New Technology, New Future, New World

The computer. Something all of the world has either used, seen, or heard of. This every day machine is deciding the world's future and societies future. In Michael Wesch's video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us" he brings up the idea of the computer changing our world. I believe that technology is changing our world and there have been drastic changes to prove it. About 20 years ago, most people didn't even have computers or cell phones or any of the common technology we have today. Now, just about every person with enough money owns a computer or cell phone. That right there is a huge change! Michael Wesch brought this up in his video by showing how much documents and internet has changed just from 1996. Also, he brought up the fact that we are teaching the computers what we know by posting links or typing documents. This means that the computer is not using us, we are using the computer. After all, humans did design and create the computer therefore we are teaching it how to have more programs and how they should function. Technology is becoming such a big part of society now that there isn't any way you can get by in school or a job or in life for that matter with out a little knowledge about it. That was the main idea of Michael Wesch's video from my point of view.

The article "The New Literacy" by Clive Thompson shares similarities with Michael Wesch's video but on a school level. A lot of teenagers and college students own their own computers or cell phones if they have the money for it. Being a young adult means that most of them text or instant message each other. Some believe that this effects our learning because can alter our language, but in Clive Thompson's opinion, it's the opposite. The author believes that our exposure to technology encourages us to write more, think about our writing and reading, and practice writing techniques and skills. I mostly agree with this article, however, when I read it, I did come across some possible flaws in the authors main ideas. The author says by texting and instant messaging we write more. This for the most part is true but the writing is always the strongest it could be. For me I know that I do shorten, abbreviate, or spell words while texting and it affects my writing because I'm used to using those words so often. Also, the author says that having access to technology is helping improve our research and word usage. This is very true because I am becoming more intelligent with technology and when I have a question I can look it up online quickly and can continue with an assignment. However, I do see some issues that could arise from this. Students can use the internet with bad intent and plagiarize someones work or copy it from an article online so they really aren't doing learning for themselves. Many students also don't have access to technology at all so they don't have it in classrooms, libraries, or homes. If the ability to use a computer is a necessary skill for a job, then they are automatically cut because of a flaw in a school career that they couldn't control. I do believe technology is affecting the world's learning in positive and negative ways.