When the internet was first introduced to the public, technology, it had seemed, was revolutionized in a way that we had never thought possible. What was only possible in futuristic science fiction movies seemed as if it were much more within our grasp than we ever thought possible. Communication instantaneously became easier, resources became more accessible, and computer technology was progressing in ways that no one had ever thought possible. We were about to enter an age of convenience and efficiency that we had never experienced before.
About 13 years later, you'll probably have a hard time finding someone who doesn't have an email address. Virtually everyone has access to the internet, and companies everywhere have incorporated it into daily work routines for their employees. When it comes down to it, however, the younger generations of children are the ones being most heavily influenced by these increasing dependencies. Because of the how often they are communicating via instant messaging and social networking sites, they are adapting incorrect ways of speaking. They spend much more time chatting online than learning correct grammar in the classroom. Speaking skills are also deteriorating because of the amount of communication taking place online rather than in person. It is likely that in the future, internet technology will only evolve to be more convenient and appealing than it is now, therefore causing a steady deterioration of the intelligence of future generations.
Research experiments have been conducted regarding the memory of students who use computers in the classroom. One such experiment had a group reading a chapter from a textbook, and had another group read the same chapter from a website. Later, they were both quizzed on the chapters after a five minute break. The results showed that the students who read the chapter from the textbook scored significantly higher than the students who read the chapter from the website. If students are being asked more and more to read articles and notes that they've taken on their computers, then their test results will start to falter, as well. Because emailing assignments and having students reading articles online is much more efficient and convenient for teachers (rather than wasting paper and money), it is likely that the problem will only get worse as time goes on.
Education itself, however, is contributing to how much less students are reading when doing homework assignments. Back when students had to write research papers by doing research in a library and gathering sources elsewhere, reading was absolutely imperative if they wanted to receive a good grade. Now, students can simply search on google for a few sources and save hours of time. English teachers are even feeling discouraged asking students to read books for class. A survey in Scotland, for example, found that "33% of pupils never or hardly ever read for pleasure, 22% felt it was a waste of their time and 40% only read if they have to" (BBC). If our world is continuing to rely on technology for literature, blogging, and communication, then books are going to become much less popular than ever. As education serves as preparation for adolescents going into the real world, they will need to learn new methods on how to adapt to a technologically advanced world that doesn't include books as much as it once did. It is likely that books will not be read in the classroom nearly as much as they used to be in older teacher methods.
Reading in general has also become less appealing since the introduction of the internet to younger generations. Children and teenagers are reading less than ever with the introduction of new video games, social networking sites, and instant messaging programs. All of the new technology is simply easier to apply yourself to, and certainly can be more entertaining than staring at words for hours on end. Visual graphics are becoming more detailed and realistic so that they are more thrilling to look at, and students find this much easier to think about than having to use their imagination to come up with images of their own. It takes much less time to read a synopsis online or to chat with one of your friends about gossip than to take the time to grasp the beauty and intelligence that a book provides, and since being on the internet has been reducing children's intelligence, books are not being nearly as much appreciated.
Independence is diminishing more and more every day among teens, whether it be through individuality or simply through relying on parents. Adolescents just don't think for themselves anymore as much as they used to, and the internet has been a huge contribution to this. Before knowledge was so accessible and convenient, most people merely had to learn from their own experiences or pay more attention in school. Now with the overwhelming amount of youtube videos, wikis, and google search results available on the web, all they need to do is wait 10 seconds until they are presented with an answer. Most teenagers wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they were faced with a tough situation that required them to think on their feet, when what they're used to is searching for a solution online. Even when communicating with friends and family through instant messaging and texting, teens aren't challenged because they don't need to respond immediately. They can take their time and think about what they're going to say, or even if they'll say anything at all (when if they were faced with someone they didn't want to talk to in person, they wouldn't be able to simply walk away).
Because no one wants to be one of these undesirable people, many choose to obtain a different persona when online. When meeting someone in a chatroom for the first time, for instance, people probably don't mention negative aspects about themselves, such as having a 6th toe on your right foot, or that you're a vapid narcissist. Even when blogging about personal issues, it is likely that people will write to create appeal to the reader. Many teens doing this could likely find themselves creating a false identity and falling into a generic pool of other teenagers all trying to fit in while still having that hint of mystery and attractiveness. Social networking sites are huge in producing this effect, as everyone knows everything everyone else posts online. Teens in the future who continue to find themselves on these sites are likely to find themselves losing self-identity as they continue to fall into depression over trying to appeal to everyone who reads about them online. Anonymity, as well as changing your identity, can be just as destructive for teens. When teens do choose to speak their mind online, they often do so without posting who they are. Often times, they post something dangerous anonymously and go unpunished, not realizing the consequences of their actions, or even why they should be punished. This allows them to this freedom of speech that positively reinforces ideas and emotions that could possibly harm those around them.
Despite the effect that the internet will have on future generations, one of the biggest problems it will cause (and already is causing) is creating obstacles for older generations who are attempting to adjust to an increasingly technological world. Because they grew up in a world without the internet or texting, they are finding themselves disconnected from a world that is communicating on levels they can't understand. Everything in society these days has some basis of technology that adults are having more difficulty adjusting to. Most adults over the age of 60 have difficulty turning on a computer, let alone adjusting to all the programs and communication systems that the world seems to be captivated by. Young adults and teenagers are always striving to have the newest and the best, while older generations merely wish things were more like "the good ole days", where all they needed to do was pick up the phone in order to talk to their grandchildren.
Communication between older and younger generations is fuzzier than ever since the creation of texting and instant messaging, particularly with grandparents and teens. More than 80% of people between the ages of 13 to 24 are texters, and the number keeps increasing every year. Only 18% of adults between the ages of 40 and 49 text, and the numbers get lower the higher the ages get (Wikipedia). Because of how easy it is for teens to text at all times, even in the presence of older generations, they do it constantly. These older generations are finding it more difficult than ever before to communicate with teens because of the amount of attention texting consumes. Many people over the age of 60 don't even have cell phones, let alone texting or instant messaging. 20 or even 15 years ago, the fastest form of communication consisted of calling someone on the phone, and this actually required people to use proper speaking skills and think more quickly. Now when younger generations are becoming dependent on communicating through texting and instant messaging, they are subconsciously cutting older generations out of their lives because of how undesirable talking on the phone, or even visiting, becomes. If teenagers are conducting huge chunks of their lives through a cell phone, then older adults are going to have a hard time being part of it if they cannot adjust.
