My Relationship With Technology 

Throughout this course we discussed many things including the timeline of constitutional laws in our country, the advancement of technology in communication and the advancement of technology in general. The advancement of technology is a funny thing because it is completely unpredictable and we never know what is going to make an impact and what will not. For example, the video from the world fair from the 1960's predicts what the world will look like in the future and it is very different from what we have today. They still predicted a few things to be almost correct but it is almost impossible to predict the future. There are too many variables that we cannot account for. Another example is a television show like The Jetsons. The Jetsons was a TV show that followed a family set in the future. Of course they had a lot of things like flying cars that do not exist yet in our future. It is hard to say if these kinds of things will ever exist.

I think that it is important to remember that while technology has a lot of positive benefits there are of negatives that also come along with it.  For example, social media can be seen as a huge negative. With social being in the name it has actually led to people being less social and keeping to themselves more. The video about the negatives for technology and cell phones is really eye opening being it shows how everyone looks in the modern age from a different perspective. The video follows the main character being ignored and confused by all of the people being on their phones and looking right past him. This a sad reality that we all live in. Almost anyone can relate to feeling like the people around them are ignoring them. Or in a public setting for example like going out to eat and everyone is on their phones during the meal. Every time anyone is waiting in line at bank, restaurant, and/or amusement park they are on their phone doing something. The constant screen time and phone use is a huge concern for the current and next generation.

Another notable place where technology has changed everything is education. In schooling across all levels technology is a huge part of it. I can remember since 6th grade I had my own personal device provided for me by the school. It is difficult to think about going to class and doing school work without a website like Blackboard or Google Classroom. I actually still prefer all of my tests to be done with paper and pencil because I feel more connected to the content. Technology has changed schools a lot and I think it is for the better. It is very easy to access all of your assignments in one spot and to be able to see your grades. It makes it easier for the students and more efficient for the instructors as well. 

 Our generation's relationship with technology is definitely rocky but I think at the end of the day it does more good than it does bad. It has given the world so many things to make everyone lives simpler and easier like GPS and access to the internet for example. Obviously all of the negatives technology brings like things like cyber bullying but so many examples out weigh the negatives. As a civilization everyone will just need to learn how to adaptt and take all the good things about technology and the leave the rest.

  

EOTO Project #1

The Importance of the First Email:

    The First email was invented in 1971 by a computer programmer named Ray Tomlinson. Tomlinson was working for the firm, Bolt, Beranek, and Newman and was barely even trying to invent the email because he did not think it would turn out to be such a big deal. Tomlinson was looking for a way for people and computers to interact better in addition to sending files between computers rather than just between different users on the same computers. I would say Tomlinson was successful. He was also credited with sending the first email which was really underwhelming. His first email was just a test with a combination of random letters on the keyboard. Tomlinson thought working on this project was "A neat thing to do" and did not really grasp the importance of what he was really doing. He never would have thought that on that day he would make something so impactful for the entire world.

    Looking at the impact of the email it obviously has changed communication forever. Even though it was invented in 1971 using email was not mainstream until the 1990's. As a college student email is a part of my day to day to life and it would be completely different without it. Same thing with the business world. Many occupations require you to check your email more than twice a day. Also, it is very common to find that people have several different email accounts. I know that I have three different ones for three different purposes. Many have professional, personal, and then maybe a spam email account. People have gotten very comfortable using email. Everyone is very familiar with the type of language and professionalism that is usually expected on email. 

    It is clear to see that email has had a very large impact on todays society but it is difficult to grasp how large that impact really is. The number of emails sent every second exceeds 3.13 million. There are 7.9 billion email accounts world wide and active email accounts exceed 5.6 billion. Gmail is the popular email provider with, 1.8 billion active users. The average user has at least 1.86 email accounts. It is clear that email has had a tremendous impact on our culture and society. It is difficult for people to think of world where they are not frequently sending and receiving emails. Before this, it was just phone calls. Now in the present day we also have text messages which are a lot more casual than emails. Thinking about it, it would be extremely difficult to communicate in the modern world without email. I guess it would have to consist of constant calls and voicemail. It would always be hard to learn information and be in the know with what is happening in the world. Email has been so beneficial in the way that we learn and communicate. Without it students, business owners, and many more would have to find another to communicate their daily needs.