Final Sources

        For my final three sources I wanted to explore some parts of the technology obession that I haven't yet. I want to take a closer look as to the effect on children, both good and bad. Since I've taken so much time to research the effect on adults, I think it's also important to research the effect on children. Also, I would like to get a few more statistics. I am going to use my last source to get some numbers on the amount of people using technology. 

        For my first final source I used an article from Huffington Post by Cris Rowan titled The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child. I've been focusing a lot on the impact of technology on adults, but what is it doing to our children? It's effecting them drastically. A study shows that the average elementary school child used 7.5 hours per day using entertainment technology. Most of these children have their own TVs in their bedroom, and hald of them have the TV on at home all day. Because of this we are finding that physical, psychological and behavior disorders are occuring in children. Some of these include ADHD, anixety, depression, learning disabilities, developmental delays and many many more. We need to get these children out and moving and away from so much technology. I don't completely agree with this article. I don't think that children should completely abandon technology and I don't think that using it is going to lead to an awful life. However, I do think it's important to limit what we let our children do. Perhaps letting them play an educational game for 15 minutes during the day instead of watching youtube videos for an hour would be more acceptable. I really like this article because it has statistics, which I can use in my paper.

© Belinda Pretorius - Fotolia.com

        For my second final source I decided to use is an article that comes from babble. It is The Positive Effects Technology Has On Children by Jessie Nuez. It has to do with the positive effects that technology has between parents and children. Some of the examples that Nuez lists include having easier conversations between parents and children, providing a teaching tool for children, and bringing families closer. While this article does not provide cold hard facts and statistics, like many of my other sources, I think it's a good article to get some ideas going as to how technology is a positive thing. It's totally opposite from my previous article, in that it   provides ways it's really great for children.
 

        For my final research source I chose an article from the Huffington Post. Americans Addicted To Checking Smartphones, Would 'Panic' If They Lost Device (STUDY) by Britney Fitzgerald is a gerat article which has some really good statistics that I plan to add to my paper. Did you know that an outstanding 73 percent of people say they would actually panic if anything happened to their smartphone, and 14 more percent would feel desperate without it. This article really takes a look into the unhealthy obsession that we have with our phones. A dangerous 24 percent of people admit to checking their phones while driving. Nine percent admit to checking their phone during church. But the biggest number? Fifty-four percent of people say that they check their phones before they go to bed, in the middle of the night, or when they wake up. I have to admit, I am guilty of being part of this 54 percent that is checking their phone before bed. I'm constantly checking my e-mail, Facebook, and playing mindless games. For all this talk of how smart and dumb technology is making us, it's really great to actually have a number linked to all these people glued to their technology. I think that this article will be really useful for this reason.

Citation

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Britney. "Americans Addicted To Checking Smartphones, Would 'Panic' If They Lost Device (STUDY)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 June 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/americans-are-addicted-to-smartphones_n_1615293.html>.

Nuez, Jessie. "The Positive Effects Technology Has On Children." Babble RSS. Disney, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://www.babble.com/tech/the-positive-effects-technology-has-on-children/>.

Rowan, Cris. "The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 May 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/technology-children-negative-impact_b_3343245.html>.

The Beginning of Research

          I chose an article that came from Psychology Today to use for the beginning of my research. The article is titled Is Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)? It takes a look into how the more humans are using technology the stupider we're getting. Having an iPhone, for example, is making us lazier than ever before. The second paragraph of this article begins with, "Life has become more complex but we hardly ever notice it because technology has made complexity simpler than ever." They use the example of a child today and one in the 1950's. A child today's IQ would be extremely higher than that of a child in the 50's because of fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence is, "the ability to process complex information quickly and effectively."
          The article goes on to talk about how we live in a hyper-link economy. This is where we as humans aren't so willing to figure things out or answer things on our own, but are more concerned about using technology to find the answer for us. It also touches base on the fact that technology has completely changed education and how we learn, especially the effect on our children. The article ends with the fact that technology might actually be aiding us and making us smarter. If we are able to solve problems using technology, then why wouldn't we be able to use those solutions to create more solutions?
          The reason I chose to use this article in my research is because it talks about both some of the pros and cons that technology has on us. It shows both sides to the story, so it's not just a one sided piece. It's also from a credible source. Psychology Today is a credible website and magazine and has some very intelligent and helpful articles available. I really related to this article because I agree with the beginning. I really feel that technology is making us stupider. We lean on it far to much and almost expect us to do things for us. I really like the points it brings up about it making us smarter, though. I think it's important that I explore all factors that technology has on us, both good and bad. This article definitely does this. I think it's going to be a very great piece to add to my bibliography for this paper.
          The second article that I chose to use comes from Time Ideas. The article is titled How to Use Technology to Make You Smarter. This article takes a deeper look into things that we use technology for everyday and then tells us how it can make us smarter and how it's making us dumb. For example, the article talks about a study that was done that monitored workers during the day. They found out that workers that multi tasked and switched constantly between e-mails and their work had a lower IQ by 10 than the other workers. It compares this intelligence loss to losing a whole night of sleep or even twice as much as smoking marijuana. So, what can we do to fix it? We can use programs such as Freedom which shuts off access to the Internet for a certain period of time so that work can get done, the article suggests. The article goes through other forms of communication through technology, such as texting, auto-correct or search engines. It then talks about some of the disadvantages they have on us and what we can do to use these tools to make us smarter. It ends with the summary that technology makes us both smart and stupid.
          This article is really helpful to me and gave me a lot of insight that I can use for my paper. It has a lot of facts and studies in it, so I can have some concrete evidence of what technology is doing to us. I like this article as well for the fact that it shows both sides, how technology can make us both stupid and smart. I also like how the author mentioned ways that we can use technology to make us even smarter. It was a very creative article but also very informational. I think that it will be a great article for me to use for my paper because of both of these factors.
        Overall, I think that these are two great sources that I can use to begin my research on technology. They are both credible sources, from credible websites who also have magazines. They are both filled with useful information, including solid facts. They are both creative and well written. I think that this is a solid base for me to start building off of for my research. I am planning on finding as much information as possible using a variety of sources.

