Technology and It's Controlling Ways.

I think we all know that technology controls us in some way or another, but are we all willing to admit this. The first thing I do in the morning is wake my children up and then get on the internet and check the weather to dress them appropriately. After they are off to school I indulge in facebook and usually get sucked in for way longer than I had hoped. I then check my emails and check my SEMO website to ensure nothing needs to be addressed. So there goes my whole morning, and you ask well what did you do? My answer is absolutely nothing, but waste time consumed in technology.

My Iphone is another reason I think technology controls me. When I leave my house and forget my phone I fell lost and quickly try to finish my errands so I can go home and get it. How ridiculous many of us have a panic attack when we realize our phones aren’t with us. Everywhere you turn someone has a cell phone on them and we are on them ninety percent of the time. I have even seen children as young as six with brand new Iphones. I know personally I would have a hard time not using my phone or internet for a couple hours let alone a couple days. So the question is how long can you go without technology? This answer will determine if you are controlling technology or if it is controlling you!

 

Is Technology Making You Lazy Too?

Have you noticed any changes in your thinking or behavior as a result of using some technology? Unfortunately my answer is YES! I know personally when I am texting someone and I noticed I have spelt a word wrong I don’t bother changing it because I know my phone will autocorrect it for me. I believe this feature on my phone has made me lazy and I often find myself wishing everything had autocorrect. I also tend to use shortcuts when texting which is a bad habit to start because I have to proofread my homework several times to make sure I don’t use shortcuts such as bc in a paper. In the article it talked a little about writing and how it helps you retain more information than typing. I think this is true for me and feel that when I write out my notes instead of typing I retain more of the information.

While some bad habits can be formed by technology there is still good in technology. For instance facebook has allowed me to find my cousins I haven’t seen in years and reconnect with old high school friends. I think search engines are another helpfully piece of technology. When conducting research for a paper search engines let you access a large amount of information quickly. Although getting through all that information can be a pain sometimes. We all need to learn how to make technology helps us instead of harming us.  

 

Filter Bubbles, Trackers, and Machines Oh My!!

Are we all in filter bubbles unknowingly? Yes, I believe we are all in filter bubbles and don’t even realize we are. I really like the examples Pariser used especially the Netflix example because I can relate to this. Actually tonight my husband and I were trying to find a movie on Netflix and I found it amusing that most of the movies it showed us were scary horror flicks, because that is what we have been watching the last couple of days.

Oh trackers! I find trackers on the internet very scary. I’m most concerned about my family’s privacy when we are online. The scariest moment for me was when I posted a picture of my toddler on facebook and realized if you clicked on the image it gave you a map to my house. How scary that anyone on the internet has a personal road map straight to your home. The one place that is supposed to be safe.

I found Turkle’s video very intriguing! The sad thing about her video is you see this everywhere you go. I was at the park with my son yesterday and made it a point to leave my phone in my car. I was amazed how many parents were disconnected from their young children. We have a rule in my house absolutely no technology on while eating dinner. We have real family conversations and we enjoy dinner together as a family and we really cherish that family time every night. 

Informative Research Paper

For our third essay we have to inform ourselves and our audience about a specific topic. As the writer we have to perform research on our chosen topic and decide how to use that information. We also have to decide how we want to display this information to ensure it is clear and to the point for the reader to easily understand. When writing our papers we have to remember that the quality of the information is more important than the quantity. So using every bit of information we find isn’t necessary to deliver your message. As the writer we need to use the most appropriate and useful information we can find. The overall purpose of this paper is to inform our readers about our chosen topic. 

When conducting our research for this paper we have to make sure to cite our sources and provide them credit throughout our papers. We also have to have an introduction, body, and conclusion. This paper has to be a minimum of 1500 words, so make sure to narrow your topic so you can provide useful and clear information. While there are certain topics we absolutely cannot write about Mr. Sentell gives a lot of room to choose a topic that motivates us.

How we use Valuable Information.

        Search Paths are an important part of being a college student. I say this because we learn about them in many writing classes. I had to complete them in my UI 100 class and my SC105 class. With that being said these Search Paths are important because they teach us how to access information and what information is worth accessing. As college students we have to write many papers and conduct research for each of them. 

        When conducting research we have to know what information is useful and where we should pull our information from. Then we have to know how to let the reader know where we found this information. Search Path shows you the different resources that we as college students have at our finger tips. Search Path provides us with six modules that are full of useful information. Two of these six search paths are choosing a topic and citing sources.

        Choosing a topic and citing papers can be difficult for students. I know personally I struggle with these two items the most. Search Path has a module for each of them and it goes through an easy to follow process. I learned when searching for information on a topic you need to pick out keywords. I also learned when citing a paper you have to cite differently for a book than you would a web source. These Search Paths are very beneficial and thankfully Semo provides us with all these wonderful resources.