Pg's 85-149 Blog

After reading the second half of the book “Computers the life story of a technology” I came away with a lot of good points to make. Although the book as a whole was pretty dull I learned some good stuff from the book. In chapter five they discuss all the different computer and computer software companies. One thing that I took special note of is when they began to discuss computer games and how video games really got started; the reason being is I play a lot of video games and am interested in the topic. For kids and even for some adults video games are a huge part of the culture weather people realize it or not. It is obvious that video games are entertainment for customers and people that play them. This just shows how important entertainment is to the American culture; entertainment comes in so many forms of technology and will never fail to bring in mass amounts of money. The book quotes “The revenue in the game market surpassed the revenue generated by movies in Hollywood” (Pg. 105). I can only imagine the revenue of Hollywood and its movies which is also entertainment, but for video game revenue to pass that is amazing and really shows us what entertainment means to the American culture. The computer was never really meant for entertainment. It was always meant to organize and calculate equations and numbers faster than a human could ever do so. Who would have known that a computer would tap into the entertainment industry and be that successful?

            Chapter six talks about networking and the finding of the internet, this chapter I found to be the most fascinating. As it discusses the development of the internet and networking in chapter 6 it is obvious the relationship it has with our culture. Our culture has become addicts of the internet, they rely on it every second of every day, and it is mind boggling to see how dependent our culture is on the internet. It has almost allowed us to take off the label on a long-distance relationship. Although it doesn’t discuss web cams in chapter 6 it’s almost necessary to understand what networking has done to our culture and understand all the effects of it. We can now sit at a desk and see someone and talk to them like they are right in front of you. This has increased the amount of distance relationships that I have personally seen and I believe that newer technologies in the future are only going to make it easier and easier for distance relationships. This is one of the many that networking and the internet has had on our culture.

            Computers have undoubtedly become a part of everyday life for people in our culture as discussed in the final chapter concluding the book, “Computers and electronics have become pervasive in everyday life” (Pg. 131). Computers have even enhanced criminal activity for people such as hackers. The relationship to electronics basically runs through every thread of our culture because we have become so dependent on them. The invention of the computer and internet has single handedly shaped American culture and will continue to do so for as long as computers exist.

Pages 1-83 of "Computers" blog

After reading up to chapter 5 in “Computers the life story of a Technology” I came away with several observations and relationships between technology and culture. Although the first half of the book was not the most catching of reading material, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was actually quite interesting. In the first chapter of the book it really describes all of the work that has been put into developing these technologies that we have in our culture today, not only do people in our culture take the technology that we have for granted, it made me realize that we take for granted people like Charles Babbage and what they sacrificed for technology. I found Babbage to be the most influential person in chapter 1; this mathematician sacrificed what many would say his life. In his creations, he lost his family and his health severely declined due to his work in creating technology. “Babbage lost his wife, daughter, and father, and his own health deteriorated,” (pg. 15). This can even relate back to American culture today because I see people losing friends and distancing themselves from family because of technology. For example I see people all the time glued to their computers and T.V’s and not ever wanting to move or go out and be social. This can affect friends because people stop calling that individual because they never want to go out or move from their apartments. This can also affect health because people like this never want to go out and exercise which is a key part of an individual’s health, and I am quite confident that this was part of Babbage’s health decline as well. It is sad that people get so caught up in technology to lose friends and become distant from family.

 Chapter 2 talks about the advancement of technology through World War 2 and also following the war. A quote that I found very interesting on page 30 was as follows “World war 2 was a war of science and technology as much as it was a struggle between fighting men” (Pg. 30). The part of chapter 2 that really stuck out to me as a connection to today’s culture was the competitive spirit between all of these creators from different countries and companies. That’s what drove all of the creations through the war because countries needed better technology to give them an advantage. Just like in chapter 2 there are law suits often in our culture over ideas that people patent. This competitive attitude is still present today in the same way, scientists and inventors are constantly competing to develop the best technology.

The invention of the Transistor that it discuses in Chapter 3 I found to be the most interesting of this chapter and the easiest to relate to our culture. The book says “Vacuum tubes, constantly struggling to deal with excess heat, their bulky size, and their penchant for failure.” (Pg. 50). This was so interesting to me because you look at some of the technologies on the market today such as T.V’s and cell phones and people are always trying to decrease their size to make them more convenient for consumers. In my life time I have noticed a severe decrease in size of T.V’s from Box T.V’s that weight a ton to flat screens that are only about an inch in thickness which is amazing. The same goes with phones as well, my first cell phone was a pain to carry around because it did not fit into my pocket easily because it was bulky, and now that is never an issue. Cell phones are designed smaller and thinner to fit into your pocket conveniently. The mentality they discuss in the book and the mentality today has not changed, constantly reducing the size of technology and making it more convenient for consumers whoever they may be.

The last relationship that I found between technology and culture in chapter 4 comes from the characteristic that is so obvious in this chapter and the whole first half of the book. People are never satisfied with what they have, they are always trying to adjust things so they are better even they really are not better. This helped drive technology in the time periods talked about in the book and continues to drive technology today. For example on page 70 it discusses the invention of minicomputers. This is a smaller and more sophisticated technology that undoubtedly better than computers that are larger in size and less sophisticated. People being dissatisfied with the previous models of technology are what drove the invention of the minicomputer. The point being is technology can only get so good and so fast and do so much, but people will always be demanding something new and better when in reality it may not get any better. This could cause technology to get worst in the future because people will try to make something better that really cant improve therefore making it worst.

Blog #1

I guess I never really understood how the use of technology in my own personal life affected me. I shocked myself after the first day, in a nut shell technology basically runs my life. In order to keep in contact with my friends and family it is mandatory that technology in the form of a handheld phone be involved. I surf facebook nonstop and keep in touch with people all around the world. Technology is literally involved in every aspect of my life, and the sad part about it is I really do not have a choice seeing that friends and family are the most important part of my life, and if I want to maintain a solid relationship with them I need to stay in touch with them. I am also a member of the Rutgers men's soccer team and practice times and lifting times everyday get sent out via email or via text, without this it would be difficult for my coach to maintain the order of the team. Needless to say technology plays a major part in my life and my technology log that I kept over the past few days really helped me realize this because a lot of the time you take things like cell phones and computers for granted.
Truth be told this is my first time blogging. I can say that I am a fan, I set up my blogging account and I am able to display my thoughts very freely without holding back. Now that I have to blog for this class I will be able to express my full opinion in words so my professor can really no what I am thinking. Not only will he know what I am thinking but he will know what the rest of the class is thinking as well. I believe that blogging can really being out peoples true feelings and opinions and an honesty on certain subjects that wouldn't normally be expressed.