Technology Log

Summary of use of technology in the last few days:

Facebook:

Used facebook to invite people to a party in boston that I am not even attending

Forwarded messages from friends internationally to my phone so I can text them

Keep in contact with friends from 3 countries, 5 different states, 9 different colleges

Phone:

Sent/received an average of atleast 15 texts per hour

Use iphone to look at my schedule, email, facebook, to-do list,

Used iphone to look up next bus

Laptop:

Used to take notes

Facebook

Skype

Music

Jailbreak iphone

Homework for Accounting, comp apps, technology and culture, transfer student class

I actually went through three phones in the last three days. Thursday night I broke my iphone by dropping it then got a temporary phone for friday. Then I got a used iphone and had to unlock it because I have no data plan. After three hours of going through the internet and playing with the phone I managed to make it work. 

I think facebook is a great tool for social networking and keeping in touch with people. I also think that it is a huge distraction and can make focusing on the computer almost impossible. An accounting assignment that should take me 10 minutes on paper takes me 30 on the computer. But facebook allows us to do many things that would be impossible before facebook was made. Today I used facebook to invite 120 people from my hometown, Boston, to an event in Boston that I am not even attending. I use the messaging feature to contact people in other countries and have the messages forwarded to my phone essentially to have free texting internationally.

The iphone, or any cell phone for that matter has become a third arm for many kids nowadays. There is not a time during the day or night that we will not reply to a text within 20 seconds. Some of us can operate most of the functions of our phones with our eyes closed, or in our pockets during class. My iphone does create a lot of convenience for me, I use it for almost everything from texting to email or looking up the bus schedule. . When my phone broke I felt lost, i lost all my contacts and could not contact anyone. I didnt know where I was going at night, could not coordinate to meet anyone without having someone else text them. I did not know my schedule and had nothing to keep me busy while waiting 30 minutes for the weekend bus. Despite how helpful it is it also creates a lot of stress on the individual. It has become a subconscious reaction to pull out my iphone, hit the home button to see if there are any messages/calls then hit the power button and slip it back into my pocket, seamlessly. The constant texting keeps me from being able to focus for a long period of time such as in class, in conversation or even writing this blog. People now feel that I have the obligation to let them know where I am and what I am doing at all times. If I dont reply to a text within a minute it is followed by three other texts asking my what im doing that is so important that I cant reply, as if I fell off the planet and am being searched for. Even sleeping is difficult with the phone vibrating the entire table every couple minutes, its like I cannot sleep till every one of my friends are going to bed, like the whole world is wired together and wakes and sleeps at the same time.