That's a wrap!

Education. Health. Entertainment. Everything that surrounds us is beginning or already has incorporated technology in some way or another. We, as a society, have launched a completely new portal to the digital age and there is no going back.

I went to google.com and searched for web definitions on the word: Technology. There were various definitions, ranging from incorporating science to having the ability to use technology; basically being tech savvy. What does being tech savvy even mean when we are in a world that is updating and modifying everything that has to do with technology. Take Apple Inc. for example, they tend to update their products every year or so. Their competitors are then left with no other choice than to keep up or lose major business. My definition of tech savvy, the ability of being able to keep up, have some kind of knowledge on how best to use technology so that it helps and not only entertains or becomes a distraction. But, of course everyone has their own opinion.

The range of opinions, I attribute to diversity. There has never been a time when diversity has been so available. The digital age has made it easier to communicate with anyone in the world. Countries and cultures have been exposed. In some ways, it is a great advantage, but many don’t believe so. There are still skeptics and it will take a great deal of time for individuals to accept the tech world.
After taking this information 3.0 course about technology, I can accept I am a skeptic, but not in the manner most skeptics are. We’ve all heard of the people who abhor technology; those who won’t dare touch it or allow it into their lives. I’m not that type of skeptic.

I truly believe that we can use technology for our advantage. It can help us advance in various ways. However, we have not learned how exactly to harness it. We don’t use it to our advantage. We use technology as a diversion, for entertainment. This is where my skepticism comes into play. Although we are on our way to learning how to use technology correctly, we will then become too dependent. We will forget how to use our innate abilities and ultimately disappear. For example the level at which we push our brains to think. Our minds have the ability to memorize great amount of data, just like a computer. The only problem is recall. Remembering exactly what a memory is and when it occurred isn’t as easy. This ability of recall will decrease even more. Our professor explained that we are on a path were everything will eventually be digitally documented. We won’t be able to recall at all and rely so much on something that might alter the way we communicate with each other. Thus, leading to even more psychological-social harms than already exist. Some professionals believe that because our huge use of virtual interaction that we are forgetting how to interact physically with others; that we are forgetting how to read people and facial expressions. That is a pretty big assertions (alike to my own), but in some ways can be found insightful.

Consequently, the information 3.0 class helped opened perspectives that I otherwise wouldn’t have learned about on my own. I have created a standard that I would like others to respect. I don’t mind that many haven’t been taught the correct manner to use technology, but please don’t waste my time. If my colleagues didn’t learn much at all from this course, please respect this comment. Don’t waste others time with items that might not affect anyone in a huge manner especially about personal items. The digital information was very positive and a great learning experience.

Tech world observations

As noted by my blog title, I decided to learn about technology’s role in diversity. To be more precise, the role it plays among its users. I had intended to run my own survey consisting of about 18 questions. A few middle school teachers were willing to pass out the survey, but then there were some parental issues and then needing to get permission from higher authorities and it made the entire quest too difficult. The survey consisted of questions like age, gender, school grade, whether the individuals or their parents were born in the USA or not, if they owned any tech gadgets (like cell phones, Blackberry/iPhone/Droid, home phone, digital camera, video camera, TV, VCR, DVD player, MP3/iPod/Zune, CD player, computer, laptop, printer, microwave, Nintendo DS, PSP, XBOX, PS3, Wii, E-book/Kindle) and the following:

1. Do you have internet at home?
2. Do you use the internet at school or library?
3. Do you have an email account?
4. Do your parents have an email account?
5. Do you know how to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint?
6. Would you play games on a computer that had no internet?
7. Do 1 or both of your parents’ text with their cell phones?
8. At what age did you FIRST use a computer or the internet?
9. Do your parents know how to use the internet?
10. What’s your favorite video/computer game?
11. What can you do with a USB?
12. Do you play any sports (outside of school)

Nevertheless, I decided to make my own observations and ask a few individuals. I tried to pay attention to children more so than adults because children make up the new generation. This generation has grown up with technology as young as 3 years old. The generation, Mark Prensky calls the D-generation (digital natives). What I was able to conclude was that children in a household that contains more technology and tech savvy users will tend to know more about how to use technology than others who may know how to use technology but with adults who may not be as tech savvy. Of course this is a huge theoretical assumption noting that I have a limited amount of observations. In addition, there seems to be more of an “addictive” behavior for children growing up with technology than with children who began to use it in school.