The complexity of newer programs and technologies can also prove to be something of a hazard for adults who are unfamiliar with managing them. Let's say a 75-year-old woman were put in an emergency situation where she needed immediate assistance. She's living by herself and just bought a iPhone with the help of her grandchildren. Because she's in serious pain and needs to make an emergency call, she tries to use the phone, but is presented with an assortment of buttons that don't seem to make any sense. Because she is unfamiliar with the way that the phone is working, she is too late and cannot save herself. It's not hard to want to blame the cell phone companies for making phones so advanced, fun and appealing that older generations are suffering because they can't even make a simple phone call. The advancement of technology seems to negatively affect those who try, yet cannot adjust to a world of buttons and applications.
It's undeniable that technological advancements are highly appealing and are providing a world that is much more convenient and efficient. However, if we continue creating a world where machines think for us, our intelligence will continue to deteriorate and our individuality will be lost. Those who attempt to stay away from this conformation are likely to be disconnected from the world and eventually fade out, almost as a sort of Technological/Communication Darwinism. In order to stay in touch with ourselves and those around us, we need to limit the amount of time we spend staring at a screen and make more time for advancing our minds instead of machines.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
The Commodification of Writing: Your Amazing Title Here
With the function and style of writing constantly changing, many are asking where exactly where writing will end up in the near future. Will it continue to evolve in medium? Will it even be used at all? To answer questions like these, it is impossible to know for sure, so to make the most educated prediction possible, it would make sense to analyze the trends of similar situations. Put frankly, we live in a capitalist society full of consumers. There are statistics to show what kinds of items sell the most, but leisure is among the biggest reasons people spend money. This being said, writing has made a rather noticeable transformation from a cultural form of communication, to product. Perhaps this is an inevitable circumstance, as much of what originates or finds it's way to America eventually becomes mass produced and simplified to better suit the daily lives of american citizens. If this is the case, then it is safe to assume that writing, - more specifically electronic writing- will evolve based on how it is forced by consumers and advertisers to adapt to the trends of a typical modern life, essentially leading to a decrease in the popular access of conventional writing.
To examine this theory further, one must consider the economy from the perspective of a branding advertiser. In this case, advertisers will want to market products that are easy to use, because consumers will buy what can make their lives easier. Although this may come across as somewhat of a paradox – the idea of people working to earn money in order to buy products of leisure – it is a commonly practiced lifestyle, and there is actually a term to define this way of life. Hedonism (dictionary) is defined as “devotion to pleasure as a way of life,” which is related closely with that of consumerism. If the fate of writing is to be what is the most easy or pleasurable for people to use, than why would anyone refrain from making writing related products that ease the way in which writing is conducted?
In actuality this has already been done to a certain degree. The evidence is the program in which this essay is being typed on, and the variety of applications made available by software companies; every product advertises with the release of each new version, a convenient way to make writing less of a hassle. Anyone who can spell can write sentences out by hand. But with the creation of the typewriter, and then computers, modes of writing have been been improved by means of speed, efficiency, and ease of use. Electronic writing is physically and mentally less demanding than handwritten work, but it comes at a price that people are none the less willing to pay. Therefore, the destiny of writing has observably begun follow a hedonistic trend, as well as one that exists as a commodity.
Aside from writing itself, one large piece of evidence that points to writing morphing into a commodity, is the form that art and music has taken on a commercial level. Originally, art and music was only able to be created by those who put in the time and effort to learn about each respective craft. However, with the rise of electronics and technology, art and music as been made accessible to even those who artistically and musically ignorant. This stems from the formation of “templates,” or pre-made compositions made by professional artists specifically for the average consumer. With templates, the consumer of the product needs no form of training what so ever in music, art, or whatever their they're looking to suit their needs. Instead, they simply buy a pre-made design from a trained artist, (or musician or designer etc.) and modify a minimum amount of information to “personalize” their copy. If the user wants a well designed flier for their event, they choose a template an modify the text.
If this sounds like a good idea so far, that's no surprise. Initially it does sound like a great idea, because that's what will draw people in to buying it. For example, take this website template. It looks professional, and is virtually ready to be used, albeit a few adjustments to the text. The church using the template will only have to shell out $58 to own the design, which is considerably less than hiring a personal designer. The problem here is that these are only immediately satisfying. Using a template, no matter how good it looks is always going to lack when it comes to the continuity and branding identity of a company. Eventually, the same company will need someone to make them a unique logo, and chances are it won't match aesthetically with the style of their website. This like these need to be taken into consideration.
This kind of problem, (having an inconsistent company identity) is one that is unique specifically to design templates. But this goes to show that all kinds of templates will have their own individual discrepancies as well as the major overarching problem: sameness. The reason templates can be so cheaply purchase is because multiple people and or companies can use the same one. In other words, the designer doesn't have to spend their time working on only one project per client. They can make a generic, unspecific template, and then a limitless amount of people can buy it and appropriate to their usage. However, because of this companies using templates may have a nice looking image, but it's identical to numerous other companies, now distinguishable only by their difference of text. Had the company paid more money to hire a personal designer from the beginning, their entire persona would be consistent, and completely original; originality being the key concept that is lost. This issue of sameness and lacking originality certainly doesn't only apply to aspects of design templates, but to every genre of templatery.
More recently in terms of music, programs like Apple Inc.'s Garageband give users the option to create an entire song based solely on the choosing of instruments desired in the creation of the tune by the user. From there, the program generates everything else needed to make a perfectly comprehensible semi-original piece of music. Of course, just like with artistic templates, musical templates are based off of real riffs created by professional musicians, and then arranged electronically by the program, to the users liking. The user literally contributes nothing to the song besides the choice of instrumentation and money to purchase the product, yet they are still given credit for it's creation. The distribution and popular use of these templates greatly reduces the amount of creativity involved to a large extent, because the original artist is the only one creating the piece. The user only buys it and alters it slightly, which completely erases the need to learn how to create their own ideas. This begs the question, why wouldn't electronic writing follow this same course?
