Consider the scenario below:
There lived a woman named Abigail who was in love with a man she met through Facebook named Gregory. Gregory lived in Gainesville. Abigail lived in Tampa. What brought them together was a mutual love for 80s Smiths songs and the Second Life VR space. Abigail wanted to get Greg a rare item from Second Life. Unfortunately, the seller on Second Life wanted over 1,000 gold coins for the decal. Since she was new at the game, she couldn't raise enough coins for Gregory's birthday. So she asked the seller, Sinbad_2020, if he would sell her the item for a lower cost. He said he would be glad to if she would send naked pictures of her avatar to him to put on his Facebook gallery. Because the avatar was based on her, she texted her friend, Pat, to ask her advice. Pat did not want to get involved at all in the situation and ignored her text. Abigail felt her only alternative was to accept Sinbad’s terms. Sinbad fulfilled his promise to Abigail and "gifted" the item to Gregory.
When Abigail met Greg in World of Warcraft and told about her all the trouble she went through in order to get him this present, Gregory cast her aside with disdain, threw away her present, and blocked her from all his social networks. Heartsick and rejected, Abigail twittered her tale of woe. Janice, a member of her twitter group, felt compassion for Abigail. She hacked into Greg’s "Linked-In" business account and linked all of his resume information to gay pornography. Abigail was overjoyed at the sight of Gregory getting his due. As the sun set on her apartment in Tampa, people heard Abigail and Janice laughing at Gregory from her computer.
=====================================================================
THE CHARACTERS:
Abigail,
Gregory(facebook),
Pat(text),
Sinbad_2020(world of warcraft),
Janice (Linked In)
We have looked at communication technology, and how this technology can both create and solve problems. Now we have the challenge of analyzing these problems using and probing to find a solution to a problem that will plague us...
WATCH:
While John F. Kennedy was speaking about the 1960s, his message remains the same: no matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat, we stand on the edge of a New Frontier that will be a set of technological and social challenges that will affect the lives an livelihoods of our friends and our family.
QUIZ: How do you face that challenge? As a citizen of the United States, what is the one technological challenge facing us today that is both beneficial and problematic for today's society? Why? (1 paragraph)
BLOGPOST: Blog about that "One Technological Challenge" that you or your family/friends will have to face in the next four years. Whether it is how Technology influences Professional, or Economic, or Cultural, or Political, or Social, or Environmental concerns, I want you to explore that problem and articulate not only how it will affect you, but how it will affect the world around you. Why is this a social/cultural/professional/economic/or environmental injustice? How can we curb this injustice before it comes to the forefront? What can we do as citizens?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Project 3 and The Future
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12 comments:
In the next few years the internet will have advanced so dramatically that almost everything will be accomplished online. This will benefit our society as is grows but it will have a negative impact as well. From communicating with other people to education, at present this can be done completely on-line. It is as simple as a click of a mouse. Unfortunately, the internet has made access to all of these examples incredibly easy, almost too easy in fact.
This will then affect how people communicate with others on a professional level and a personal one. Some people do not enjoy going out and having to actually speak to another person or call them on the phone. Essentially, email and chat rooms allow people to have conversations without having to ever see the people they are talking to. This in turn will make for a society that will be lacking in verbal and physical communication skills.
Today, some schools have classes that can be taken on-line so that the student does not have to come to class. This could affect how we teach our children to respect one another as they mature. There is a possibility that the internet could eventually offer all schooling online and then close all the schools forever. What would this do to our future generation’s education? On a positive note, if all schooling was taught online, then there would not be any further need for textbooks. This would cut down tremendously on the damage we are doing to the rain forest and our trees. We must also take into consideration that as technology advances, the need to create new and improved products means that we do not need the old ones. Mostly all of the new models that are created are made up of materials that are not biodegradable. Eventually this will have a huge effect on the earth and how we are living in it.
The internet will make life much easier for those who do not wish to leave the safety of their homes or can not leave due to medical reasons. They will be able to get anything they wish via the internet but the future generations will be completely lacking people skills.
The future, how will it effect our life?
In four years changes will be made in our economics. I believe new innovations will begin in our communities some will be good and some will be testing our knowledge. Right now you must have a college education, money will be scarice because everyone is becoming conservative; even the banks. We must stay in tune with the world to keep up with the changes.
Technology is fast approaching. We will be affected if we are not educated in internet systems. Schools have already transfered to using webspace to discuss subjects and teach online. We can not walk one step without our technologies without becoming unsecure. Funds will be distributed to the most innovative projects. The future is pushing our executive minds to be the next biggest bomb of the century. Paper bills and documents will no longer be of use because we will have the "Green" effect of making the world paperless. Documentation will be almost just a handshake as digital icons markers. The statement "red tape" will be in the past.
Of course, I can go on and on about changes. However, we must stay alert and educated or we become technology dumb.
Change is definitely coming in our future. I believe that our lives will be solely centered around our computers. It is not like in the past when you actually went to the library to do research. Now, most families just rely on their computers to do the research for them. We can pay bills online, chat with each other and even find out whats playing at the movies. We don't even have to leave our house to do much of anything anymore. If we can afford a computer, great. What about the families that can't? This is where the suffering will start. In these hard economic times, most families can't just run out and put a computer on their credit card. They won't even qualify to get a credit card. I wonder if the government will support a program to help people in need actually get a computer. The future will be controlled by our computers. Will families ever just sit around the kitchen table and talk? What would they say face to face? Technology will decide everything we do. I'm just not sure if the whole world is ready for it. Are you?????