Examples:

Yesenia & Stefanie, 10 & 13 years old

I informally interviewed a girl named Yesenia and her sister Stefanie. They attend my church with their family. She and her sister are first generation Americans. Meaning, her parents weren’t born here nor did they attend school in the United States. She did not grow up with much technology. The family owns a television, stereo (with a cassette player), one house phone, digital camera, and a radio/CD player. They form part of the economically lower-class. However, because of school projects such as science fairs, they have learned to use the computers at school and at public libraries. I even let them borrow my laptop when they need it for school work.

They seem to know how to type and use internet explorer, and also play with cell phones and Mp3s. However, they weren’t sure how to use PowerPoint, iTunes, or email. They did need help for printing. In addition, I asked them if their parents knew how to use computers and other technologies in general; they didn’t. Their parents do own and operate standard phones. So this suggested to me that children, not surrounded by various technological devices from a young age and without tech savvy parents, may not have knowledge of several items like printers and computer programs etc. However, since accessibility to so many different items (computers, iPods, cell phones) is available via libraries or friends, then the children can become savvy.

Cesar, 10 years old

Cesar is a cousin of mine; he grew up with various technological gadgets and is pretty tech savvy for his age. He knows how to change desktop backgrounds, create e-mail accounts or social networking accounts, take pictures using a Nintendo DS or digital camera, send texts, pix-text messages, use Microsoft word and print his school work. Of course, much of it is due to him growing up with me and always asking me what I was doing on my computer. However, his twin brother does not know as much as he does. Yes, his twin can use the computer as well to type, search the internet, play games, but not create accounts or print. I attributed this difference to the knowledge of understanding and grasping concepts. Some individuals learn quicker than others and some are genuinely more talented. I just thought Cesar was a quick learner and that growing up surround by older kids and technological devices made him so tech savvy. However, his twin brother is not as tech savvy, although he has had the same experiences growing up. So I concluded that the level of understanding of a person and whether they are gifted can affect how much one interacts with technology as well. This can also explain why some adults adapt to technology quicker or more than others.

From these observations, I interviewed my math teacher Jennifer Clarkson to hear her opinion on how technology can affect the school system and her overall opinion. The interview can be heard in the following audio.

As a mathematician she stated that the rising debate is “how and how much to integrate computer technology” when it comes to school and specific course, such as mathematics. She believes that the knowledge of calculators and computers is important but, “at the same time you still need to have the intuition you can only gain by not using the technology.” I agree with this perspective. Some items are best learned without technology such as math, especially at a young age. As Clarkson noted, technology shouldn’t heavily influence young developing minds. She believes that there is “no reason to use technology in elementary school,” when children are fundamentally learning. In some areas it seems to be reasonable, however in the manner society is changing, learning to use technology in other scholarly areas will be extremely important.

Currently, having knowledge of computers, specific programs, and devices is a great advantage for both employees and employers. Learning at a young age may be necessary eventually. However, we must regulate what exactly to incorporate into the education system. As Clarkson offered, arithmetic skills have not been so great among the D-generation because of the dependency on calculators. Past generations seem to have better arithmetic skills because of the lack of calculator use.

Then again, “correlation does not imply causation,” as Clarkson stated and maybe technology itself cannot explain the difference, but roles are changing and the school system is adapting to this change. Technology is greatly depended on by some, feared by others, and skeptically accepted by many. I think with time, many opinions will become more positive about what technology can offer if appropriately used, especially in the education system among the younger generation.

Twitter Applications

Twitter has become extremely popular during the last couple of years. Tweets range from everyday comments to vital information during emergencies and crisis. Thus, many mobile devices and computer applications have been created to facilitate tweeting.

Just to get an idea, I used an iPod touch and searched “tweet” under the App Store. There were at least 20 applications from which to choose and download. Some are free and some aren’t. I downloaded three applications: Twitter Inc, Tweetboard, and Tweet. The first is the website in a mobile form. It provides the exact same buttons as it does on the web. The retweet, #, and @ buttons are all included. Personally, I find this one to be the easiest to use out of the three. I might be biased in that it is the exact model I use online and prefer to keep the knowledge for both. In addition, it is quicker and provides the other tweets by scrolling upwards instead of having to reload a page or wait. In this application, one can also chose to unfollow or follow other tweeters.


The second model I downloaded to test out was Tweetboard. What got my attention for this app was the image of a sun and clouds; very colorful and inviting. Once downloaded, I noticed it was rather different than the Twitter Inc application. Instead of a list of tweets, it provided a specific amount of pages, each for one tweet. At the bottom there is a button provided so that one can scroll quicker, but I feel it takes up too much time and space. The page does provide a button for one to retweet and reply but only for the tweet on the page. In order to create a new tweet one must press the “New Tweet” button but it does not provide the symbols from the first application. It is more difficult to hashtag and reply to a fellow tweeter. Unlike the first app, Tweetboard does not include the following abilities: hashtag, geotag, shrink URLs, or use the photo library.