It seems to make perfect sense that in the near future writing programs will be enhanced so far as to virtually write essays for people. In theory, these writing templates would follow the same guidelines as those created for art and music. A group of educated writers collaborate to produce a system that essentially takes snippets of their writings, and arranges them into a sort of cohesive Mad-Lib. They create a collection of their own phrases, sayings, sentences, and transitions, along with the coding of language fundamentals. Then, the user fills in a brief summary of variable questions related to their topic, i.e. topic, sources, main idea, and length, plus any additional sentences the user feels like adding. Then from there the computer devises for the most part an essay based off of the imputed information. Lastly, the user fills in any blanks (such as any missing nouns, verbs or adjectives left out by the computer) with their own. And in 15 minutes the user has a three page, literary scholar-quality essay.
If this seems like an implausible idea, consider that just because a template like this could exist doesn't necessarily mean that it is the only option people would use. Certainly some people could and would type their own essays entirely by themselves, just as people in current day still major in art and music. But the majority of society consists of consumers, and they're the ones that are willing to buy template programs to do their work for them, meaning a smaller and smaller margin of people actually concerned or interested in continuing the art of original writing. Which leads to writing's biggest threat.
With a boom of templates could create a new social system of how art is viewed. This means that if in the future the majority of people's writing skills are only as good as what they can buy in template and smart essay form, then literacy as we know it today will shrink to be known only by the few writers who are making the templates for everyone else.
Essentially, because people are so concerned with the technology of computer aided/pre-written template essays, that the meaning and significance of writing will be diminished on a large scale. Writing will be somewhat of a meaningless scholarly tradition, practiced in vain, and because the transition to template driven essays will be do drawn out, the teachers assigning the essays won't have a problem with their students “mad-libbing” essays, and may even promote it since they will have been raised with the technology themselves.
Instead, teenagers; and presumably most adults' writing skills will by then have been converted into an even more condensed version of the 'online chat' style used today. It could perhaps be an "advanced slang dialect," if that's possible; a typed language that is only used in conversation across electronic platforms based on phonetic spellings of english spoken word even, similar to, but not exactly like "AIM lingo."Grammar will probably still be taught vocally, and consequently will still be in effect in the new phonetic language, but will not be anywhere near as strict as it is with written language today. Again, spelling and punctuation will be whatever is easiest and quickest to type while still making the message clear, and may never be fully developed into a concrete form.
Aside from this emerging adaptive language, written language will still exist, but will only be practiced on a serious graduate-study type of level. The few who take the study of literacy seriously will be the ones who make a living working for the companies that produce the templates, perhaps future forms of current computer companies such as Apple or Microsoft, or possibly a new company all together who's focus is specifically on designing and improving the template system.
The consequences of this kind of shift in society could vary, but it differs from art and music in the sense that writing is used as a direct means of communication rather than an explicitly expressive state. When people can no longer write their words down with any sense of properness or diction and only rely on their aural skills, ideas will be less organized and the possibility of general chaos rising begins to seem plausible.
Another obvious consequence is the dangerous issue of complete dependancy on professional writers by the majority of the population. When people are willing to sacrifice education and individual ideas for leisure, the open themselves to all kinds of deceit and are forced to rely on leaders that shouldn't be in control. When the only essays being written all stem from a small number of ideas of a few people, no matter how much the technology varies the user's outcome, the amount of ideas being exchanged can only be so much. Therefore, the originality and creativity is minimized to a great extent.
Also not to be overlook, essays are not the only writing form that would be template generated (Oh wait, has this been done already?). Certainly once the technology for smart essays to be written, designing templates for thousands of poems will be at everyone's disposal. Exactly. Deceivingly, this may seem like a good thing – as if offering writing aids to so many people could possibly lead to an outburst of sudden creativity. But as is the true case with templates, the point of them is not to induce a state of originality, or to stimulate one's creativity. It's the very opposite, which is to create something useful in the shortest amount of time, and the least amount of effort, while still looking, sounding, or reading decent.
As current trends of templates in art and music are steadily rising and increasing in their capabilities to seem diverse and efficient, reaching the conclusion that electronic writing may end up the same way does not require a great deal of imagination.
From Ink to Pixels
From typewriters to computers, from ink to pixels, electronic writing has dominated the world of communication by means of the Internet. Over the past three decades, technological innovations and advances have created faster and more efficient means of communication, networking, and writing. As of today, electronic writing has allowed modern society to be updated on recent news and world events faster than in any other point in history. Due to its effective and fast paced nature, the future of electronic writing will create more communication between parents and children, teachers and students, and workers and co-workers. These specific relationships will become a tighter community by means of all kinds of electronic writing. The world of electronic writing will enhance and revolutionize our everyday communication.
In today’s modern society, as demands for new technology and electronics rise, the capabilities of our new inventions broaden as well as become more efficient and common in practice. Today, our daily communication revolves around telephone calls and text messaging. Competition between businesses calls for companies to produce new cell phones with new features such as fast speed Internet, AOL instant messaging, and video-text messaging. As these features increase in popularity, the use of these tools becomes common practice in our everyday lives. Although it is a small portion of the world of electronic writing, the use of text messaging can play an important role in creating more communication in different relationships and situations. In the future, as text messaging becomes a much more common method of communicating than it is now, the use of text messages can allow for closer relationships with familes. According to a report by Pew Internet, the "traditional nuclear family has the highest rate of technology usage and ownership." Currently, over 85% of teens report to using a type of electronic communication in their everyday lives but 60% of teens do not consider this electronic communication as writing. According to Pew, teens do not consider this as writing because "the informal styles that characterize their e-communications do occasionally bleed into their schoolwork." As our current generation becomes more accustomed to using this in our everyday lives, future generations will grow up using this tool even more frequently. Older generations of people who did not grow up in a time of electronic revolution have been left behind in the world of electronic writing, causing them to continue the use of old fashion methods of communication. It is important for our generation to continue this use of electronic communication so that future generations will be more tech-savvy and understanding of modern technology.
