Technology and You

Jaquan and Iz with phones. Gloria, Amaris, Taylor, Nylevet and Marlisa

“Teenagers forget how to be alone. You need to be alone in order to feel your emotions and realize who you really are. We forget that we are human and that our feelings, both good and bad are really important things that we have to understand. When you have a cell phone, you can just call someone and then you, the you that is important and needs to feel, disappears.”[1]

            Many, many articles have very recently been written concerning the effects that instant access to communication will have on the human race as a whole. You all should realize that your lives straddle a paradigm moment in human history, something like the invention of written language or the printing press. The 21^st century will be noted in centuries and millennia to come as a turning point in human history. And you are here to record it. Here are some thoughts:

1) Who are we when we go online, compared to who we are in the real world? Are we idealized versions of ourselves online? Can we accept our imperfect selves in our real world? How does this affect our relationships? How will this conflicting self-image affect our corporeal, mortal lives? How does your reality match your online presence?

2) Will the world online, or indeed, a virtual world become more appealing than the world that is real?  Are you comfortable alone in the real world?  In the near future, will we only exist in the cyber-world, in idealized versions of ourselves? Have our phones become extensions of ourselves?

Courtney and Leah

3) What, actually is reality? It seems nothing exists unless we can document it on our phones:  We take endless photos of ourselves, our friends, and every experience of our lives – as if these records matter more than our own memories. When we view these endless pictures, we take more time from the moments we live. Do we have a life when we aren’t viewing a screen? Who will ever view these photographic graveyards when we are dead, when they themselves will be busy photographing – and not living – their own existences? Thus, technology does make cowards of us all, which Hamlet might have uttered had he been imagined in the 21^st century.  Does something need to be on a screen to be real or remembered?

But, I realize, nothing here even begins to cover what you, who are growing up in this world, must already know. Still, I think because of smartphone technology, your grandparents were much braver than you will ever be.  Can that be a good thing? 

In this unit, I would like to help you develop the following skills:

• To be able to research and provide professional citations for information from an assortment of articles to help you support your own thesis on how the Internet affects your life.
• To have a close conversation (without technological interruptions) to a person about life without cell phones.
• To be able to experience, even in a limited way, the world without connections.
• To think and write thoughtfully about how you perceive the effects of the Internet on your everyday life.
• To be able to write a professional, personal essay on how the Internet affects your life, with correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, formatting and citations, in which you synthesize all the knowledge gained in this unit.
• To give you insights you may use to enrich your understanding of yourself and your world throughout your life.

Assignments:  How does our world of interconnectivity positively and negatively affect your life?

1)      View video shorts in class. Pay attention. Graded. Take notes. Four needed for classwork. 

2)      First Thoughts: Free write. Write a personal reflection on how the instantaneous ability to document your lives, access information and connect with everyone in the world affects your life in positive and negative ways.

3)      Interview: You will interview someone who lived in days before cell phones.

4)      A Day without Cell Phones: Keep a journal to see what happens!

5)      Read articles and stories  in class and analyze these for meaning and claims. Research and analyze your own articles. Four needed for classwork. 

6)      Synthesis Essay Rough Draft: Write a first draft of your paper with in-text citations. Using EasyBib, print out a Works Cited page for your articles and interviews. 

7)      Final Draft/Final Exam: Come to the exam prepared to write your final draft.

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[1] Rivera, Aaron and Barbara A. Sasso. "Why was losing your cell phone a good thing?" Personal interview. 21 Mar. 2014.