Tweetboard compared to Tweet, however, seems to do much better. Many reviews I read were upset that with every tweet a commercial after it. Some of the customers called it “Spam machine.” Others said the application would crash on multiple occasions. In my case, it wouldn’t download at first. After multiple attempts, I was finally able to access it. However, I was in the luck group of the “crashing incident.” I was unable to really test it out. Therefore, I went to the reviews. However, not all of the reviews were negative. Some really liked the features included and the price as well. But most of them found it too difficult to manage. One review said they need help finding the settings.

All in all, I prefer the Twitter Inc application. But there are other similar applications as well. It just depends how patient a person is and how often they use twitter in order to choose the right application for them.

Addictive personalities & problematic mobile phone use

A research study was done on addictive personalities and problematic mobile phone use in 2009. The study passed out 570 surveys; only 444 surveys were used. To set up the study, the researchers determined the traits that could indicate problematic mobile use such as gender, self-monitoring, and approval motivation. These traits are also indicative of addictions like alcohol, drugs, and internet use.

The study also examined and analyzed other similar studies done in countries like Australia and the UK. According to a different study done in 2005, it was noticed that technological advancements such as the ability to personalize ones phone by color, ringtone, wall paper, can enhance the over attachment one might feel with their phones. The investigators took this all into account and predicted that they could expect loneliness would be a high predictor of problematic phone use and addiction.

The predictor variables they used (independent variable) were as follow:

• · Gender
• · Self-monitoring
• · Approval motivation
• · Loneliness

The dependent variables used in this study include:

• · problem mobile phone use scale
• · The reported time per week spent using a mobile phone
• · The reported number of people the participant talked with regularly
• · The reported time per week spent writing/reading text messages
• · The reported number of people the participant exchanged text messages on a regular basis

After determining the mean, standard deviation, skews and all the mathematical part of the research, it was concluded that high self-monitoring was linked to addictive behavior, approval motivation had a close relationship with problematic mobile use but a weak relationship with time spent writing/reading texts, Gender was a weak predictor of problematic phone use, and loneliness could not predict problematic mobile phone use but could predict the overall use of the dependent variables such as time spent using a phone and writing/reading texts.

It was noticed that lonely people tend to be introverts and they tend to be less susceptible to problematic phone use. This is the complete opposite of high self-monitors who are extraverts who are susceptible to peer pressure.

I was impressed that loneliness could not be an indicator for addiction or problematic use. However, it did correlate with the dependent variable for the time used in texting, phone use, etc. The researcher concluded that future studies had to be conducted in order to fully comprehend the psychological traits that indicate problematic phone use.

The gender indicator, I also found interesting. There was a weak relationship among it and problematic use. But it was visible that females were more likely to experience more problematic use than males. The investigators inferred that cultural or ethnical backgrounds could influence addictive behaviors. When compared to an Australian study, this relationship was not visible. However, the relationship is visible in Asian countries. According to another study done in Japan, it was seen that females did not have such a high relationship with problematic phone use because of societal pressures on how women are supposed to behave.

Consequently, this study reminded me of the study I participated in my journalism class last semester. The study was conducted on 200 students. We were to go 24 hours without the use of any media. Phones, laptops, internet, newspapers, iPods were all included. I handled the assignment pretty well. I finished my class assignments on time and read half of a novel I had been meaning to start. I did not have any distractions and it felt pretty nice. I guess I can attribute my success to the fact that I’ve watched to many films about technological robots taking over the world and how we must not be so dependent on items like iPods and laptops. However, I probably was in the group of few people who enjoyed this experience. Most of my other classmates couldn’t handle it and broke the 24 hours. Some even stated that they went through light symptoms of withdrawal.

Our study was pretty successful and was featured in many news articles. The following link is one of them, and provides details about our findings.

http://bit.ly/bg2Bj3

Visualizations

ATTEMPT 1:

After being taught what exactly make photographs eye catching and great at depicting a message (such as the rule of thirds and lighting), I decided to give it another try. The first two pictures I took that were supposed to resemble "diversity among tech users" seemed unnatural and unclear at what I was aiming at. The following photographs are my first attempt:

This young lady had no idea I took this picture. She was so absorbed in what was happening with her playlist that she didn't notice me with a huge camera snapping away. I really thought this was a good depiction of what tech users are like on a daily basis. Technological gadgets range from use and purpose and this picture shows it. An iPod, used to pass the time while she waits for the bus and of course a very distracting tool .

