Artifact #4

Wow is the only word that comes to mind after viewing the Uncanny Droid video. I think its kind of scary that people have come up with the new technology to make these robots, and even further are able to control them with their own motions. What fascinated me most about the robot was its ability to move its eyes so fast and able to blink at the same rate that a human can. Its scary to think that someday in the next decade or so this could become a very common thing to see. Who knows someday we could have robots like this walking among us, and not even knowing they were there. At first glance i did not notice that this was even a robot because it looks so much like a real person. The first thing that drew me to the conclusion that it was a robot was the fact that at many times it had no expression on its face which is something that humans always have.
In the Old School? or What? video I found myself overlooking the fact that the pencil sharpener is technology as well. It's just something that we seem to overlook in todays society as something that we really need. To be honest if this was a video that just popped up and i started to watch i would have turned it off immediately because its like common sense to us today how to us a pencil sharpener. Although back when this technology was new many people would not have had a clue how to use it, so i feel like this was kind of a realization for me about how far we have come in our society. From pencil sharpeners to robots that move and look like human beings, amazing!

Artifact 3

In Nicholas Carr's book "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" he discussed a lot of topics about how the internet has made us more of a multi tasking type of society. I like how he talked about when your sitting down to read something on the internet today, you have so many links and different things that distract you from reading what you were trying to read. This is far different from when people read things inside a book because the book shields you from other distractions better. He then goes on to explain how a computer and the internet promotes you into multitasking because you can check your email, read an article, watch a video, and message a friend simultaneously and its fast. I thought it was a very interesting that he talked about how office workers would glance at their inbox 30 or more times per hour and even that small little glance takes your attention away from what you are doing and doesn't let you get into deep thought. He says that even though  so many things that are convenient on the internet and easy to use, it also makes it very hard to get done what you intended to do because there are so many distractions that can cut into your short term memory.

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Artifact 1

Artifact 2

Artifact 3

Reaction to CMC units 3 and 4

Artifact 2

As i read through the first part of the article, i wasn't sure what i was going to be hearing when i watched the video. I liked how Powers talked about all of the thinkers that he studied, people like Aristotle and Socrates, and was able to relate what they said to the modern world. When he talked about Shakespeare's analysis of the table, when they said that in that time it was amazing how people got to the point where they were so dependent on the tables that they could not go anywhere without them. This is just like the way that people are with their phones and computers today, because there are many people that are lost without their gadgets.

Along with being attached to the gadgets i like how he talked about how the best compliment to being overly connected is a healthy dose of being disconnected. Then he later talks about how he and his wife disconnected the Internet on weekends so that they would at least be disconnected from their technology at least two days a week, and it let them realize that they could easily use other means to look up the things they need to know. When they used the newspaper to find the movies that were playing it went right along with what he was talking about in the beginning when he said that even though paper is being used less he doesn't feel that it will be totally phased out because it has been around for so long, and its just something that everyone at some point relies on.

Technology is really distracting our society these days in many ways. As powers talks about the way his family was losing "family time" because of the use of the Internet and new gadgets, it made me think about the way the typical family has grown apart and become more reliant on technology to get through the day. Then once he talked about the way businesses are losing money because of technology. This is because employees have began to use the Internet all day and their minds wander from the tasks they are supposed to be doing and causing them to not get their work done.

This article doesn't really bring a surprise to me because when you take into account how many peoples lives have become more active and on the go there is just not enough time for many to sit and watch a news cast, or read the paper.Although there are still the older people that are more old fashioned and in a routine so they will still watch the news or read news papers, but the younger crowd is becoming more and more digital everyday. Before long i wouldn't be surprised if news papers become a thing of the past and everything moves digital.

With new things like Facebook and twitter coming into the view of the world, its not surprising how many people rely on them for news. What has surprised me lately about Facebook and other social networks is how many older people are beginning to use them to communicate. When they were started it was mainly just the younger crowd using them and as they have come along the older crowd has been using them to keep in touch with old friends and family members. Im ot sure about the reliability of these websites for world news and things because many people could input bias when writing about certain news topics. 

As far as the news being read more and more on the internet, i feel like in some cases it is better because on news cast they seem to place emphasis on certain topics and on the internet you read it for yourself and can place emphasis on topics that are important to you. 

News papers are becoming less popular as well and i feel like this is because of the rising price of paper and the emphasis on phasing out things that in the long run hurt the environment. If you just use the internet you wont have to deal with getting rid of papers and it takes alot more time to read through the paper than to just get on the internet and read what interests you. For instance, in my case all that really interests me in the news paper is the sports section and i can just get online and read everything that interests me from that section rather than looking through the whole paper.

Reaction to Units 3 and 4

I found parts of unit 3 very interesting and very true. When Tyler mentioned that technology used to just be for the wealthy it made me think about how people without a lot of money really do fall behind in society because they lack the newest technology sometimes. As he stated new technology isn't just something people want anymore, in many cases you need it to stay successful. This is why there are many people that don't like the development of new things because in many cases they can cause more problems.

Unit 4 was also interesting to me because many people also complain about how it is breaking down the need for people to have social skills. As Tyler said in his summary CMC can restrict the amount of face to face contact someone has with others which put them at a disadvantage when they are in a face to face situation.