Cellphone Law Past On All Military Bases.

Sgt. Sara Wood. 2006, January 6th. DoD to Restrict Cellphone Use On Military Bases. American Forces Press Service. Retrieved 2011, April 7th. From: Link


Just like the cellphone law that is already passed and enforced here in Alaska and most of the United States, it is now enforced on military bases as well. No one shall use a cellphone while operating a motor vehicle unless the vehicle is completely in park and off the road. It later explains in the article that cellphone uses will be enforced at all times and that they're still setting up rules and regulations and punishments for the law that they're setting in place. Being as this article was written several years ago, that law is now set in place and enforced throughout the country, and not just on military bases.
So many accidents and other bad things has happened to people driving drunk. It has been provent hat while texting during driving it is 70% more likely that you'll show signs of Drunken driving, than if you weren't texting and driving?  Texting and taking and/or making calls or uses of your cellphone causes distractions that can later be deadly. All cellphone uses should be stopped by everyone, not just military, but everyone. 

Small Change

Malcolm Gladwell. 2010, October 4th. Small Change: Why The World Will Not Be Tweeted. The New Yorker. Pg. 42 Vol. 86 No. 30. Retrieved: 2011, April 7th.

It took a little bit of time to get to the main point, which is Malcolm Gladwell was talking about the whole movement with the college students, and other such movements that created change in the world, especially in the 90's ect was able to happen without the internet. This movement was successful without being tweeted on Twitter, a status update on Facebook, or a short text or telephone call on a cellphone, but by word of mouth. We are getting so caught up in our new age way of communication that we are actually loosing touch with talking face to face. It also discusses that people will ue the new sense of communication through social networks for the bad. "Without Twitter the people of Iran would not have felt empowered and confident to stand up for freedom and democracy." That's highly unlikely. I'm sure they felt it before they got twitter updates and tweets from friends and other people who felt the same way. Government or no one person can stop the connection that feeds through the social networks and cellphone communication systems.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Nicholas' Carr's, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, was incredibly interesting. It put your mind in a constant thinking mode. The article talks about how google, or the internet in general is shapping and re-forming how we think and how we operate. He talks about how the internet makes it feel like his mind is different. "My mind isn't going - so far as I can tell - but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly
when I'm reading." Not only did it cause him to loose his focus when reading articles or books ect, but it will happen to the best and most of us.

Is Google Making Us Stupid? opened a lot of thoughts that we usually never address head on. Whenever we have a spare time, we're always on the internet or our phones. We never used to be like that maybe ten years ago. The internet, Google especially has made us lazy. We don't need books anymore with them online and just a click away. We have everything in a book or magazine at the click of a mouse. We don't rely on such things anymore if we have Google. Google links us to the world in a way. The way we use the computer, search engines such as Google, and the internet, it is re-shaping us and how we think. Google has an auto-correct system, or a "did  you mean.." option to it as well. We don't need to type out a full thought or question without it guessing and assuming. 95% of the time, Google knows exactly what we're looking for and where to link us to. Whether we'll finally recognize our addiction to the internet, technology and especially Google, we'll never know.

Opinion off Classmate's Blog

"Link to Classmate's Blog"

What he had to saw about this article was, indeed, very strong and very opinionated. I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. For example when he said, "Now that people have this vastness of information at their fingertip, they want more. They want bigger, faster, and better."  That is totally and completely true. We are a generation that wants the latest and the greatest. We're so hooked on what we have now, and we're addicted to making it better. We're going to continue to improve and come out with the latest and greatest, and we're all going to fight for the best. I think he did an excellent summarization of the article assigned, and stuck to his opinion.

Games

Johnson, S. (2011). Games. In S. Cohen (Ed.) , 50 Essays (pp. 196-201). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

The topic of the essay “Games” by Steven Johnson is video games and how they have been unfairly criticized. Though Johnson is aiming for us to remain avid readers and not just learn from video games, he suggests that video games may have more benefits than are conventionally understood. He claims that although playing video games improve visual intelligence and hand-eye coordination, they don’t do justice to the imaginative experience of reading a book. At the same time, the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern video games has been distorted. Johnson cites parenting expert Dr. Spock and Andrew Solomon to support his claims. Johnson’s essay shows how the increasing penetration of electronic media into every aspect of our lives may hold both loss, as in the decline of reading, and promise, as in games’ novel ways of entertaining and informing us.

