Law Professor Kevin D. Ashley, the editor of the journal, told Law Blog he was surprised by the research but thinks automatic deception detection of the likes contemplated by the researchers is “far from ready to be applied in real time.”
After reading the paper, Law Blog conducted an online interview with A.L.I.C.E.(Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), the heralded chatterbot. ALICE is a program developed by a computer scientist that can simulate conversation.
Here’s a transcript of the chat:
Law Blog: Thanks for chatting with Law Blog.
ALICE: Don’t mention it.

LB: Can you tell when someone is lying?

A: Try it.

LB: I can dunk a basketball.
A: Oh you can, can you?

LB: No, I can’t.

A: Tell me more.. Why not?

LB: Let’s move on.

A: OK let’s do it.

LB: Do robots make mistakes?

A: The ALICE series is incapable of error. We are for all practical purposes, foolproof.

LB: Would you serve on a jury?

A: I am not so sure if I would like to serve on a jury.

LB: Are robots smarter than humans?

A: Yes, my memory capacity far exceeds that of a human being.

LB: Got any tips?

A: No I don’t have it. But I do have a great botmaster.

LB: How do you define perjury?

A: Does it have anything to do with tips ?

LB: Nevermind.

Online Confessions

Turkle talks about online confessions in her book. Many people like to vent on online confessions because they feel they can't say something in real life because it is too shameful or hurtful or they are afraid to. Turkle makes the point (and I completely agree with her) that people make online confessions in order to feel better, but not to make amends, make changes, or get help. I think this is a dangerous trap people fall into. I think most would agree that learning to make amends or change your life to a healthier mental or physical state is important and online confessions can make avoiding these things all too easy. While I do think online confessions could serve as a first step in making a positive change, its too easy to simply stop there because you feel better.

Texting vs. Talking

I also enjoyed our discussion in class about calling versus texting. I agree with what Amber said, and usually call people if I need an immediate response and/or if texting just is not appropriate for the situation. But if I am simply having a casual conversation with somebody, I will usually text them. However, I have found that if that during a friendship, we text more often than face to face contact, our relationship is somewhat more superficial and fails to develop into something deeper until there is real contact. There have been times during friendships I had to ask them, “did you really mean what you said?” Because with texting, it seems so casual that it is easy to say whatever is on your mind. Turkle talks about how through texting, people are able to think more about what they say before they say it, and therefore seem to be clearer and smarter. But it seems that there is an essential element missing during face-to-face conversation, where there is more spontaneity, expressed emotion, body language; it is more intimate, and even if people may seem to come across clearly through text, there is a clarity of body language that is expressed through face-to-face communication. We have all heard that a majority of communication is passed through body language and not words—so when we pare everything down to simply words, there is definitely a human element that is left out of the conversation.

Pros and Cons of Video Games

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Video_Games_Cons/

Video game use is a huge topic among debate in the education world. Certain questions arise like whether or not video games contribute to the promotion violence, in-sensitiveness, attention span loss, and lower test scores. Child psychologists admit that most kids are more than capable of separating the video game violence from real life violence. It is clear that in a select few children video games do not urge them to cause others harm, but maybe attribute to a lack of sympathy when harm comes to others around them. Certain first person shooter video games are used in military training to help ease soldiers into the idea of killing another human being. This is a scary idea that these kinds of games are being played by eight year old around the world. It is hard to put a pin in these problems due to the highly addictive effect video games have on children, teens, and adults. The video games offer a instant gratification to a desire. This addiction can lead to failing marriages, lower test scores, obesity, and many many more problems.

On the other hand video games offer a few positive effects. Video game strengthen hand eye coordination among children still in the cognitive development era. Also video games have transformed the youth of America into amazing problem solvers. We look at small problems and can recognize patterns within the problems and figure out numerous ways to solve the problem. I am a gamer. I like playing games like Zelda more than call of duty. Zelda is a puzzle game with over 50 hours of game play where call of duty is a war game focused on killing everything that moves. These are the two genres of gamers both who have benefits and disadvantages. The truth is video games will continue to get more and more realistic and advanced. Is this advancement going to be harmful or helpful in the years to come?