Blog Assignment #8

Technology is a very large category. There are so many different things that have something to do with the technological resources we have. So you would think coming up with one research topic may be hard. However, for me I had a general idea of what I wanted to research about. I knew I wanted to research something about cell phones since they are so common. Day to day I see so many people constantly checking their cell phones, I'll admit it, I check mine all the time too. So I decided to research on how depended the average human was upon their cell phone. Some people use cell phones to manage their whole lives. My dad, for example is constantly on his phone checking emails, making appointments, texting, and talking to people, and sometimes I wonder how lost he would be with out it. This example is exactly what Nye was talking about when he said how its hard to imagine people being "pre-technological". Some people with out their cell phones would be a mess. Think of how much stuff you put in there, the contacts, the notes, it would be harder with out one. I once had a loner phone for a week with no contacts and I thought that was difficult enough.
I think many people take for granted having a cell phone now days because it is so common. This is why i choose to research this because i find it interesting how some have to have it on a daily basis to keep their lives, or the lives of others on track. Once I see how dependent people have become on cell phones, me included, I think it will show me to be more independent and to not always be attending to it.

Assignment #5

In today’s society, there are many technologies that control our world, and it would be difficult to think of our lives without them. Common day chores would become more complex and people would have to work harder to get a task done. However, technologies have been around for centuries. In “Technology Matters”, David Nye states “It is easy to imagine human beings as pre-literate, but it is different to imagine than as pre-technological.” (p. 5) Technologies may have always been around, but maybe they are becoming something new.
These days, technologies have become more of a necessity than a luxury for many people who take it for granted. Centuries ago there wasn’t a little portable television screen you could put in your car to tell you how to get places. You would have to map out your destination before you left to go somewhere. Have we all just become lazy? We have PDA’s that handle our busy week schedules, iPods that hold all of our music, and email that only requires the click of a button to send. All of these technologies have taken time and work away from us. These technologies have also given us some things as well. They have given us the power to be more productive and educated. We are now able to have mass productions creating thousands of things easily instead of making them by hand one by one. New technologies also create a social atmosphere at work places. If we have all these new technologies, we need workers who are educated enough to understand the aspects of them. This is where humans come into the concept of technology. According to Nye “Work is a social practice, requiring coordination between people, and a workplace contains an ensamble of tasks that must be orchestrated.” (p.110). These workplaces act as social places as well because practitioners can learn from others. In the book “Meaning in technology” Arnold Pacey states “Evidently, then, the social meaning of technology coexists and interact with the personal responses and “existential” experience of individuals.” (p.78)
We all want what we can’t have, and we all do have these technologies that run our lives. Nye states “Technologies are not foreign to “human nature” but inseparable from it.”(p.) If you didn’t strive for the next new big thing, or want something better than what you’ve got then you aren’t human. We are all human and it is within our genes to always strive for something better. In the book “Existential Technics” by Don Ihde he states “It is a hunting and gathering society whose form of praxis is one which gains its living from hunting animals and gathering plants and their products, but it is not primarily a sedentary society which practices agriculture or animal domestication.” (p. 15) Here Ihde is comparing the needs and wants of a new technology to our hunting and gathering nature, always trying to get the next best thing.
When we think of technologies many of them do help a lot and some might be lost without them. They bring both good and bad along with them and never fail to produce something bigger and better. They allow us to grow faster and let us do things that we would otherwise struggle with. In the end I think we definitely would not be where we are today without the technologies we have.

Blog Assignment 5

I recently read Chapter 7 entitled "Work: More, or Less? Better, or Worse?" from the Book Technology Matters bye David Nye. I have come to conclude that technology is one of the major factors that has lead to tough economic times, and it also leads directly back to The Human Factor.
Work, as defined in Technology Matters, is a social practice, requiring coordination between people. This definition makes me think of the Human Factor because in that article it talks about how the people using the technology at work might be the ones causing the problems. If you work at a place where you are using technology, you are required to understand it in order to use it properly, and that's where this definition comes in to play. In the Human Factor the people operating the technical machines obviously did not know how to use them correctly which lead to a terrible disaster. This is one thing in technology that we need to look out for. The skills of workers who use it.
Technology and economics are directly related in good ways and bad. With technology growing as fast as it has been, it has now taken over many jobs. we see this switch in jobs being filled with people to machines because they are more efficient and cheaper. This technology shift can be a good thing because it can take over petty little tasks. As stated in Technology Matters "Such work is boring, it isolates workers from sustained contact with other people, and does not lead to new opportunities." So in this sense technology taking over is a good thing, it gives people a chance to find better jobs. However, on the opposite side, this shift can be a bad thing and one of the major leading factors of how the economy is. Technology Matters states "The coming of industrialization meant several things: unemployment for some skilled artisans, monotonous low-wage work for others (often women and children), high wages for a few mechanics and some new jobs in the factory hierarchy (for example, in marketing and accounting)." Is technology putting us in these low economic times? Many people have been laid off because companies have been cutting back due to slow business. "Most telephone operators have disappeared, replaced by automatic switch boards. Many bank tellers have disappeared, replaced by automated teller machines. Computer programs have replaced many white-collar workers, allowing Internet users to file forms, pay bills, and make applications online. Will all the jobs disappear?" This quote form Technology Matters explains why people have been laid off.
This switch from human labor to technology has already affected us hevily. From helping people with dangerous jobs to cutting people out of jobs it will always come with it's good and bad. Who knows someday technology could be running our whole world.