Citation:

Works Cited

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas. "Is Technology Making Us Stupid (And Smarter)?" Psychology Today. N.p., 7 May 2013. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mr-personality/201305/is-technology-making-us-stupid-and-smarter>.

Murphy Paul, Annie. "How to Use Technology to Make You Smarter." Time Ideas. Time, 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2013. <http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/29/how-to-use-technology-to-make-you-smarter/>.

Picture Analysis

You're out - enjoying a nice walk in the park. You look around you, and what do you see? This. People all around you on their phones. Surfing the Internet, taking a business call, or taking a picture of themselves. It's everywhere - it's inevitable. People aren't enjoying the park because they're too caught up seeing who's getting married on Facebook. It's an epidemic! People in America are just too technology crazed. I'm convinced that people don't even notice half the things around them because they're caught up in an entirely different world.

This image even captures what I see at restaurants. People aren’t even conversing anymore because they’re too caught up on their phones. My friends and I play a game when we go out for dinner. We put our cellphones in a pile in the middle of the table at the beginning of the meal. If anyone touches their phones during the course of dinner then they have to pay for everybody’s meal. But if everyone makes it to the end then we all pay for our own.

I personally think it’s sad that we live in a world where we have to worry about

everyone having to put away their iPhones just to converse. I think that we’re so caught up with our “cyber-selves” that we even forget how to act like our own selves. I think it’s important to remember that technology is really great. It can really help us and it can be a lot of fun for us as well. However, it isn’t everything. There is a world behind that phone screen that you haven’t looked at yet. Take a minute to stop looking like the girl in this picture and take a look up instead.

Citation

"Using Mobile Phone." : Public Domain Pictures. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

http://www.pdpics.com/photo/5031-using-mobile-phone/

My research question is: Do we, as Americans, rely on technology too much? I do believe that we use technology too much and that we depend on it far more than we should. Personally, looking at my usage of technology I use it more than I realize. I use my computer and my iPhone every day. I depend on my GPS to get me where I need to go, text messages to communicate with people on a daily basis, and google to answer any questions I may have at any time I may have them. I sleep with my phone next to my bed, and it’s my morning routine to check my e-mail before getting out of bed. My gut emotion is that we are far too attached to our gadgets and what technology can provide for us, using it constantly.

I think that if Americans took the time to really look at their technology use that the majority would agree with my opinion. However, I think that there are many people that are oblivious to the fact and wouldn’t admit it. I know several people that spend lots of their time on their phone, but when you say something to them about it they deny spending that much time on their phone. I think that there are some people who are just in denial about their technology use, however, it is constant for everyone, and it’s hard to avoid. Technology is everywhere, even when we don’t realize we’re using it or seeing it, we are. I think we’re fools to think that it isn’t a huge part of our everyday lives.

I would love to research some statistics. I would like to find out how much time an American really spends using technology every day. These numbers would really help me with my question and to prove or disprove my point. I would also like to possibly interview people that I know so that I could have collected data of technology use. I am excited to do my research for this paper to help me gain better knowledge on this topic.  

Hello everyone! I'm Katie. I just recently moved to Colorado about a year and a half ago. I enjoy writing, reading, watching movies, exploring the outdoors, and taking my dogs to parks in my spare time. I'm fluent in French, my favorite director is Wes Anderson and I love to spend my days baking. I am really enjoying this class because it is opening me up as a writer both creatively and technically. Now that you know a little about myself I'll tell you that this blog will be about how technologically crazed we all are in America. What are the affects on us? Are we overusing it in too many ways? Do we rely and depend on it more than we should? Keep updated with my blog to find out these answers!