Final Blog Post

Before taking this class, I liked to think I was very familiar with technology, and referred to technology as “intimidating, but our friend. It will deliver information in a very quick and easy to access manner that will be accessible to all people. I think that when our generation grows into adulthood, having had more technological experience and the ability to learn quickly how to manipulate new devices, technology will not be threatening.”Now, at the end of the semester, I still stand by that statement, if not more so than before.
I believe that, ultimately, there are two reasons why technology intimidates or threatens people. Reason number one applies to older generations, who are not accustomed to technology in general and are against the idea of having to learn how to use all of it at once. The other reason is that people think that technology threatens the foundations of certain skills, and by incorporating technology into certain activities, people will ultimately be disconnected from reality and the result will be a population of drones.

Digital information can be very positive. In terms of my blog topic, technology is responsible for the widest audience journalism has seen. Technology allows people to access information from wherever they are, whenever they want, connecting themselves with a network of like individuals who are searching for similar information.

It is unrealistic, however, to completely overlook the disconnect factor of technology. A prime example of this concept can be seen in the incorporation of laptops in an education environment. One of our class sessions was held virtually on wimba. On that given day, I stayed in my dorm to “go to class.” While this is a fascinating advancement of technology, I found myself very distracted for the duration of the class time. In class, it was also very easy to drift away from the discussion topics onto other distracting websites. In terms of the rest of the world, technology can be extremely useful in bringing elements of all different subjects together, but in the process of doing so, there is going to be a way to get around the primary topic of an activity. The problem seems to be that technology is “fun,” and that is a weakness, especially to Americans.

My recommendation to those I know who did not experience this course is to really embrace technology, because digitalism is becoming more and more prevalent and relevant on the daily. Nearly every one of my colleagues believes that Twitter is ridiculous and pointless. Twitter, in reality, is actually a very useful tool, especially in news reporting. I would suggest that they do some research and read some encouraging articles; otherwise, before they know it, they are going to fall under one of the two categories I described above and hate what has become of society.