Unlike the previous picture, this young lady was not using technology for entertainment. She was doing homework and checking information on Elms from what I spotted. Her screen is not completely visible. But the way she seemed to be concentrated and not distracted caught my eye, and again I snapped away with my camera. However, she did notice a girl with some camera aimed at her and asked what I was doing; this surprised me. Although she was working on one task, she was able to stay aware of her surroundings; multi-tasking. An outcome of what many believe is caused by the early introduction of technology at a young age. However, from what I encountered, not everyone can multi-task (effectively).

This photo above seemed to project the ability to multi-task as well. The young lady was using her laptop and cell phone simultaneously although she focused on one more than the other.

The diversity spotted amongst these photos is not that different. In fact, they seem to present more similarities. They are both female, college students probably around the same age. I tried to get males involved but it seemed that most of them weren't using technology on such a nice day. They were playing sports and involved in physical activities with other males.

ATTEMPT 2:

During the weekend I had planned to get some more shots by going to a local library or park, but due to midterms and projects that had to get done, I didn't have much time and instead used my family. Below is a picture I took of my younger brother playing his sony PSP or possibly using the Wifi. I took this shot because it gives a different view on diversity. First of all, he is male, and younger than the pictures of the females I took before. He is also using a different gadget. Instead of a laptop or phone, he is using a gaming system that also incorporates Wifi.

The two pictures that follow are of my grandmother. She is in her late 60s and manages to use a small-buttoned cell phone to call her daughter. I caught this moment on saturday evening and found it to be useful in depicting diversity among tech users because of the difference in age between her and the other subjects.

Online Visualizations

Diversity is defined in several different manners depending on the topic at hand. However, when you get down to it, it is basically the range and variety of whatever is being observed/examined/studied etc. In my topic, diversity among tech users covers an array of individuals. The most noticeable diversity classification is considered to be age. At least that is how many see it. Take the picture above for example, one of the words describing digital diversity is "youth." Age, seems to bring about an interesting topic. Many people assume only the youth and young are able to tame the technological world and disregard the skills of those who are older. Age becomes very visible as in the picture above as well; the young people are depicted as the wireless mouse and the older individuals are depicted as the bottom left mouse. All of those ranging in between and also depending on your skill are represented as the other mouses. However, the following photographs depict the diversity that can be found amongst all techies, no matter what age they are.

Of course, most of these photographs are used for commercials or marketing and do not provide a great deal of (useful) information. But, they do take into consideration the classifications. For instance, the last photograph of the senior citizens using the computer on the left was used in a TV commercial for an internet company. The company tried advertising that their internet is useful for all and for everything, even e-mailing photographs of grandkids to their tech-savvy grandparents. However, I think most of these pictures are generic; used as attention grabbers to those who fall under their classification. Therefore, I think that in order for them to provide educational or useful information at all about diversity, the photo must be accompanied by a caption or an article.

Adults Adapting to Technology

Adults have done a fairly well job in trying to keep up with the changing times of the 21st century. Most have gotten round to using email; some better late than never, have learned how to use text messaging. I know for a fact that my own mother texts me more than she calls me while I am away at college and it makes life easier sometimes. However, there is that older American generation who has tried to avoid the technology boom. Beth Azar from the American Psychological Association says that these adults “still do their banking with live tellers, write letters in long hand and hang up the phone on anything but a live voice” (2). The people in this world must come to the conclusion that technology has infiltrated almost every aspect of life. And it has come to the time where certain individuals need to take the responsibility of learning new technologies which will make their lives easier after they get comfortable with it. The only two disadvantages that Beth Azar tells us about is that (1) Older adults “tend to have little experience with technology, and (2) even the healthiest among them show declines in cognitive and motor function that can interfere with their ability to use technologies” (3). With time, older adults may or may not learn to use new technologies. But in the end, it comes down to whether they truly are competent enough to use the technology.

