Hannah Kelly brought us today's "Trending Topic". Below is her blog post about the subject.
Initially I was intrigued when I saw the article: “How Steve Jobs Stole Christmas
- -Apple Products Top Of Every Kid’s Wish List”. I automatically assumed the article would be referring to the increase of Apple products on children’s wish lists. While this may be the case, as I read closer I soon discovered that the amount of children surveyed for this article was a very small number of people out of a very large population. This made me think about how attracted we are as a society, to the title of things---the big headlines that grab our attention. And hey! If they are catchy we tend to “read on.” The way the information was portrayed was definitely tilted, due to the fact that when I read this article, it felt like I was reading an article based on a survey of a larger amount of people. And did you notice that the headline stated that Apple products were att the top of every kid’s wish list? This is misleading advertising!
Even though this article surveyed a small sample size, it did raise the question of the influence of technology on our daily lives. Younger and younger children are utilizing the technology that was not even conceived of a few years ago. Connections across time and space are made regularly now through texting, video conferencing, virtual chat rooms and support groups. It occurs to me that while technology can certainly cause many problems such as increased incidence of motor vehicle accidents while texting during driving, it is not the technology itself that is the problem. Technology is not inherently bad, rather our relationship with the technology poses the problem. After reading this article I began to examine my own relationship with technology and I realized the huge impact it has had. My cell phone is always, and I mean always easily accessed when I want it to be. And I am spending more and more time communicating via facebook and texting than I am with one on one in person conversations. Take a second and evaluate the impact technology has had on your life, it might surprise you. http://passioncomputing.com.au/articles/the-social-impact-of-technology.aspx
Your presentation really opened my eyes to how dependent we are on technology. It's scary to see to an extent. Life when we were kids is so differ than it is for kids these days; it makes me miss the good old days.
ReplyDeleteYour presentation made a good point about how technology has become such an important aspect of our, something many of us can't seem to live without. It certainly provides a stark contrast to the common idea that technology is an exclusively positive thing that can only benefit us, showing that this is certainly not the case.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy to think about how young these kid are that are asking for IPhones and what not. When I was that age I wasn't even worried about stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteWriting down a class Christmas list made me realize how materialistic we can be these days. Kids are so dependent on technology now instead of playing with toys; I can see this in my own 7 year old sister. The presentation was really well done and you talked about a lot of points I had never realized that were really true about today's society and technology.
ReplyDeleteThis presentation was really amazing and showed how dependent our generation is on technology. I remember asking for my first iPod when I was 11. This makes me nervous for how the future of technology will be.
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed Hannah's presentation, I love hearing and talking about all of the changes going on with today's generation. It it truly amazing to see how far we have come since we ourselves were young. I agree with Hannah in that technology is becoming a part of our every day lives and even apart of our "genetic make-up" as she said. I miss being younger and enjoying the little things in life, it seems to me that the lunchbox days were easier and more enjoyable. As we grow into the new era of technology I suppose we do have to adapt to all that is being thrown at us and try to keep up with it all as best as we can.....
ReplyDeleteI really like how your presentation and blog is relatable to our everyday lives. It really gets us to thinking how kids find different things entertaining than when we were kids. When I was younger when I was bored I would just go outside and find one of my neighbors to play with, now when kids are bored they just pull out their ipod and get on the computer. I found this topic very interesting, good job!
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to what you said about how dependent we are on technology. My ten year old cousin is a very good example of how younger generation want ipads, iphones, or itouchs, and our generation just wanted something like a board game to play with.My cousin already decided to make a christmas list and the number one thing on her list was an apple laptop. It was pretty surprising to see that because she doesn't even use the cell phone she has yet alone a laptop. You did a great job. It really made me think about a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteI thought your presentation/blog post were very intriguing. I thought that what you said about technology not being the problem but our relationship with technology was very interesting. It made me realize that its what WE do with technology not necessarily technology itself. It can have either a positive or negative outcome.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post is so true about how dependent we are on technology. When we were little we probably got our first phone at like 12 but know that age is getting younger and younger. This whole trend will probably change by the time that we become parents because we would just apply the rule that our parents gave us.
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