Currently, the older generation of people in the U.S. grew up in a time where communication was done through letters and telephone calls because Internet use and communication still did not exist. This generation grew up in a slow-moving environment and continues to do so because of its lack of electronics and lack of knowledge of electronic writing. In comparison to this, the newest generation in the U.S. is currently living in a time of electronic revolution due to the fast paced changes and innovations created year after year. As we become more accustomed to writing to each other electronically, the use of paper writing dies down as more text messages, emails, and blogs are written everyday. In the future, this current generation will be completely accustomed to using this kind of communication daily as well as be used to the fast paced nature of the growth of electronic writing, leaving no one behind. The future generation will grow up in a similar but more technologically advanced environment where the use of electronic writing, such as text messaging, emails, and blogs, will be common practice. In relation to families, parents and children will communicate more frequently by means of electronic writing than they currently are now. Parents in the future will be more tech-savvy than today's older generation, so they will be up to date on new types of technology. Parents will have better knowledge of how to effectively communicate with their children by means of the Internet.
In the classroom, the use of electronic writing will stimulate education and allow for future generations of children to become computer literate at a much younger age than today's generation of children. The use of electronic writing in a school environment will teach students to become accustomed to writing papers electronically as opposed to writing handwritten papers and teach them to use the Internet as a research tool for their everyday life.The use of email in a school environment will revolutionize communication between students, teachers, and parents as well. Teachers that use the Internet in the classroom on a daily basis can communicate frequently with their students to keep them up-to-date on assignments and homework, upcoming tests and quizzes, and offer help outside the classroom. Also, teachers will have easier access to talking to their children's parents about their progress in school by means of email. Students will also have easier access to their teachers when they need it by means of communicating electronically through email, blogs, or even instant messaging.
Eliminating the use of paper materials and handwritten work in the classroom setting will allow for future generations of children to become more tech-savvy quicker than any other generation in history. The use of books and paper will only hold children back from learning more about computers and modern technology. Teaching children to use the Internet as a research tool as opposed to a medium of entertainment will allow them to develop researching, organizing, and writing skills they can use throughout their educational career. Not only will young kids be able to write papers electronically, but a higher use of computers in the classroom will call for more interactive media such as electronic text books and educational games that will be beneficial to their education. The quicker children learn to use computers, the Internet, and all its components, they faster they will be able to keep up with today's fast paced innovative technology.
In the working world, 62% of employed adults use electronic writing off and on the job. Communication between workers, co-workers, managers, supervisors, and bosses is vital. The success of a business depends on the communication between its employees. In the future, the use of electronic writing in the working field will benefit the success of a business and the relationships between its workers. Through electronic writing, supervisors and managers will be able to set up organized and timely schedules and update their workers on the latest news. If a situation occurs where workers might need to stay longer than needed, the managers can quickly reach workers electronically to set up over-time hours as necessary. As technological advances allow for more communication between larger groups of people, tools such as Blackberries enhance organizational and communicative skills for workers. Business will flourish as communication between workers increases, causing them to receive news and updates faster and more effectively, complete all work and assignments by their due dates, and have quicker and more effective access to their supervisors and managers.
Fifty years from now, as demands for new technology increases, the use of electronic writing will dominate all forms of writing. The Internet gives access to writing opportunities to anyone. According to the Journal of Electronic Publishing, "[a] single feature of electronic writing is that it allows anyone with access to a networked computer to 'publish' on the Internet."Handwritten documents and paper materials will be a long and forgotten memory. The world of electronic writing will create better relationships between people; parents and children, students and teachers, and workers and co-workers. Furthermore, electronic writing has benefitted online political activism and environmental issues by use of online communities such as Facebook and Myspace. Everything from text messages, blogs, email, and instant messaging, the world of electronic writing will bring people closer to each other and communicate more frequently through the cyber world than in any other point in time.
Generation Interrupted
New ideas have always created pain for certain people, for others, opportunities and advantages. Generational changes don’t equalize the pain. Younger people tend to be more adaptable and catch on to technological advances more readily than their elders. It has always been so and in the future the rapidity of change involved with electronic communication and data manipulation will only enhance this process. The newer generation will easily grasp onto the new electronic environments, while the older generation will slowly lose touch with the new and updated technology.
Historically, each generation is at ease with the technologies and ideas it grows up with. Older generations used different forms of communication to contact or inform people. It was either face to face, personal communication or written documents such as notes, diaries, or letters. Communication in the ancient days was often used through “word of mouth.” Then as years passed, educated people became familiar with the written word. Famous poets and authors, such as Shakespeare, were extremely talented with writing. People in this era had a great amount of time to focus on their writings and poetry. This allowed them to express their literacy. This written form became engrained in their culture and resided with them for the rest of their lives. None of these forms had to do with electronics. The only long distance communication was via letters. Data collection also had to be communicated through word or face to face.
The first step to electronic technology for the last generation came about in several forms. New technology was provided with new electronic advancements to improve their ways of communication worldwide. New advancements would include telephones, broadcasting by television and radio, and data manipulation using mainframe computers. These improvements were applicable to the needs of ordinary citizens. They were capable of learning to use them and became adept. These electronic devices fit their needs and became part of their lives. New advancements were to some degree interactive and made long distance communication speedier and more efficient. Data storage became simple and immediate. This happy balance was not to last forever. Technology never stands still but people’s ability to cope sometimes does.
Now comes along the new and improved updated technology that provides a vast amount of opportunities but also problems. The introduction of advanced computers had been internationally well known and they can be easily used at ones fingertips. The last generations have the ability to understand another easier and useful way to communicate and manipulate information. Cellular phones have now entered the global network and are advancing every minute. Cellular phones provide a sense of security, friendship, and communication. But new is not always better for everyone. People familiar with the use of the old technology now struggle with the new features available. To a large extent, the last generation was unable to keep pace with new and updated trends. According to online Journal, “What happens in an emergency when a grandmother can’t call her doctor because her new cell phone has twenty different features and she keeps taking photos of her feet?”(http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). This woman could also have difficulty programming her DVD player and finds TIVO more occult than witchcraft. This generation can learn these new advancements but it will never be at ease with them. Keeping track of information has also become more exotic. Advances in technology such as data organizers, palm pilots, and laptops provide great benefits but can be very complicated. With the press of a button an old timer can send a vast amount of information into cyberspace irretrievably. Just as quickly one can send out personal data to the whole world or receive pictures or videos inappropriate to one’s eyes and ears. Using this new technology becomes a daily battle and it doesn’t become part those earlier users.