Contradictory to Beth Azar’s article from the American Psychological Association, the University of Delaware has conducted a study in which they presume that older adults’ motor skills may not interfere with their ability to use technology. Video games have always been blamed for weight gain, and the lack of fitness in little children and teens. However, the new game console Nintendo Wii has everyone up and about. There are games that allow people of all ages to play outdoor sports indoors. Wii tennis, Wii bowling, Wii baseball, and Wii Fit have everyone up and exercising. “Orsega-Smith from the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition at the University of Delaware, is conducting research on the use of “exergames” –games that require physical exertion as an input to gain feedback from the system—with older adults” (1). With a group of undergraduates, Orsega-Smith and her team “compared the caloric expenditure of playing various Wii sports games –bowling, tennis, and baseball—or 30 minutes….The calories burned ranged from a low of 18-89 for team bowling to a high of 22-114 for baseball. If we assume an average of about 50 calories for half an hour three times a week,” Orsega-Smith says, “that's 7,800 calories a year” (3). Even though older adults will be participating in these activities and studies, these activities are nowhere near helping them avoid chronic heart disease, high cholesterol, muscle fatigue, tendonitis, etc… But it is helping “slow down the ‘middle-age spread’ that occurs gradually with age” (4). It is better than doing nothing.

In light of the information we uncovered, we decided to create a survey that could either demonstrate that adults of previous generations are neglecting modernizing with technology or if they are adapting. The survey was composed of twelve questions that also asked for age, occupation, and gender. The questions are as follow:

1) To what extent, do you operate a mobile phone on a daily basis?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Frequently
2) To what extent, do you use the internet on a daily basis?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Frequently
3) On average, how many internet user accounts do you uphold on a daily basis? (ex: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc…)
1 2 3 4 5
4) To what extent, do you know how to operate Microsoft Office?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Proficiently
5) To what extent, do you know how to operate Photoshop?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Proficiently
6) To what extent, do you know how to operate iTunes?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Proficiently
7) On a daily basis, how often do you operate text messaging?
1 –Not at all 2 3-Moderate 4 5 –Proficiently
8) Do you own any gaming consoles?
0 1 2 3 4 5
9) Do you own a Smartphone?
Yes No
10) What is your occupation?
11) What is your age?
12) What is your gender?

We had originally planned to ask ten adults and in order to have a unit of comparison, we decided to ask ten college students/young adults the exact same questions. The method of surveying was slightly difficult. We did not want to create an account on surverymonkey.com or online in general because we thought it would skew our data from the start. If we decided to put the survey online, those who are not adapted to the internet will automatically be denied access. However, due to the short time, we sent out an e-mail containing the questions to the survey. We did not attach a file in order to make it simpler.

Unfortunately, out of the ten young adults/students we emailed, only eight replied. Yet, it is not as bad as the response we saw from the older adults. Out of eleven emails that were sent out, only two responded. We didn’t think two responses would be sufficient enough to support our study. Our prediction was that the surveys would demonstrate that our generation and those that follow have a greater interaction with technology. However, the adults will also show a greater interaction than that implied by Beth Azar’s article, but of course not at the same level as the college students sampled. In order to gather as much data as possible in the time we had, we re-emailed the surveys to students, and took a different approach for the adults. We did re-email them as well but we also did some physical interaction. Instead of using the internet, we printed the surveys and physically interacted with adults. We were able to get a University of Maryland professor from the College of Arts and Humanities to participate. Although, we wanted to get more professors involved, it was not possible because of the midterm assignments that were taking place this week. Nonetheless we were able to get a total six surveys done by adults and ten by young adults. The data was compiled into the following tables:




According to the data we collected, all the young adults use the internet, cell phones, and interact with technology as we had expected; although, there are a few exceptions. Students D and E do not own gaming consoles, Student D does not know how to operate iTunes at all, and more than half of the young adults’ surveyed do not own a smart phone.

With the data collected for older adults, there seems to be variation. Some of the adults use their mobile phones more than others, and half of those surveyed use the internet more than they use their mobile phones. There is a similarity in the ownership of smart phones in this group as was seen in the young adult group. Five out of the six do not own smart phones.

After analyzing the data, we came upon an alternate conclusion. Our predictions were supported by our findings. The adults that we were able to survey do interact with technology and incorporate it to some degree in their daily lives. The level of incorporation is seen to be higher among young adults as we had predicted as well. However, we did learn something new; that certain factors contribute to the older adults’ adaptation to technology. Looking at the data, it was clear that the occupation of the older adults had a level of correlation with how often or proficiently they function with technology. It is seen that the CEO has the highest level of technology incorporation on a daily basis. Compared to the educators that make up half of those surveyed, the lowest level of technology incorporation was seen among the carpenter and retired. We could infer that age might also have an influence, and it might, but in this case it is not such a great factor because the carpenter and CEO are nearly the same age. After taking this discovery into account, we concluded that there are many other factors such as age and ethnicity that can influence how much an older adult will adapt with technology. Yet, in this scenario our original predictions were supported.