Technology and Society

[Soapy]

The "leg work" is part of the learning though. You won't take for granted what you have to work for (in any instance).




In other words, you'd be alone in your head, with only your thoughts, giving you time and space from distractions to think, imagine, wonder, reflect... No need for that now, when you can watch your favourite movies and tv shows instantly AND play your favourite mind numbing angry birds game ANYTIME YOU WANT.



Are you seriously comparing Xbox to board games and books? lol. I'm sorry.


As an aside, you can already see a VERY apparent difference in general behaviour, expectations and ways of interacting that smartphones and constant, easily accessible internet access has had on people. It's most obivious in the dead eyes of overstimulated, overindulged children.

1. I never said anything about movies, TV or videogames being bad. My only concern is the way that these shows and movies and games are no longer moderated. We're inundated with them at all times. I love watching films or a good show from time to time. It's come to the point where there is now an over-reliance on these distractions to keep us satiated and entertained, lest we have a quiet moment to ourselves to actually think.

2. Reading is the only way to improve ones intellect. It gives you time to pause and reflect on the information you've just taken in. Reading is NOT the same as watching a television program. I don't know how anyone could possibly think that.

3. Because the most important thing is enjoying yourself and having fun all the time. Right.




Sorry, this is hilarious. This is one of those instances where, if you don't already understand why xbox and reading are NOT comparable, explaining it would be useless.




You're right, the alarming number of texting while driving deaths has nothing to do with being more distracted. You can argue that these people would have been distracted by something else or whatever, but all one needs to do is take a look at the statistics that indicate the sharp rise in "distracted" (see texting) driving deaths since 2006.

More and more you see a group of people sitting in a restaurant, all of whom are typing into their little phones. People at parties, typing into their phones. Kids sitting at the mall, typing into their phones. Practically braindead, staring at the center of their universe, a little glowing screen.

Like I said (and you've misinterpreted), I've got no problem with the technology, but in moderation (which it's not). The way we're headed is encouraging people (particularly young people) to live more and more in their own insulated little worlds than ever before. It's scary.

 

[moviedoors]

My thoughts exactly. I knew before I entered this thread that it would be full of "Get off my lawn!" nonsense.

 

[Darthphere]

The "leg work" is part of the learning though. You won't take for granted what you have to work for (in any instance).

I thought learning was about, you know, learning and not whether or not you spent 3 hours in the library reading Encyclopedias. Go figure.

 

[Destructus86]

I thought learning was about, you know, learning and not whether or not you spent 3 hours in the library reading Encyclopedias. Go figure.

But it's not. At least not entirely. Learning is important, but the ACT of learning is equally as important. We need to exercise our brain everyday in order to grow and improve.

 

[Destructus86]

1. I never said anything about movies, TV or videogames being bad. My only concern is the way that these shows and movies and games are no longer moderated. We're inundated with them at all times. I love watching films or a good show from time to time. It's come to the point where there is now an over-reliance on these distractions to keep us satiated and entertained, lest we have a quiet moment to ourselves to actually think.

2. Reading is the only way to improve ones intellect. It gives you time to pause and reflect on the information you've just taken in. Reading is NOT the same as watching a television program. I don't know how anyone could possibly think that.

3. Because the most important thing is enjoying yourself and having fun all the time. Right.




Sorry, this is hilarious. This is one of those instances where, if you don't already understand why xbox and reading are NOT comparable, explaining it would be useless.




You're right, the alarming number of texting while driving deaths has nothing to do with being more distracted. You can argue that these people would have been distracted by something else or whatever, but all one needs to do is take a look at the statistics that indicate the sharp rise in "distracted" (see texting) driving deaths since 2006.

More and more you see a group of people sitting in a restaurant, all of whom are typing into their little phones. People at parties, typing into their phones. Kids sitting at the mall, typing into their phones. Practically braindead, staring at the center of their universe, a little glowing screen.

Like I said (and you've misinterpreted), I've got no problem with the technology, but in moderation (which it's not). The way we're headed is encouraging people (particularly young people) to live more and more in their own insulated little worlds than ever before. It's scary.

That's so true. Isolation is deadly. It's not a route we want to take but if you look at kids today (wow...that made me sound old and i'm only 35!!) they live on tech. I've seen kids as young as 6 with cell phones and what are they doing? Talking with their parents? No. Hanging out with their friends? Sometimes. But more often they are texting and calling and surfing the web.