Updated technology is creating more and more advantages and disadvantages unconsciously. This technology creates a large breach between parents and their children. One specific problem that has such a significant impact deals with communication skills. According to this online journal, the younger generation called the “net generation” because it is has never known a world without internet communication, is familiar with interrelating to people through cell phones, text messaging, and e-mail(http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). The problem the new development of technology for the younger generation is that they no longer have the ability to socialize with people. This “net generation” removes all of the personal communication due to the technology. The younger generation looks at texting and emailing as a short cut or easier way of communicating rather than having a one on one conversation. Sometimes, technology is just an excuse for them to get out of any less than pleasing situation. Before this outbreak of technology, people used to communicate either by going out on dates, talking in person, or doing activities. Nowadays, people break up while texting and their phone encompasses their whole life. Rather talking in person, the younger generation consumes all their time on their cell phones. Texting has also been a key factor in abbreviating words and slacking on their language skills. A good example of this situation would be, “a mother questions a daughter about her excessive text message usage and is replied back [sic] with letters and incomplete words that is somehow supposed to replace an actual conversation” (http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). Their parents grew up using one form of communication while their offspring blithely exploit their own abbreviated form widening the generation gap with their own communication gap.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the future looks even bleaker for the old generation. Developments in electronic writing and dispersion of information are occurring at an ever faster pace. Electronic writing has become a new level of personal communication, from posting blogs online to publishing online articles. Communication had broadened its areas throughout the technology. A major source of communication can be through emails. Emails are our main source of contact with our everyday lives. Every generation is exposed and utilizes this technical advantage; but to the older generation it is hard work and perhaps even unpleasant. To the younger generation, it becomes second nature. The pace of this advancement will only quicken in the future. Those who are barely literate with current technologies will find it difficult, if not impossible, to deal with this advancement. At a certain point, it becomes like the law of diminishing returns. More bells and whistles only mean more to learn, more mistakes, and more unease. In the end they would get better feedback flying a note across the room in the form of a paper airplane.
Technology changes the possibility of everything. It’s often hard to see its advancement and when it occurs, not everyone can admit it. Those who are born into the newer generation take technology for granted and do realize the beneficial impact these new advancements have on other lives. Technology changes the world for the newer generation in a positive manner, while the older generation looks at this change askance. The older generation thinks of this new technical environment as a weird machine and that should not exist. The newer generation can easily cope with this change. They see it as a means of exciting and fulfilling ways of communicating. An example of this would be taking your laptop to the beach or somewhere relaxing and having the ability to enter into your own world and exclude everything around you. Being able to understand technology is one thing, but being able to communicate and relate with it is another. Technology has built a complete cultural paradigm for the newer generation.
Now this new advancement is acknowledged and appreciated by the new generation. Day by day, new technical improvements, such as iPhones, are exposed to the world. Meanwhile, the younger generation grasps on to it trouble-free. For example, when a new phone or laptop comes out, every young adult or teenager is striving to have the newest and most improved technology. They want the fastest technology with the latest features available. I know when a new iPod or song on iTunes comes out, I want it badly. Therefore, I go out and get it. But then, when an older person is used to their old generation technology, they cannot cope with this new environment. The newer generation thinks of their environment as natural. The older generation is left out of the picture. Technology thrives off the desire of the people for “new and improved”.
The future of the new generation will grow rapidly. Year by year thousands of new devices are invented. They have the great advantage of making things easier for users. The older generation will slowly fall into a shadow of ignorance. Where could this lead the two different generations? Either the new generation will skyrocket and create new ideas or the old generation will continue to slack off educating themselves about the technology. I believe that the newer generation has something great to look forward to. The newer generation is on top of every updated technology. While on the other hand, the old generation will not be able to deal with this advancement. The old generation will be flummoxed with this change and will be incapable of coping with it.
There are vast differences between the older generation and their technology and the newer generation with its futuristic equipment. They both involve different backgrounds and they were both brought up in different environments. Someone in the older generation probably could not understand a single technical word of our current language. LOL and IDK would be as meaningless to the fogies as hieroglyphics. It is the same as if a person specializing in today’s technology tried to explain its facility to a caveman. Between these two generations, there will be an ever-growing gulf. The old generation will eventually find itself unable to communicate and even feel a part of the society.
Historically, each generation is at ease with the technologies and ideas it grows up with. Older generations used different forms of communication to contact or inform people. It was either face to face, personal communication or written documents such as notes, diaries, or letters. Communication in the ancient days was often used through “word of mouth.” Then as years passed, educated people became familiar with the written word. Famous poets and authors, such as Shakespeare, were extremely talented with writing. People in this era had a great amount of time to focus on their writings and poetry. This allowed them to express their literacy. This written form became engrained in their culture and resided with them for the rest of their lives. None of these forms had to do with electronics. The only long distance communication was via letters. Data collection also had to be communicated through word or face to face.
The first step to electronic technology for the last generation came about in several forms. New technology was provided with new electronic advancements to improve their ways of communication worldwide. New advancements would include telephones, broadcasting by television and radio, and data manipulation using mainframe computers. These improvements were applicable to the needs of ordinary citizens. They were capable of learning to use them and became adept. These electronic devices fit their needs and became part of their lives. New advancements were to some degree interactive and made long distance communication speedier and more efficient. Data storage became simple and immediate. This happy balance was not to last forever. Technology never stands still but people’s ability to cope sometimes does.
Now comes along the new and improved updated technology that provides a vast amount of opportunities but also problems. The introduction of advanced computers had been internationally well known and they can be easily used at ones fingertips. The last generations have the ability to understand another easier and useful way to communicate and manipulate information. Cellular phones have now entered the global network and are advancing every minute. Cellular phones provide a sense of security, friendship, and communication. But new is not always better for everyone. People familiar with the use of the old technology now struggle with the new features available. To a large extent, the last generation was unable to keep pace with new and updated trends. According to online Journal, “What happens in an emergency when a grandmother can’t call her doctor because her new cell phone has twenty different features and she keeps taking photos of her feet?”(http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). This woman could also have difficulty programming her DVD player and finds TIVO more occult than witchcraft. This generation can learn these new advancements but it will never be at ease with them. Keeping track of information has also become more exotic. Advances in technology such as data organizers, palm pilots, and laptops provide great benefits but can be very complicated. With the press of a button an old timer can send a vast amount of information into cyberspace irretrievably. Just as quickly one can send out personal data to the whole world or receive pictures or videos inappropriate to one’s eyes and ears. Using this new technology becomes a daily battle and it doesn’t become part those earlier users.