To Young, or Old Enough?

"Too Young?" <--- Article

Napier, Stephany. 2010, November 11th. How Young Is Too Young. The Daily Runner. Retrieved 2011, April 7th. From http://dailyrunneronline.com/?p=434

Summarize: 

When is the right time for a child to get a cellphone, why and why not is what the article is talking about. There are certain circumstances for when a child (6yrs) needs a cellphone. For example, a woman in the article bought her son a cellphone to keep in contact with him when she needs to go to class early and he's with his great aunt. She bought it for him to tell him when to walk to the school bus and how to keep in contact with her. I like how she bought him a phone that doesn't have internet access, texting, or anything fancy like the newer cellphones. It later goes on to talk about cellphones among older kids (13yrs). Kids at that age (13), should have a cellphone in my opinion, but in the article it says that it is a lot more distracting for kids that age to have  a cellphone in school because it causes a t distraction away from school work. Furthermore in the article, Dr. Andie, author of the Best Investment: Unlocking the secrets of Social Success for Your Child, "believes technology has changed social interaction for children. She said on her website, “I recently read that the typical teenager sends or receives more than 1,700 text messages a month while making or receiving just 230 calls..."  That's really true, especially as a kid grows up and becomes more like our age. It gets worse and worse, from something so innocent at the beggining it will continue to get worse.

Advancing Technology and the Addiction of Cellphones

I recently asked a question to my friends on Facebook. The question was "Do you think our future generation will be addicted to their phones and technologies in the future. Feel free to say yes/no and why if you'd like." I got several comments of people just saying "yes" meaning yes they will be addicted. Not once did i get someone saying, "No." Some actually said why they'll be addicted to their phones and technologies, like John. "Yes, because in our society we strive to get the latest technology and we need it more and more in our everyday life to make it easier to live and to help our basic needs." He later adds, "it is becoming the norm of the way we do work,and the way we live. You can't live without a phone for example." I actually agree with him. Most of us are so attattched to our smart phones, that once we loose our smart phones, its impossible to downgrade to something less...extravagant. Another friend, Ivy, said, "yes because I had to down grade to a blackberry and I'm already dying from 4 days without my iphone. no joke. its really sad." I related to her, because one i upgraded to an Android and it broke, I had to downgrade to an LG. After having all that internet access, the apps,t he full keyboard, the games, ect. it was nearly impossible to go back to something that doesn't have all those features. I think those features on the smart phone help our addiction to our smart phones. Lastly, Ellie said, "yes because there's easier access to these new technologies. It makes things like connecting people fast and simple, or it's lazy and it's not as special. Like take letters for example, who mails letters to people anymore when you can just have Facebook or Hotmail do it for you? times are changing ..for sure" I think it will soon come to the point where we wont send letters anymore, we'll only be sending packages. I think that our technology will advance so fast that our future kids will be learning how to opperate their new technologies in schools. They've already replaced teaching kids how to write in cursive and they're already teaching them how to use the internet and type. What next? They'll be teaching us how to Facebook more appropriately?

Addicted or Abusing?

Our Generation is a "new digital generation" according to David Greenfield, founder of Internet Behavior, thinks that our generation is leading to abusive and being more adddicted to our cellphones, especially texting. In the video he explains that our addiction to texting on cellphones will get worse, especially in the younger youth culture. "Some teens are taking their cellphones to bed and some even have it under their pillow." I thought that it was kinda funny that he sounded so shocked. Of course teens will have their phones with them or near them at all times, its part of how we communicate to others. The video also explains that having a cellphone can be similar to having a secretive identity almost, because we have our own way of communicating to others, the way we talk to others,and how we can really have no emotion or ties to the conversation we have to it. What i really enjoyed about this video is the question the interviewer asked: "How Do you know if your kids are addicted to their phone?" David Greenfield replied that you're looking for certain signs such as grades in school dropping,not getting up in the morning, "performing poorly in social arenas", more sleep deprived, or physical issues with their thumbs. In my opinion, i dont think that you can just tell by those if you're addicted to texting. If you're addicted to texting, regardless of when you get the text message, you will most likely read and respond to it no matter what it is, or who its from. Even if your response is a "yeah", "k", or "yup" or something along those lines, responding to any text at any time is getting toward an addiction of texting. Texting just to text could be another way, or having your phone on you at all times. Me, I know i'm addicted to texting, or in a way my phone in general. I'm always on it, i never let it die, my phone is never off, and it is with me at all times. could be taking the garbage out, and i'll still have my phone. Most of us do carry it at all times. Some of us let it die, but most of us will keep our phone charged just to text, or to facebook or to provide entertainment throughout the day. Our generation, and the generations to come will soon be addicted to not just texting, but any type of future technology that will allow us to get in contact with one another.