Yes, we need moderation...but our entire society is built around the opposite idea. We over spend, over eat, over work. Anything except over-spending quality ime with the family.

You know, I read an article a while back that studied various cultures around the world and one of the things they found is that cultures that had strong social and family connections were shown to have less violent crime. This was partly because instead of living in solitude with their own thoughts they had people around them to support them. Take a look at all the recent mass shootings. In each case the shooter was known to be isolated, with no real support group behind him. I'm not saying every person that lives isolated will run off and shoot people but isolation DOES hurt society. And it starts with family.


on a side note so I dont' sound self-righteous....I am guilty of this as well. A few years ago I had a smartphone and spent most of my time staring at it. I'd put it down, only to pick it right back up. I'd be texting or there was something "I had to check out" on the web at dinner and pretty much anywhere. I was lucky enough to notice it was affecting the people around me. They were more irritated and my connection to people wasn't as strong. After I sold my smartphone things changed rapidly. I had strong connections with people, better relationship with my wife and overall just felt more alive.

 

[Alex_Spider]

OK! Before I even start I just want to say this is NOT an anti-tech post. I love technology. I think if used right can only benefit humanity on nearly every level and I can’t wait to see what tech marvels are in store for our future.

Unfortunately people have been conditioned to care only about how can technology improve their consuming lifestyle by offering them a fancier phone, a faster car, a new hdtv etc. Technology can offer more important things than that. If the political system allowed there would be no poverty in the planet. No pollution, waste in the sea, no wars. We could live in a paradise on Earth.

Having said that…I believe our culture has allowed technology to really affect us on a psychological and social level to a degree that it actually harms us as a society as a whole. Thanks to devices like Smartphones we have more ways to keep in touch with people at any time of the day and yet it’s been shown we spend less and less time actually talking to people in person than we have in the past. A lot of this is due in part to phones now allowing us to also stay connected to work and our busy lifestyles much easier. We text more than we talk, we stay connected more often than being disconnected.

I agree.

When we drive around with the family we put a blu-ray on for the kids in the back seat instead of actually talking. Instead of sitting with family at dinner, we turn on the TV or look at our tablets. Instead of parents spending time with children at home they do their own things while the kids play Xbox. In technology that’s based around interaction, we actually have a higher amount of quantity time and a significantly lesser amount of quality time. It’s been said in many studies and articles in the past 2 years that we are a people that are becoming more and more isolated due to this quantity over quality equation influencing the course of society. Some have even indicated that mass shootings may just be one side effect of an isolated culture.

I’m sure some will dismiss this post as trash and others will laugh it off. But I think that may be because we simply just don’t want to give up what we have. Change is too hard and too personal. In American culture we live to rebel, we don’t want to be told how to live or what to do.

We don’t want to admit we need change because we want OUR WAY. It’s what our society is built around, look at media for proof of that. And if we don’t…what will happen to our society as it continues on this path? I think that is something no one can really know for certain, but I highly doubt it will be anything good.

lol that's true and sad at the same time. But you forgot one other terrifying danger. Nuclear weapons, chemical warfare, weapons of mass destruction.

Do you understand when our parents were growing up and they had a question about anything, they had to research? Go to a library, town hall, scrounge up old newspapers to figure it out.

Google has made the world dumber. Everything in this world invented for society has one rule above all "How do we make X easy for the consumer"

Exactly. But not just google. Almost every media coorporation is expanding its technology on how to promote mindelss entertainment. It's a sick conditioning not so different than what ancient Romans did with the Colosseum and the gladiators.

I believe the problems come from the lack of change, not because of it. Only technology can bring positive change to society. Not politics, or religion.. Because we are talking about age-old problems, here. Problems only technology (and it's intelligent application) can solve..

"FREE ENERGY, HOVER CARS, CURES TO SOME DISEASES, NON-PROPULSION SPACE TRAVEL, CONVERTING SALT WATER INTO FRESH WATER, & MORE EXISTS NOW THROUGH PLASMA REACTOR TECHNOLOGY."
http://majestictruth.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/keshe-foundation-the-technology-youve-never-seen/

Recource Based Economy
http://thevenusproject.com

So you're saying having access to information quicker is making us dumber?