Updated technology is creating more and more advantages and disadvantages unconsciously. This technology creates a large breach between parents and their children. One specific problem that has such a significant impact deals with communication skills. According to this online journal, the younger generation called the “net generation” because it is has never known a world without internet communication, is familiar with interrelating to people through cell phones, text messaging, and e-mail(http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). The problem the new development of technology for the younger generation is that they no longer have the ability to socialize with people. This “net generation” removes all of the personal communication due to the technology. The younger generation looks at texting and emailing as a short cut or easier way of communicating rather than having a one on one conversation. Sometimes, technology is just an excuse for them to get out of any less than pleasing situation. Before this outbreak of technology, people used to communicate either by going out on dates, talking in person, or doing activities. Nowadays, people break up while texting and their phone encompasses their whole life. Rather talking in person, the younger generation consumes all their time on their cell phones. Texting has also been a key factor in abbreviating words and slacking on their language skills. A good example of this situation would be, “a mother questions a daughter about her excessive text message usage and is replied back [sic] with letters and incomplete words that is somehow supposed to replace an actual conversation” (http://barrientes.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/how-is-global-technology-affecting-the-generation-gap/). Their parents grew up using one form of communication while their offspring blithely exploit their own abbreviated form widening the generation gap with their own communication gap.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the future looks even bleaker for the old generation. Developments in electronic writing and dispersion of information are occurring at an ever faster pace. Electronic writing has become a new level of personal communication, from posting blogs online to publishing online articles. Communication had broadened its areas throughout the technology. A major source of communication can be through emails. Emails are our main source of contact with our everyday lives. Every generation is exposed and utilizes this technical advantage; but to the older generation it is hard work and perhaps even unpleasant. To the younger generation, it becomes second nature. The pace of this advancement will only quicken in the future. Those who are barely literate with current technologies will find it difficult, if not impossible, to deal with this advancement. At a certain point, it becomes like the law of diminishing returns. More bells and whistles only mean more to learn, more mistakes, and more unease. In the end they would get better feedback flying a note across the room in the form of a paper airplane.
Technology changes the possibility of everything. It’s often hard to see its advancement and when it occurs, not everyone can admit it. Those who are born into the newer generation take technology for granted and do realize the beneficial impact these new advancements have on other lives. Technology changes the world for the newer generation in a positive manner, while the older generation looks at this change askance. The older generation thinks of this new technical environment as a weird machine and that should not exist. The newer generation can easily cope with this change. They see it as a means of exciting and fulfilling ways of communicating. An example of this would be taking your laptop to the beach or somewhere relaxing and having the ability to enter into your own world and exclude everything around you. Being able to understand technology is one thing, but being able to communicate and relate with it is another. Technology has built a complete cultural paradigm for the newer generation.
Now this new advancement is acknowledged and appreciated by the new generation. Day by day, new technical improvements, such as iPhones, are exposed to the world. Meanwhile, the younger generation grasps on to it trouble-free. For example, when a new phone or laptop comes out, every young adult or teenager is striving to have the newest and most improved technology. They want the fastest technology with the latest features available. I know when a new iPod or song on iTunes comes out, I want it badly. Therefore, I go out and get it. But then, when an older person is used to their old generation technology, they cannot cope with this new environment. The newer generation thinks of their environment as natural. The older generation is left out of the picture. Technology thrives off the desire of the people for “new and improved”.
The future of the new generation will grow rapidly. Year by year thousands of new devices are invented. They have the great advantage of making things easier for users. The older generation will slowly fall into a shadow of ignorance. Where could this lead the two different generations? Either the new generation will skyrocket and create new ideas or the old generation will continue to slack off educating themselves about the technology. I believe that the newer generation has something great to look forward to. The newer generation is on top of every updated technology. While on the other hand, the old generation will not be able to deal with this advancement. The old generation will be flummoxed with this change and will be incapable of coping with it.
There are vast differences between the older generation and their technology and the newer generation with its futuristic equipment. They both involve different backgrounds and they were both brought up in different environments. Someone in the older generation probably could not understand a single technical word of our current language. LOL and IDK would be as meaningless to the fogies as hieroglyphics. It is the same as if a person specializing in today’s technology tried to explain its facility to a caveman. Between these two generations, there will be an ever-growing gulf. The old generation will eventually find itself unable to communicate and even feel a part of the society.
Is Email Dead
Email is defined as a system for sending messages from one individual to another via telecommunication links between computers or terminals. In 1992 with thanks to NSF’s free thinking management, internet access became offered to the general public for the first time. In 1997 the internet exploded and the number of users was believed to be into the tens of millions. Electronic writing has been increasing for decades, but just because technology is rapidly changing this does not mean people are changing. Email is a highly important aspect of electronic writing because it is one of our main sources of communication. In this essay I will focus on what email is and where email is going to take us in the future.
Email is not limited to messages sent from one inbox to the other. There are two kinds of email; asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous messaging applications include fax, voicemail, SMS messages, and RSS feeds. Emails of this kind are 'notifications'. You will not receive an immediate response, if you even receive a response at all. Synchronous response messaging includes instant messaging, telephony, and web-conferencing. These email applications are different because they involve 'interactions'.
Email is electronic messaging. As we expand our definition of email to mean more than just the messages in your inbox, you can start to understand email is going to keep evolving. WDFM’s article on The Future of Email Marketing states that, “Some say social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook threaten email because of closed-loop structures limiting communication among members. However, our gurus say social networks actually have vital email components.” Being said that IM, Facebook and other social networks are considered a source of email means that email is in the future and only going to expand further. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites to date. This site offers ways to send email as asynchronously and synchronously.
