Alone Together

2:46-5:42

Alone Together- A speech made by an MIT professor on our interactions with technology and how integrated into our life it has become.
The argument in Alone Together unfolds in two halves. The first section deals with objects that imitate living things. Turkle's subjects, mostly children and the elderly, are given robot companions for varying lengths of time. Universally, a bond is formed. The Furby exerts a hold over anyone who nurtures it for a few weeks. More sophisticated models provoke deep emotional connections. Scientists developing the latest robots report feelings of pseudo-parental attachment. They hate leaving the machines "alone" in empty laboratories at night.


She believes that we actually make emotional connections with technology.

Evolution of Technology

This is a crazy video about the evolution of technology. It does not necessarily highlight the negatives or positives of technology, it merely highlight the sheer vastness and capabilities technology has. There are some incredible facts in here.

Connected

Connected- A movie by Tiffany Shlain about our dependence and obsession with technology and being connected.

How technology has helped

Technology has helped humanity immensely. The World Wide Web, launched in 1990, provided information from hundreds of different sources at the touch of a finger. It connected the world in ways that were unimaginable only a decade before. After the web was invented technology ballooned out and started manifesting in even more incredible forms. Within a decade we could call, email, websurf, and text from a single device. Now one decade later there is easily accesible technology that allows us to video call with people halfway around the world for, say, five dollars a month.

Technology has debatably improved these three areas of life the most: productivity, connectivity, and amount of effort needed.
Technology has essentially brought your work space to your pocket. You do not have to be in a certain place to correspond with colleagues or answer and email. You can reach any person at almost any point of the day by various means of communication. This increases productivity, because there is never and excuse or time for not working. Also an additional plus is that work hours are extended, but you still have free time and can work from your home.
Technology also helped connectivity. Where once it took weeks to deliver a letter now you can text or call someone and be speaking with them in a matter of seconds. If a company has foreign correspondents you need only log onto your computer and you can access them free of charge.
Above all I believe technology has helped with the ease of which we can accomplish things now. There are thousands of apps and websites on smart phones and computers that help with everything from filing, to finding the nearest Starbucks. In the course of a decade technology has eliminated the hindrance of many everyday, time consuming activities. Maps for example, there is really no need to carry them anymore if you own an iPhone. They will direct you in great detail, on the shortest route possible to your destination. The same applies to tipping at restaurants, taxes, etc. Basic things that we once had to do ourselves are now done by our best friend. The smartphone.

In essence technology has made humans faster, more efficient, more connected, and (I believe) lazier.

http://hcdesk.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-technology/

Multitasking

I don't when the word iPod became synonymous with video games, but that's what it has evolved to. Music has become a side note to the addictive multitasking people use iTouches for.

Multitasking is not a skill, it's a bad habit. Not only does the quality of your work go down, but it also takes more time. When you set aside time for each project your focus level is higher, you can easily sit down and finish your work in a timely manner, but when you multitask distractions are always present. Ultimately if you do not multitask the work takes less time, and the quality is higher. So why wouldn't you just sit down and finish your work? I blame accessibility. Everything is so easily accessed that it's hard to ignore. For example if you want to text a friend on your iPhone about a project, but when you open the phone and there are three new emails, Facebook notifications and inboxes, and you've been tagged in three new tweets it's hard to ignore. Even if you do put your phone down it's often an itch in the back of your mind. Who was trying to contact me? What if they had something important to say? All of a sudden you're surfing through four different social media sights and trying to do your project at the same time. It's so easy to get sucked in.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/bad-effects-multitasking-32419.html

This article shows some negative side effects of multitasking. Something I found interesting from reading this article is that most of the side effects of multitasking are also symptoms of ADD. So multitasking could give you, or exacerbate your ADD.

Computer Addiction

Logging on to my computer is like stepping into quicksand. I have to claw and fight my way to get out of it again. Those social media sights beckoning you, think about the millions of LOLcats that are waiting to be sifted through, what about that email you should respond to, or the person you said you'd Skype with. All excuses to get on the computer, and stay on.
I mean what's the definition of addiction?

: to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively <addicted to gambling>

I can't think of a better way to describe my relationship with my computer. I surrender myself to the infinite clutches of the cyber world habitually. Bordering on obsessively.
It takes so much valuable time I could be doing other things. When I'm doing homework about 20% of my time is dedicated to it. 80% is Tumblr, Facebook, and Stumbleupon. Every single day. It's a disgusting addiction of mine, and all my friends, and my entire generation. It's going to consume us. I'm apprehensive for the future.

Technology Overload

Technology was invented for the sake of convenience. It's supposed to make things more accessible, it's supposed to help you get work done. And it did originally I suppose. The invention of the computer was a great thing. The worldwide web allowed you to receive information by typing in a search term, and suddenly you had twenty search results related to your subject. There was no longer a reason to spend an entire afternoon in the library pouring through books, everything you needed was on your screen. It revolutionized information, it was a miracle! Is it still though? I typed in the term "information overload" into google and got 7.5 million search results. It's ironic, I suppose, but it's also overwhelming. How do you suck that pipette full of pure and helpful water out of the tainted salty ocean? There are so many opinions and false facts suspended out there in cyber space. How do you sort out the real information?

http://ethansclassblog.wordpress.com/