I think what most mean with this is having access to information from the comfort of your home thanks to wikipedia, google etc is very positive thing ulinke the entertainment through gaming and movies which is a bit addictive too i would add.

I just want to stay at home and play video games.

I pity you then

 

[Vid Electricz]

You're right. Let's never discuss things we have no control over like politics or religion or events in the world. In fact, it seems there's no point in discussing anything! Whew! What a relief not having the burden of listening to someone else's point and responding thoughtfully or intelligently!

My thoughts exactly. I knew before I entered this thread that it would be full of "Get off my lawn!" nonsense.

If that's what you got from my posts then you missed the point. Sorry.

I thought learning was about, you know, learning and not whether or not you spent 3 hours in the library reading Encyclopedias. Go figure.

PART OF IT.I guess you missed that. Go figure.When you have to make an effort and work for something, you're less likely to take it for granted as opposed to having everything handed to you on a silver platter with no effort whatsoever required.

 

[NickNitro]

Just watched this episode of South Park...reminded me of this thread

 

[Darthphere]

I find the whole notion ridiculous. If you don't work hard to gather the information, you're not learning correctly. Yeah, thats ********.

 

[Manic]

Just let it go, Darth. Nothing you've ever read or learned off of a screen counts. Just accept it the same way I accepted the fact that the Where's Waldo books were better for me as a child than anything I've ever watched by Don Bluth simply because they were books.

 

[Destructus86]

I find the whole notion ridiculous. If you don't work hard to gather the information, you're not learning correctly. Yeah, thats ********.

Wikpedia info has it's place just like hard study has it's place. I don't think the topic is really "how to learn correctly" It's more like not really balancing things out. We need to use our brains, they work like a muscle and need to be used often. That's what we are saying when it comes to having so much information readily available.

We learn without the benefits of growing.

 

[NickNitro]

I find the whole notion ridiculous. If you don't work hard to gather the information, you're not learning correctly. Yeah, thats ********.

I may have started my argument wrong and thats not what I really wanted to mean.

It was said before that "with all the technology soo readily available to us, with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips at a moments notice we have no need to learn/remember/comprehend information anymore because we can always just Google/Wiki it"

I agree 100% with that.

 

[Destructus86]

Remember all those games that involved using your memory? Like the card game where all the cards were face down, you could pick one up at a time to look and put it back down and you had to remember where it's match was?

Well, just imagine instead that ALL the cards are face up...no need to memorize. No way to work the brain.

That's kind of how things are right now in society. All the cards are face up.

 

[moviedoors]

Ugh. So much "you damn kids!" hand wringing. Yeah, kids are always looking at their phones, but they're also the least racist, the least sexist, the least homophobic, more informed, and the most open generation probably in history. If that generation stares at their phones too much for your liking, than that's a price I'm willing to accept.

You old foggies sound like every scared-of-the-new-generation old foggies going back for generations. You always think the new generation brings ruin, when at the end of the day, they bring progress. They're almost always better than the old guard and I doubt this tech savvy generation will be any different.

 

[NickNitro]

Im 25 lol

 

[warhorse78]

Nailed it.

It's the same idea that back in the day you had to work out your brain by trying to solve problems creatively, or reading a detailed book on the subject. Now you can just get the quick bullet points, get the task done, and never remember it again because you can just look it up later. Just like what GPS's have done in terms of using maps. Most people I know have NO IDEA how to use a physical map, and don't really know how to get anywhere without the use of a GPS. Turn off your brain and go onto autopilot, because it's easier and more convenient. Obviously that's a generalization, but it definitely holds true.

It's one of the reasons I refuse to use a TomTom to help in my travels. A good ole fashion map and a compass is all I need. I think it's funny, back in March, I had to go about 3 hours north for a family reuinion. I was going to go with some family who live around me, but I had an appointment to deal with in the morning first, so went later. My uncle boasts about his Tom Tom, I just used good ole mapquest directions and followed the piece of paper. I got to the party in 2.5 hours, he shows up 5 hours later because he kept on getting lost when his navigation equipment kept on recalibrating.

 

[Manic]

Whoa, whoa, whoa! You use a compass? Kids today with their heads buried in technology. You need to actually think critically and work North out by checking for moss on trees and the position of the sun rather than relying on technology to make things easier.

