Artifact #4

In the Uncanny Droid there is a robot that at first and most likely second glance looks just like a real human being. It moves just like the man at the computer in every way. The creepiest thing that I noticed that It did was move it's eyes very fast just like the man. This was scary to me because that is a very fine motor skill to be able to pull off, which means that this robot was very advanced. I did not know that we have came this far in robotics. We know can make a robot look just like a real person and move almost the exact same. The only reason that I saw that it wasn't a real girl was the way it moved and everything, and there was no expressions on its face which made it look different. One day there will be a robot that you will be unable to tell if it is a human or a robot and I think that that day is coming soon.
In the second video it was a man showing us how to use a pencil sharpener, which I found very funny. This is a how-to video for a very simple task, and a pencil sharpener is barely even concidered “technology” anymore because it is so basic. I believe that this shows how society is though, I mean several decades ago if someone would have shown you a pencil sharpener you would have been astounded but now you do not even give it a second look. As technology advances the old technology becomes less important and less interesting. This is something that will happen no matter what, and has always happened.

E-portfolio #1

Tuesday, February 1, 2011- Unit 3 and 4 Summary
http://tsg332.blogspot.com/2011/02/unit-3-and-4-summary.html

Thursday, February 3, 2011 - Artifact #1
http://tsg332.blogspot.com/2011/02/artifact-1.html

Friday, February 11, 2011 - Artifact #2
http://tsg332.blogspot.com/2011/02/artifact-2.html

Thursday, February 17, 2011- Artifact #3
http://tsg332.blogspot.com/2011/02/artifact-3.html

Artifact #3

Nick Carr is the author of "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains," talks about how the internet is changing how we think and go throughout our day. He says that it is becoming a hard task to just sit down and read a book because of all the distractions and other things that we could be doing. With these distractions it comes with the change int the way we focus on everything. We are starting to get a shorter attention span and we choose to multi-task more than ever. In every day tasks we just don't stay focused on that one thing, we have multipule things going on like a simple thing as checking our email, many people have music playing, logged on to Facebook, and texting all at the same time. Today, there are just so many dpistractions and other opprotunities that it is hard to do one thing at a time now, we have become people that have to be doing something from the time we wake up till we fall back asleep. In so many ways the internet is changing us, and most people have very different views on this topic. I believe that it has helped us as well as harmed us in some ways and I think that Nick Carr's views and ideas are very interesting and have some information to back it up, and with this said I hope that the Internet is not ruining our brains.

Artifact #2

In this video William Powers talks about his Hamlet's Blackberry on his book tour. One thing that I thought was the main idea of his book and talk was that he believes that technology is great for our society but we do get wrapped up in it sometimes. He believes that you need some time off-line and away from all of our technology that we use every single day. His own family turns off the internet on weekends, he thinks that this time is good for them. A reason that he thinks that it is good to get away from technology is because we, as a society, are becoming to dependent on our technological devices. Some people don't even know how to read a map because they use GPS's to get around now days. Also, we are turning into people that want everything right now which isn't always a good thing. An example of this is using paper to communicate, like letters, it is obsolete because it takes a while to get to the other person. Now days, even email is becoming to slow for us, we use instant messaging and texting more than ever because you can get a immediate response. This is also a reason that technology is evolving, which isn't a bad thing also. I agree with Mr. Powers about needing time away from online interaction because a lot of people are getting to caught up in it and it's taking away from our way of thinking and doing thing, but it is also very helpful and makes our world a better place.

Artifact 1

   The "Internet Surpasses Television" article says that the number one way for eighteen to twenty-nine year olds to view new is to use the internet and no longer the television. I would believe this to be true because there are so many people of these ages that spend most of their time on the internet, and you very seldem see someone of these ages sitting down watching the news. These numbers are also are becoming similar in the older population. I believe this is true because it is much easier to look the news up on a website rather than sitting in front of the tv waiting for the new to come on, and you do not know when the news that you want to see will come on exactly. I also think that these numbers will go up and up as the years past because everyone is wanting to know things now and not have to wait.    Thise article aslo talks about Twitter, Facebook, and internet television. Of course, how you could talk about the change in technology and not talk about these. These have became so widly popular that it is harder to find someone without a Twitter or a Facebook than someone with one. The internet television is also becoming popular because it is another way to make things happen right now, if you want to watch something certain you can just type it in and it will come right up.
   This article is almost common sense these days because everyone knows how much the internet is chaning out society in many ways. I also know that it will keep getting more and more advanced which will make more and more people relient on it. We as a society are becoming very consumed by it, which could be good or bad, but it is how it is and will be for years to come.

Unit 3 and 4 Summary

Unit 3

·         The communicative technology has grown rapidly, since the first telegraph.

o   This is important because of the speed that we can communicate with now.

·         Any new technology that came out use to be for just the wealthy, and it has become necessary for all to get through the day.

o   This technology became easier to use and to get, this makes it almost something that you have to have instead of wanting to have.

o   Invisible technology describes this because as people get so use to it in their everyday lives and they don’t even think about how it helps them, they barley even see it, like it is invisible.

·         Many people have different views on technology.

o   One view is that we as a society are using computers to enhance our daily lives and making our futures brighter.

o   The other view is that we are becoming too dependent on technology and all that it does for us.

o   Also, some people believe that some technology is not always progressive because a new product is not always better than one before.

·         There are different assumptions of technological determinism, which is the relationship between technology and human communication. These are reductionistic, monistic, neutralizing, and technological imperative.

·         Most people think that technology is shaped by society and their needs and technology can shape society because of what it does for them.

Unit 4

·         There are a lot of issues that people have with CMC 

o   CMC is sometimes associated with declines in communication with family members and the number of real friends that people have.

o   CMC restricts the quality of communication that is had because of the restraints of the internet.

o   CMC has negative effects on offline communication and relationships because people don’t get the social presence that they once did, which makes their ability to pick up on nonverbal cues that go on in everyday conversation.

o   It is also look at as being a cold and unfriendly way to communicate.

§  These issues are argued because people don’t think that you can know how a person would act in a social situation or how they act during CMC because each person is different.

·         The communication Imperative is what a human is born with to communicate and is driven to maximize our communication satisfaction and interaction.

o   Some people think that CMC and other technology is preventing us from fulfilling this.

·         CMC also changes with the variables like the time spent talking online with a certain person, any previous interaction with the other person, if there is a chance of future interaction or not, liking having CMC or not, reading time-related messages, and using emotions.

o   This changes the way the people interact with one another with CMC.

·         Impression management is a huge part of communication because it is what we do most of the time.

o   This is when we make impressions of other people and try and influence their impressions of us.

o   This is more important in real-life conversation because you can see how the other person acts and talks.