Seeing as social networking sites are taking over the internet many young people think that email is for ‘old people’. The younger generations do not realize these sites are the future of email. The internet boomed during my era. These youth had to teach the older generation how to use the internet and now the new generation has to teach my era all of the new advancements in technology. This goes to show how fast the internet has grown and we can only imagine the future. Email shows no signs of slowing down.
Email is a great form of communication because most of these social networking sites are safe. You can post as much or as little as you want about yourself, you also have the ability to say yes or no when someone tries to add you as a friend. One of the best features is being able to control who can look at your page, this way you can keep the creepers out of your personal life. There is many other ways to communicate via internet, but email is the safest route to go.
One negative that comes along with the email, IM, Facebook craze is the slang writing. With the future generations growing up with their main source of communication being the internet, they have no need for formal writing. Words like ‘U’, ‘R’, ‘TTYL’, ‘4’, and ‘IDK’ are frequently used when writing an email or message. But this type of language is not acceptable in papers, letters or formal emails to someone of high stature. Actually this type of writing is pretty much never acceptable in school or the work force. Someone does not write ‘r’ instead of are on purpose, it comes naturally because we are so used to typing the letter ‘r’ in our informal writing. Also it is so much easier. In a survey taken by The Pew Internet & American Life Project, it states that just shy of 9 out of 10 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 years-old go online regularly, and more than half of them go online every day. This statistic is huge! This means that 9 out of 10 teens are picking up bad writing habits, these habits are hard to break, especially when you have been doing them for 10 years.
Is email already a thing of the past? Email has evolved so fast, but now some would say that email is dead. This is not true. Ventureblog.com states, “While people may debate the death of email, there is no question that many email servers are already overloaded with spam. Current spam solutions are beginning to address the problem, but so far they all suffer from the arms race issue - as fast as we come up with new ways to fight spam, spammers are finding new ways to deliver it to us.” Ventureblog.com wants us to believe because of spam email is going to die. As of right now, the bad guys are winning, but this does not have to be true about our future in electronic writing. Spam is a huge concern in the email world and is turning people off from using email, this is why many people are resorting for other forms of email and starting to use IM and sites like Facebook and Myspace.
Email is not dead yet, many new websites and outlook email sites are coming up with new ways to block spam. Companies now are trying to figure out a way, instead of blocking out junk mail to only let certain websites to send them emails in the first place. Ventureblog.com gives a good example of how this will work in the future:
This is only one way future companies are getting prepared to keep email alive.This is a great alternative to junkmail. Many large companies do not allow employees to check email at work, because of the fear of receiving a virus, with new advancements such as whitelist this will not be an issue at the workplace. This makes communication even more effective though email.
With email expanding so rapidly, we know there has to be some new technology on its way. Pete Warden says, “Email's the dominant way of communicating on the internet, but our tools for dealing with it have barely changed in a decade. Here's the services I think will define whole new ways of working with email over the next few years[.]” Some of the new technologies he introduces are: Clearcontext’s, which is an outlook add-in that offers dozens of targeted tools, to help you receive the information you need faster, PostBox is another site that helps you search, sort, and categorize your email through modern interface, A simple site to use would be IwantSandy, this is very original site that offers a means to control scheduling, appointments and tasks by emailing requests to their service, OtherInbox offers organization for your non-Human emails. Other technologies include: Xobni, Gmail, Microsoft’s Knowledge Network, Tacit, and Contact Networks. These are all new ways to communicate that companies are working on to be available in the future, making email more advanced.
A critic would argue that email has hurt our society because it has made staying in touch impersonal. Electronic writing has made hand written letters a thing of the past. This critic is wrong because in reality email has helped us stay in contact with one another. One of the main positives would be that email has made a tremendous advancement in staying in touch with old friends. Without email or new technologies such as IM or Facebook it would be really difficult to stay in touch with all my friends from Canada. Between school and work, people do not have time to write letters or even phone an old friend. With technologies like IM and facebook one can see what their friends have been doing and how they are doing. Even though email has made staying in contact impersonal it has made staying in contact easier in general.
This all goes to show that, email has changed a great deal since it was first introduced back in 1997, and is continuing to expand andchange every day. When we view email as meaning more than just the messages in your inbox, we see how email will never die and only keep evolving as the internet continues to grow. Email is so important because it has become one of our main sources of communication. We see how email simply started out as just sending messages between computers, has advanced into social networking, and now has advanced even further with a bunch on new technologies to look forward to. All of these forms of email have made our lives easier, made staying in contact effortless and made communication easier.
Email is not limited to messages sent from one inbox to the other. There are two kinds of email; asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous messaging applications include fax, voicemail, SMS messages, and RSS feeds. Emails of this kind are 'notifications'. You will not receive an immediate response, if you even receive a response at all. Synchronous response messaging includes instant messaging, telephony, and web-conferencing. These email applications are different because they involve 'interactions'.
Email is electronic messaging. As we expand our definition of email to mean more than just the messages in your inbox, you can start to understand email is going to keep evolving. WDFM’s article on The Future of Email Marketing states that, “Some say social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook threaten email because of closed-loop structures limiting communication among members. However, our gurus say social networks actually have vital email components.” Being said that IM, Facebook and other social networks are considered a source of email means that email is in the future and only going to expand further. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites to date. This site offers ways to send email as asynchronously and synchronously.
Seeing as social networking sites are taking over the internet many young people think that email is for ‘old people’. The younger generations do not realize these sites are the future of email. The internet boomed during my era. These youth had to teach the older generation how to use the internet and now the new generation has to teach my era all of the new advancements in technology. This goes to show how fast the internet has grown and we can only imagine the future. Email shows no signs of slowing down.
Email is a great form of communication because most of these social networking sites are safe. You can post as much or as little as you want about yourself, you also have the ability to say yes or no when someone tries to add you as a friend. One of the best features is being able to control who can look at your page, this way you can keep the creepers out of your personal life. There is many other ways to communicate via internet, but email is the safest route to go.