 

[Vid Electricz]

Ugh. So much "you damn kids!" hand wringing. Yeah, kids are always looking at their phones, but they're also the least racist, the least sexist, the least homophobic, more informed, and the most open generation probably in history. If that generation stares at their phones too much for your liking, than that's a price I'm willing to accept.

You old foggies sound like every scared-of-the-new-generation old foggies going back for generations. You always think the new generation brings ruin, when at the end of the day, they bring progress. They're almost always better than the old guard and I doubt this tech savvy generation will be any different.

You make it sound like the new generation is going to bring forth a utopia. lol. Kids are just as racist, sexist and homophobic as ever despite what fantasy shows like Glee would have you think. Along with those lovely attributes, they're more self involved than ever, and why shouldn't they be when they're encouraged to live in the comfort of their own insulated little world.

I especially have to laugh at the last part of your post. Yeah, the new generation is always better. Right. We're on the fast track to success for sure. Obesity rates skyrocketing, literacy rates in the toilet. If you think this is all going to somehow magically turn around in the future, you're sorely mistaken. We live in a society that now breeds laziness and apathy through instant gratification and the illusion of equality. You can wish that this magical "new generation" is going to make the world a "better place", but it's a fantasy.

I'm in my mid 20's btw, so nice try. It's not about age, it's about thinking critically and being discerning.

 

[moviedoors]

Well, there's no convincing you, Grandpa.

 

[Darthphere]

Just let it go, Darth. Nothing you've ever read or learned off of a screen counts. Just accept it the same way I accepted the fact that the Where's Waldo books were better for me as a child than anything I've ever watched by Don Bluth simply because they were books.

Where's Waldo taught me that mother****ers hiding ain't worth finding.

Wikpedia info has it's place just like hard study has it's place. I don't think the topic is really "how to learn correctly" It's more like not really balancing things out. We need to use our brains, they work like a muscle and need to be used often. That's what we are saying when it comes to having so much information readily available.

We learn without the benefits of growing.

I'm sorry but I wish I can follow Manic's advice and let it go but I just don't understand this position. How am I working my brain any differently if I read something on Wikipedia or grabbing an encyclopedia off a shelf? Just because I had to flip some pages?

I may have started my argument wrong and thats not what I really wanted to mean.

It was said before that "with all the technology soo readily available to us, with the worlds knowledge at our fingertips at a moments notice we have no need to learn/remember/comprehend information anymore because we can always just Google/Wiki it"

I agree 100% with that.

But again, I'm not really disagreeing with that but how many times have you Googled something on your phone that was of real importance? It's usually when you're with your friends and want to find out who sang "Karma Chameleon." That's not really information that HAS to be retained but by doing so, MOST people will retain that information anyway. There's a difference between not learning something and not caring to learn. It's really no difference from now and then. If you want to learn something, you're going to and if you don't give a ****, well you're not going to. No matter how hard you worked to find that information.

 

[Vid Electricz]

Well, there's no convincing you, Grandpa.

lol. Maybe you can ask your phone to help you formulate an intelligent argument. Cheers.

 

[redhawk23]

Do you understand when our parents were growing up and they had a question about anything, they had to research? Go to a library, town hall, scrounge up old newspapers to figure it out.

Google has made the world dumber. Everything in this world invented for society has one rule above all "How do we make X easy for the consumer"

This mentality has turned technology into a crutch.

There's still a lot of information that cant' be accessed just from a google surf though. And even then its still basically the same process.

 

[The Bruce]

I did read a study along those lines a while back on what you just said. Having information so readily available (heck, even spell check) made it so we can have all the info without actually learning it. I think you're right.

Yes this! My spelling has gotten worse since google. I just copy and paste words without my brain registrering and learning t:

I just saw a tv show the other day with a mom (in her 30's not a teen!) at the hospital ignoring her newborn and the nurses to text and post pictures on facebook. She was ignoring the very thing she was sharing with her online "audience"!

 

[Teelie]

On the otherhand I use Google to find out how to spell words correctly, not copy and paste them and use it and Wikipedia to understand things I don't know enough about. I don't ignore what is going on around me and use my phone responsibly.

Blanket assertions that technology is making people worse is confirmation bias.