From the Atari to the Xbox 360 (Blog Post #4)

My parents were a part of the Baby Boomer Generation. My mom, Cynthia Lacey, was born in 1952 just five years before Russia launched Sputnik. My dad, George Lacey, was born ten years before in 1942 not even a full year after the Pearl Harbor attacks and the United States was headed to World War II. My parents have lived through it all. So long, that they have children and grandchildren for the preceding generations. My younger sister, Tanya Lacey, was born in 1977 right at the end of the disco era and hitting the 1980s era where Michael Jackson and Madonna were making their staple on the world but also during a time where the first IBM PC computer was released.

I came along, a mystery still to this day, and in the time of boy bands and Power Rangers, a shift was happening where our society started to become more interconnected with the global phenomenon we call the Internet. Technology has had a great impact on our society. My family included has shown how much we have evolved from using a typewriter to using an iPad. Technological advances are beneficial to us as we can see how much more convenient it has made life. Yet, there are some downsides to this convenience that technology has provided. To start with the positive my sister told me the type of technology she had as a child was an Atari and a typewriter. “We used typewriters to type our letters,” stated Tanya.

She explained that technology has made life easier for her. Skype, Facebook, and e-mailing were mentioned in our brief chat about how it has made social interaction easier. My parents mentioned the same benefit of technology. My mother discussed how even using the telephone has made things a lot because you can get in contact with people easier. When my father was growing up, all he had was a radio. They both agreed that technology has made cut down the wait time for communication.

The pros of technology are very obvious. Yet, my father easily pointed out a flaw that exists with convenience, “Everything we did in school was my pencils not by pushing buttons.” This statement shows that we are very comfortable with using technology but we forget that we have our own brains to do functions. Another issue is privacy concerns that many people are currently recognizing as we use more social networking sites. Many people have Facebook but are not aware of their privacy settings. “Some don't use privacy controls. Almost 13 million users said they had never set, or didn’t know about, Facebook’s privacy tools. And 28 percent shared all, or almost all, of their wall posts with an audience wider than just their friends,” (Golijan, NBC). With the ever growing social networking sites (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, PinInterest), we need to become more aware of what people have access to our lives.

            Overall, technology is really a great benefit. We have come a long way from waiting to get a response back for a letter that was written yesterday. Everything is instant as my father pointed out. Yet, becoming aware of some of the negatives that technology has brought upon us is important as well.

Works Citied:

Golijan, Rosa. “Consumer Reports: Facebook privacy problems are on the rise.” NBC News. Published. May 3, 2012. Accessed: Sept. 16 2012. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/consumer-reports-facebook-privacy-problems-are-rise-749990