The technological challenge that will most likely effect my family/friends in the next four years is the internet. The internet is going to become the monopoly technology. The internet is a way to steal movies, music, and free tv. Soon enouogh cell phones will connect to each on internet signals. Cable t.v. will be able to be viewed on the internet. These things all turning to the internet will hurt the economy. People trying to save money will use the internet which will cut jobs of people who work for cable, phone, movie, and music companies. Also, schooling is now offered via internet, and the more advanced the internet becomes the more likely it is for people to go to school online. Socially people are going to be less sociable because they will be using the internet more often. There will likely be a increase in online shopping. People trying to save money on gas and transportation can shop online. We should put resttriction on the internet as far as what can be purchased or stolen. Free music, movies, and t.v. should not just be given away on the internet. It is not justice when people can steal on the internet. We should have internet laws because the internet is going to change, and there will be things people can do that will need to be regulated.
In my opinion, one of the technological challenges we will have to face in the nearest future is computer/computerized machine. I don’t mean computer as a personal computer that we use for business, send/receive e-mails, browse Internet, play games, watching videos, etc. I mean computers/computerized machines that are widely used in different industries and retail stores. For example, “Self-Check Out” registers, those are in “Publix”, “Walmart”, “Home Depot” and other stores. They are very useful for customers. It saves time: customer doesn’t need to stay in long lines, wait for cashier. He/she can do everything himself/herself. But what about cashiers of those stores?! It seems in the nearest future they will be replaced by “Self-Check Out” registers. That leads to unempoyment. Same happens with quite a number of manufacturers: cell phones, computers, cars, etc. Computerized machines do the entire job. Let’s take a look on banks: account holder can deposit money/checks, withdraw money; make money transfer using ATM machines. In fact, we don’t need to go to the bank anymore; we can do everything online or through ATM machine.
Of course, for retailer or manufacturer computerized machine is much cheaper than an employee. Machine doesn’t need benefits, salary, it doesn’t have sick days, the only thing it needs is regular maintainance. Does it really mean that in future computers/computerized machines will replace people in some areas? It is obvious that global computerization and automation is bringing drastic changes into our lives.
I believe that the most pressing issue we will face will be our dependence on computerized machines. We depend on them for more and more things everyday.
One such dependence is the personal computer as means to keep in touch with people. In years past we have used letters to communicate with them. Now, we have email and internet communities such as Facebook. This is both a blessing and a curse. We have lost our ability to express emotion through words, substituting exclamation points for the acronym “lol”. Also our penmanship has suffered. Most, if not all, papers are requested to be typed but, what of in-class assignments? A teacher cannot grade a paper he or she cannot read. Furthermore standardized test for middle and high school students require them to write with just a pen and paper. Many of their grades have suffered due to their lack of penmanship.
The cell phone is also a blessing and a curse. We are able to keep in touch with everyone at all hours of the day. However, we have also lost our sense of “me time”. Even at night many people sleep with their phones just in case of an emergency or if someone might call or text message them. We are never truly alone. Due to the wonder of the cell phone our interpersonal abilities have suffered. There is a marked difference when speaking to a fifteen year old and a twenty five year old. The latter has had more exposure to text messaging as opposed to the twenty five year old.
All is not bad news. Due to personal computer and cell phones we are able to keep in touch with family and friends living half way across the world in a matter of seconds. In addition we can respond to emergencies much quicker. As Uncle Ben says to Peter Parker in Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility”. We have been given the power of technology now we must exercise the responsibility to handle it and use it for the greater good.
One technology that I see becoming controversial in the near future is self check-out machines. I will admit that they are sometimes nice when we are in a hurry in the checkout line and there is a long wait. But, think of the adverse effects such a machine may one day have on our economy. Will these machines one day completely replace the human cashier? Right now they are difficult for some to use but what about when they work perfectly? Will we need real cashiers at all? How many jobs will these machines replace?
We as a society must start weighing what is more important. Not waiting in quite as long of a line at the supermarket or scores of more people loosing their jobs?
I believe the most pressing issue of our time is energy. While I doubt our dependence on oil will be curbed in the next four years, I do believe that we are finally beginning to realize that this cannot go on forever.
One technical challenge that I think the U.S. in particular will have to face is our industries, or the way we produce/reuse things. Right now the American Ecological footprint is 400%, which means we are using resources much faster than we can replenish them, and that’s America alone. Americans are constantly using new things and burning old things instead of making full use out of every resource. As such, we are causing drastic pressures on the environment that we ourselves and our children will have to face including lack of clean water, clean air, clean food, and a healthy environment.
One technological challenge that my family and I will have to face in the next four years is, the way everything is now being communicated via the internet. For example, on television commericals you can barely see telephone numbers. Most of the time it is a internet website. Applications for work, way to find out more information, and etc. If people in general don't become internet savy soon, we can all be lost.
Within the next 4 years i believe texting will become our familys main way of communicating with eachother when not at home. With my sister turning the corner to becoming a teenager, my older sister having her first child of her own, and me moving out of state, keeping in touch will be a must. I myself prefer to text my mom to get straight to the point then to have an actual conversation. My younger sister on occasion, if im unavailable to reply to my texts will read them to me and reply back for me. Needless to say she is getting a significant amount of practice. Just recently i taught my mother and step father how to text meassage, now it seems to be their communication of choice between them and my siblings. I believe my family will now be able to communicate better with eachother now that the lengthy lectures are a thing of the past.
I believe that in the near future telephones will be far more advanced. As of now some home telephones allow you to see the person that you are taliking too. These phones have screens as well as cameras on them so that you can make the conversation more personal. Currently these types of phones are not so popular, and they are quite expensive. I believe that in a few years when the prices go down their will be a higher demand and a better market for them. This is somthing that will help keep families closer together, as well as loved ones. I also think that phones will be voice activated so that a person can say who they want to call and the phone will auto dial. This feature will be good in emergency situations when the person is unable to get to the phone.
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