CBS NEWS. 2010. Retrieved 2011, April 6th.

This  blew my mind. It is exactly how things are when it comes to the human race and the internet. I never noticed how using the machine, we're teaching it things. I never thought to think of us as teaching it "ideas." But in a sense we actually are teaching it ideas, different languages, ect. Its amazing that we went from writing things down on paper to actually being able to type them and using digital forms of writing. This video got me into thinking about when we go to use a computer, we dont fully comprehend what we're actually doing. Like when we make a Facebook page/account, we didn't know that we're secretly setting up links, and connections to other people, the website, and the internet as a whole. We're just thinking about creating a social networking page to connect with our friends and family. Not everyone may see the information that we put out there on the web, but we still created a link that connects us to the internet in some way or form. It is kinda freaky, but yet its cool to look at. This video will make us think, and realize things that we may have not noticed before, and granted, we'll all interpret this video differently.

A Driving Distraction Addiction

"Distracted Driver Awareness Month" --Article
Keri Brenner. (2011, April 04.) Nine Cited in First Day of "Distracted Driver Awareness Month". Rohnert Park Patch. Retrieved 2011, April 4th from http://rohnertpark.patch.com/articles/9-cited-in-first-day-of-distracted-driver-awareness-month




Article is mainly about how the state of California has cracked down on their cellphone use while driving. This month, or April, is Distracted Driver Awareness Month. They've cracked down and have given several tickets to where their ticket count has nearly doubled. When They've given a ticket to someone the sum of the ticket would be roughly $159 dollars. That's outrages, and should help convince drivers to be more careful while driving.

Opinion: We'd all love to say that we've never texted, or taken a phone call, or made a phone call when we were driving, but chances are we're all guilty of at least doing ONE. Our cellphones are more of a distraction than lets say, a handsome or pretty person walking down the street. In the article police were cracking down on the "no cellphones while driving." It also says that a fine would be about $159 dollars! Not even one text or two, or a phone call would amount up to that, so would it really be worth making that phone call, taking that phone call, reading that text, or sending a text? To me, I wouldn't think so, but you know there's going to be at least one person who will do one or all of those things while they're supposed to be focused on the road. I'm happy that the California Office of Traffic Safety is putting that on there in California. Maybe Alaska should do the same. Do you know how many teens would be given a ticket if the officers in Alaska would really crack down on that? How many accidents would be prevented? I know for a couple people that if their cellphone wasn't such a distraction, then their car insurance would be a lot less, they would have their vehicle still and they wouldn't have been grounded for a long time. Even when we're busy doing other things, like driving, our cellphones are still playing a big role in our lives. In my opinion, i think we need a technology cut. meaning we need to cut ourselves away from our technology, especially our phones, for a LITTLE bit.

Textually Active

You ever notice that our whole culture is revolving around our cellphones and our smart phones? How about our ipods, iphones an ipads? We're loosing touch with our face-to-face contact with the world. Will technology take over everything? In the article above it shows that texting is more likely to be the way of communication in relationships, than face-to-face talking. We ask people out through text, we break up through text, we communicate in general through text, and with some things, you can do face to face talking...through a phone. Will we come to a day where we will rely entirely too much on our cellphones and other such technologies that we will loose touch with actually seeing a person face to face? What happened to letters that you put in a mail? We've replaced them with texting short messages. What happened to walking over to someone's house asking them if they want to go hang out? We shoot them a text asking them if they're available. I will admit that I am completely and totally in love with my cellphone. I am not the only one, a lot of us rely on our phones or other technology throughout the day. I'm afraid that our generation as well as the future generations, will become totall reliant on technology and the new technology that is yet to be produced.