One negative that comes along with the email, IM, Facebook craze is the slang writing. With the future generations growing up with their main source of communication being the internet, they have no need for formal writing. Words like ‘U’, ‘R’, ‘TTYL’, ‘4’, and ‘IDK’ are frequently used when writing an email or message. But this type of language is not acceptable in papers, letters or formal emails to someone of high stature. Actually this type of writing is pretty much never acceptable in school or the work force. Someone does not write ‘r’ instead of are on purpose, it comes naturally because we are so used to typing the letter ‘r’ in our informal writing. Also it is so much easier. In a survey taken by The Pew Internet & American Life Project, it states that just shy of 9 out of 10 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 years-old go online regularly, and more than half of them go online every day. This statistic is huge! This means that 9 out of 10 teens are picking up bad writing habits, these habits are hard to break, especially when you have been doing them for 10 years.
Is email already a thing of the past? Email has evolved so fast, but now some would say that email is dead. This is not true. Ventureblog.com states, “While people may debate the death of email, there is no question that many email servers are already overloaded with spam. Current spam solutions are beginning to address the problem, but so far they all suffer from the arms race issue - as fast as we come up with new ways to fight spam, spammers are finding new ways to deliver it to us.” Ventureblog.com wants us to believe because of spam email is going to die. As of right now, the bad guys are winning, but this does not have to be true about our future in electronic writing. Spam is a huge concern in the email world and is turning people off from using email, this is why many people are resorting for other forms of email and starting to use IM and sites like Facebook and Myspace.
Email is not dead yet, many new websites and outlook email sites are coming up with new ways to block spam. Companies now are trying to figure out a way, instead of blocking out junk mail to only let certain websites to send them emails in the first place. Ventureblog.com gives a good example of how this will work in the future:
It follows, then, that if you could remove a great majority of the "good" email
from consideration, the remaining email could be subjected to much more
stringent tests while still maintaining the same low false positive rate. The
new version of Microsoft Outlook applies this logic - it has a spam filter built
in, which includes the option "automatically deliver mail from anybody in my
address book". As soon as they figure it out, Microsoft will extend that to
include more subtle gradations like "anybody I've ever sent mail to is very
likely not to be a spammer", among other variations.To use a specific example,
take 100 messages, 50 of which are good. Your spam filter takes out over 90% of
the spam - leaving you with 4 ads for viagra. It lets through 48 of the good
ones, leaving you with 2 missed emails.If you were able to identify that 25 of
those 50 messages were definitely good (your whitelist), then you'd only subject
the remaining 25 to the spam filter. That leaves you with 1 missed email - or,
if 2 was OK, you could double the effectiveness of the filter and only get 2 ads
for Viagra.
This is only one way future companies are getting prepared to keep email alive.This is a great alternative to junkmail. Many large companies do not allow employees to check email at work, because of the fear of receiving a virus, with new advancements such as whitelist this will not be an issue at the workplace. This makes communication even more effective though email.
With email expanding so rapidly, we know there has to be some new technology on its way. Pete Warden says, “Email's the dominant way of communicating on the internet, but our tools for dealing with it have barely changed in a decade. Here's the services I think will define whole new ways of working with email over the next few years[.]” Some of the new technologies he introduces are: Clearcontext’s, which is an outlook add-in that offers dozens of targeted tools, to help you receive the information you need faster, PostBox is another site that helps you search, sort, and categorize your email through modern interface, A simple site to use would be IwantSandy, this is very original site that offers a means to control scheduling, appointments and tasks by emailing requests to their service, OtherInbox offers organization for your non-Human emails. Other technologies include: Xobni, Gmail, Microsoft’s Knowledge Network, Tacit, and Contact Networks. These are all new ways to communicate that companies are working on to be available in the future, making email more advanced.
A critic would argue that email has hurt our society because it has made staying in touch impersonal. Electronic writing has made hand written letters a thing of the past. This critic is wrong because in reality email has helped us stay in contact with one another. One of the main positives would be that email has made a tremendous advancement in staying in touch with old friends. Without email or new technologies such as IM or Facebook it would be really difficult to stay in touch with all my friends from Canada. Between school and work, people do not have time to write letters or even phone an old friend. With technologies like IM and facebook one can see what their friends have been doing and how they are doing. Even though email has made staying in contact impersonal it has made staying in contact easier in general.
This all goes to show that, email has changed a great deal since it was first introduced back in 1997, and is continuing to expand andchange every day. When we view email as meaning more than just the messages in your inbox, we see how email will never die and only keep evolving as the internet continues to grow. Email is so important because it has become one of our main sources of communication. We see how email simply started out as just sending messages between computers, has advanced into social networking, and now has advanced even further with a bunch on new technologies to look forward to. All of these forms of email have made our lives easier, made staying in contact effortless and made communication easier.
Twist and Turns
Change is an inevitable concept in this world. People will mature, plants will grow, and societies will advance. Things get better over time and we replace the old with the new. It just happens that the world works this way. The world is no different than the Internet. The technology and uses of the Internet advance daily. Being only invented 50 years ago, the Internet is the most useful and widely used form of technology of the 21st Century. It has taken quantum leaps since it first started. Those same leaps continue to this day. Taking a second a truly think about the capabilities the Internet does now and what is could do is astonishing, yet scary. It is only scary thinking about the endless possibilities the computer and Internet could do. Who knows? Maybe one day the Internet will be capable of writing all your essays and do all your homework. As the Internet advances, new ideas reveal themselves. Ideas that benefit the Internets users and expands it’s resources. This was the case 3 decades ago, when the first forms of electronic writing were introduced. Electronic writing has assuredly progressed since it was invented, but it is still a relatively new concept. There are still several ideas on how to improve electronic writing, lingering somewhere, waiting to be discovered. I personally don’t have those ideas. I don’t know the specific twists and turns online writing will take, but someone out there does. What I do know is just as anything else in this world, electronic writing will progressively grow and improve just as it has done in the past.
As beneficial as online text and networking it, there are still security issues and latent dangers when using the Internet. Online anyone can choose their own identity. For example, a 60–year- old man can pose as an innocent teenage girl. This has been a serious problem in the past. Child predators can enter homes and into children’s rooms undetected. They prey on and seduce young children. Catching online predators is not an easy task, especially when time is always counting down. The Internet gives these cowards limitless resources and victims from the safety of their own home. Most typically use social networks as their source of victim, but they are not limited to them. Online chat rooms, online gaming, and email all have the same threat of criminals.
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