Core 1-Why do we rely so much on Technology?

Madison Taylor

Mrs. J Moody

ENC 1102-0112

9 February 2010


Why do we rely so much on Technology?

When asked to recall when and how I learned how to use a computer, I can’t remember. It feels as if I was born with the knowledge, sort of like walking or breathing. When I think about this fact I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. I partially believe that we rely too much on computers, but without them we would be so lost. Computers and technology have truly shaped the world today. All of the advancements we have made are all due to the technological improvements. It seems like every day the companies are coming out with something new or a newer version, such as cell phones. If you don’t keep buying a new cell phone just about every year you will not keep up with the newest technologies, sort of like the QWERTY keyboard or the touch screen. For some who are less fortunate and can’t afford the latest trends or who are not used to these technologies are being left behind because technology is advancing too quickly. Albert Einstein once said “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”. (Technology). Sooner or later the world will be way too tangled up in this digital world. Or is it already too late?

We start learning about computers when we first learn how to speak. First we started learning by using fun internet games. We would use programs like Zoombinis or Oregon Trail, where you have to do easy tasks like matching the characters to cross a bridge. Although you might have thought it was just a fun game, it was also the start of teaching us basic life skills as well as the beginnings of how to use a computer. Then we advance to using the simple computer programs like Microsoft word to write our school work and take notes and Microsoft PowerPoint to give simple presentations that include pictures and text. Sometime in middle school most kids are required to take a computer class that recaps the programs you already know and teaches you all the programs on the internet so you can do research. This class also tries to improve your skills by teaching you how to type without looking so you can be able to type fast and flawlessly. Then entering high school there are multiple digital classes you can choose to take which will help you become more prepared with technologies you are interested in. They offer classes like photography which advance your skills in Adobe Photoshop, yearbook that teaches you Adobe In-design, or even drafting that guides you in programs like Auto-cad.

By the time you graduate you should be at the technological level that you should have to help you in the future. With all this digital literacy in the world it is almost imperative to have these electronic skills. According to Selber there are three literacy categories known as functionalist where we are users, critical where we question digital literacy, and rhetorical where we are producers of technology. He also states that “students who are not adequately exposed to all three literacy categories will find it difficult to participate fully and meaningfully in technological activities” (Selber, 24-25). But the problem is that these access’ to electronic learning in school were not there forever, which leaves a vast majority of the population, completely clueless of these programs and their capabilities. Older generations don’t necessarily own computers or cell phones because they don’t see the point. Although, the main point of learning these skills is not only for your enjoyment but for the workplace as well.

Just as any other social technology in the world advances, the technologies in any workplace advance too. People often laugh at the McDonalds employees because they feel they are uneducated but when you think about it they are using complicated technologies as well. These employees now have digital ordering systems and even the drive through is based on technology, which may be hard for the people who haven’t learned such technically advanced programs. In my future I want to be a radiological technician which requires a lot of skills. Mainly the main point of their day is to deal with computers and digital machines. X-rays are no longer printed out and looked at over a light. The photographs are taken by such advanced machines that the images remain on the computer the whole time and even can show up in 3-D images on the screen. In this field I will also need to be familiar with the bigger machines we use not just the computer software. I will need to understand how the machines take a photo and process it into an X-ray on the computer. So in order to do this job I will have to be prepared to know the computer programs as well as the machinery involved. The hospitals programs are also advancing with having the ability to put all of the patient information into a digital database. All business’ everywhere are digitally advancing. Now-a-days it is no longer just the business careers that need to be technically savvy it is nearly every job.

Finally, the problem with all these jobs becoming technically advanced is that we do not realize how much of the world is not to this point. This is probably a cause of why older people are going back to college. The digital world has taken over and is shaping us and how we do things in our everyday life. We may look at how amazing this is and how much we have began to do because of it but it is also causing just as many problems. The problem with technology is that they are just machines and can malfunction or break all the time and people have become so dependent on them that they suddenly become confused. Take a calculator for example, the calculators are becoming so advanced they can probably tell you the weather. People rely on them to do anything from hard algebra problems to simple math. But when they break or the battery dies, people suddenly become lost and forget how to add big numbers or count change. So although these technical advancements have become such a great help I still feel like they can be hurting us if we let them control us. I don’t feel like a new technical advancement is necessarily needed every day. People in the past managed wonderfully without all of these devices, so can’t we just go one day without all the machines taking over?


Works Cited

Selber. Multiliteracies for a Digital Age.24-25.

"Technology Quotes and Sayings." The Quote Garden - Quotes, Sayings, Quotations, Verses. 14 Oct. 2007. Web. 11 Feb. 2010.

Audience Analysis Article, Lizzy and Madison

Audience Analysis and Persuasive Writing at the College Level
By: Kathleen Black
According to the article, “research suggests that audience awareness, consciously using ideas about an audience to create or revise text could be a key factor in helping explain differences in writing ability.” The article is a study that gave half the participants given information about the audience and not to the other half. The results showed that the higher audience analysis the more persuasive. The author claims that higher levels of education with more audience analyses leads to higher level of persuasion present.

Audience Analysis and Persuasive Writing at the College Level. Kathleen Black. Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Oct., 1989), pp. 231-253. Published by: National Council of Teachers of English. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171145

Core 1, Part 2

What I would love to do for my career is to be an X-ray technician. This is what I want to be because I love the medical field but not the blood and guts. Although in order for me to have this job I will need to be a lot more tech savvy. I will need to learn how to use advanced computer programs such as the sorting programs that allows you to look at patients files and file the x-rays with the right person. I will need to learn the program that controls what the machine takes an x-ray of. I should also be very knowledge able about how the picture is taken and processed into an x-ray. This field is very digital advanced and will require me to be very familiar with using bigger machines to do the work. Also if I choose to advance in this field to possibly doing CT scans or MRIs I will advance into learning how to further look at 3D digital images on the computer and be able to tell what is wrong with the patient. Or to use programs to look at slivers of the brain as well as other organs of the body. So for the most part I will really advance into the digital programs on the computer that interact with high tech machines. As well as looking at digital images and understanding how the x-ray machines run.