The Shift
So far, we’ve talked about what technology has done for us, but we really need to address what technology has done to us. The videos on the homepage of this website presented two very differing points of view:
2. Mobile devices are bringing us closer together as a human race than ever before in history
But which stance is correct? Or is one of them correct? These questions are worth exploring.
- Mobile devices are making us more distant and lonely than ever as human beings,
2. Mobile devices are bringing us closer together as a human race than ever before in history
But which stance is correct? Or is one of them correct? These questions are worth exploring.
Communication
Mobile devices have drastically changed the way that we socialize and interact with one another. In order to completely understand social expectations, we need to understand a definition of what it means to be a social being.
“Relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other.” (Merriam Webster)
restaurant and texting it to a friend or sharing it on social media. Perhaps, depending on the people in your company, you may act to do something like this or not.
Texting and social media has changed the communications game for many people. Not only do they “let us present the self we want to be” (Turkle, 2012, para. 10), but they let us access our social circles and networks whenever and wherever we want to. As a result, many choose to access those circles and networks frequently, particularly in menial, repetitive experiences, such as riding public transit. For the folks against ubiquitous mobile device use, they view this as antisocial and isolating behaviour (Campbell, 2005; Hyman, 2014, July; Jerpi, 2013; Smith, 2012). For those that prize mobile device use, they see this as connecting the world for increased positive social change. |
|
Exploration
The image embedded below is called a ThingLink. If you tap on or hover your mouse over the image, red dots will appear. Each of these are links to some outside articles, videos, comics, or infographics that we thought would be worth exploring. Choose 5-6 of them to explore, read, or view and as you do so, try to think for yourself: what has technology done for us? What has it done to us?