I thought we could think for ourselves?

After all of the reading done in "The Shallows" I realized that the content of the internet is what is changing us. Every little thing that we use on the internet affects how our brain thinks and works. its like clocks for example... we are so dependent on them that if they no longer existed what would we do ?

Confessions..

"It is people who are disappointing each other. Technology merely enables us to create a mythology in which this does not matter".  Technology is very advanced to the point where you can say and do anything on any social network. I kinda thought about a twitter concept when I read this. "Subtweeting" People get so annoyed and irritated when they figure out that someone subtweeted them, after this happens a big arguement will come out of it on twitter. Technology just made that happen because you know that the person who subtweets someone wasnt going to confront them in person. People always dissapoint others because that is just life, but technology allows us to do it in a easier and not the best way.

Betrayal of ourselves

I highlighted this in Chapter 11. "Online worlds and role playing games ask you to construct, edit, and perform a self. Yet, In these performances, like the performances we saw with sociable robots, something else breaks through. When we perform a life through our avatars, we express our hopes, strengths, and vulerabilities".  I think that a lot is wrong with the world today, that people can not express those qualities about themselves in real life but they can online. No one is proud of who they are enough these days to express it out loud. Technology has made it so easy for us to ignore our hopes and strengths and create everything we image in a avatar online.

RANDOM

Does anyone else think its kinda ironic how before posting a comment it makes you type the words you see to make sure you are not a robot? This has nothing to do with the book.. but It kinda relates to the fact of "robots".

technology is enhancing everything

When I was little, I never played with any of the robot like toys. I didnt play with them because I thought they were kinda strange because of how they even worked. Now, technology is getting so much more advance. By technology being this advanced, a lot more complex robot like toys are capable of making. People probably thought that with this much technology, we can skip the toys and try to make life like robots. That is what is going on now, they are making cog robots and these robots are seriously life like..kinda creepy. I think that this is effecting commmunication with real people. People say that texting and email avoid communication but I think fake people do too.

How Kids Think Now....

As I started reading "Alone Together", I found certain topics that kinda caught my attention. The one that caught my most attention was " A ten-year old girl told me that she would prefer a robot turtle because aliveness comes with aesthtic inconvenience". (pg 4)  When I was little and even still now I love animals, and always use to think "why cant these animals be real" when I went to a museum or theme park. This just showed me how much the different generations think now. Kids think greater things will come out of technology instead of reality.

Looking Forward...Whats Next and Who is to Blame?

I love how Bauerlein refers to the certain age group from 22-30 as the "twixsters".  These are people that basically just got by. The made it through college and got jobs but in the end will still end up living with their parents. The reason for this is because they think they have reached their full expectation and the truth is they have only done the least. What people need is for the generation above them to encourage them to make their standards higher and be willing to work harder than what is just expected. If its the generations above us's fault than just imagine what the generations after us are going to be like?..

Is too much technology a bad thing?

Its crazy to think that as much time and younger kids and us teens use our technology devices, social networks and involved with media is the same amount of time as if they were working full time. I think thats a lot of time. But im not exactly saying that it is a bad thing. This kinda teaches kids to do more than one thing at a time. Learning how to several tasks at once at a young age is beneficial for when they are older. Also, I do not enjoy leisure reading but in some regard it is good for you and can increase your knowledge. The use of all this media kinda takes away from that aspect of learning. Parents feel that this is a good way to keep their kids busy and focused so they can relax after work.  The only bad thing I see from all the use of media all day is that when a student comes to take a test they might not do so good because they are normally dependent on the internet. It has been prooved that even if technology provides many resources and access to various information needed, many teens and students do not know to use it. Reading and research online is not the same as actually using a book. Reading online can seem beneficial but your not really taking in what you read and you can easily just skip pages or sections that you do not want to read. And odds are if a student is online they wont be interested in reading something that looks like a book.

Knowledge Deficits

I can totally relate to this. I have tooken a lot of important classes in high school and should remember a lot of the information learned. Most of it I do not remember or could even remember learning it. I never actually thought about why I couldnt or what was causing it to happen. I can remember the littlest things that maybe were to be in the class but never specific material learned. I realize I am not the only one whose brain works this way. Its the age group that I am in that thinks this way and the results show. Us teens are exposed to various aspects on different subjects in the world but never question why things are the way they are. Yet if questioned we still dont completely understand the meaning to the answer given to us. I think that as older adults we will start to understand the meaning and reasonings for a lot of topics. More resources are avaible to us now so we do not have to think as hard and actually learn why the way things are. We also get exposure to a lot of great opportunities and chances to experience different things or do different things but we never use these opportunities the correct way. All this happens because of how we socialize with others and how we spend our time outside of school.