Twitter Gone Wild

After the death of Osama Bin Laden people across the nation began celebrating what was a victory for our country and armed forces.  Some people were not happy about this celebration.  One particular person is Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall who tweeted about how he didn't think it was right for people to be celebrating the death of any individual.  The star running back has come under a lot of heat for these comments and could possibly lose his job with the Steelers because of it.  In the world of social media news travels in minutes a perfect example of how fast it is and something I found fascinating was the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death at the Phillies baseball game.  As I was watching the game on ESPN, they showed people on their phones and learning about the news that the announcers or players had no idea about.  With news and “tweets” able to be accessed in a matter of seconds it is important for people who do tweet to be careful what they say.  The question is should these comments be so harshly analyzed by the media and fans.  Many pro athletes and celebrities have Twitter accounts and "Tweet" their opinions to thousands of people online.  The problem is that some of the comments displayed by these high profile celebrities are being blown out of proportion.  Rashard represents the bad side of what Twitter can do but there are other athletes that show how Twitter can be a good tool.  A perfect example of a good Twitter is Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant.  Kevin Durant uses his account to thank his teammates, fans, and organization.  This is a nice change up from the negativity seen in many other Twitter accounts.  I think that Twitter is a good way to post opinions and share ideas but before posting people need to realize they can come under heat for their comments.

iPhone

Welcome to morewhye blog! Most to of the topics I will be discussing on this blog will deal with technology and the question do we need more of it?  Have our lives been completely taken over by technology or are we still able to maintain a good balance between the real world and this other virtual world?  And how does the use of technology everyday affect our lives? The reason why I am addressing technology is because it has become essential in our everyday lives.  I, like so many others college students, am always checking my iPhone for facebook updates, emails, and text messages.  The amazing thing about technology is it is relatable to people around the world.  Not only does it connect us in the sense of texting, skyping, or calling but, is something we all share together.

            The first technology that I am going to talk about is one most everyone reading this blog can relate to, smartphones.  E-mail, Internet, texting, maps, Mp3 player and with thousands of other "apps" to choose from, the smart phones do it all.  I myself have an iPhone and love it for all of its capabilities,  it definitely surpasses my first phone, which I got in the 8^th grade.  That phone was the Nokia “brick” and the only capabilities it had besides calling and texting was the game snake and a little flashlight at the very top of it.  Technology has come a long ways since then and in a very short period of time.  So it’s hard to imagine what kind of technology we will have four or five years from now.  I would say there are a lot of positives about smartphones, their convenience and ability to contact people at any time.  But are we using this technology to its full potential?  Before I start my argument about some of the negatives about these phones, I want to state that I am pro-smart phone. I believe that there are lots of very good things about this technology but, it is important to see some of the possible negative affects these devices might be having on us. 

            One negative about this technology is the stress it can create in a person’s life.  The ability to be contacted at any place (given good signal) and at any time can be stressful.  We can constantly be in touch with teachers’ emails updating us on assignments, parents wondering what you are doing this weekend or your boss calling you to change your work schedule.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing about smart phones, in fact some could argue that is a good thing about them and I am one of them.  Getting calls about school being cancelled is definitely a lot better than sitting in front of the TV for an hour to see if school is cancelled. However, I will see people get extremely frustrated with friends or family members who do not pick up a phone calls or answer a texts immediately.  These things are to be used at our convenience not as a requirement for daily life.  The problem that is created here, is that we are expected to be up to the second on everything that is going on in our lives, we must constantly be checking our email and texts for updates. 

Today’s world is ever changing, a plan is never set in stone because all it takes is a minute or two to send out a mass text and magically all the plans change.  A good example of this is going out with your friends in a college town.  The “place to be”, seem to change hourly and once you get there somebody is texting you or your friend to go somewhere else.   I think this shows a little bit of the impatience that has developed in our society from these phones.  We are always looking for the next best thing, whether that’s a party or a brand new version of the iPhone.  We are never satisfied

Something that goes hand in hand with this is our addiction to them.  If you have a smart phone, think about where it is right now as you’re reading this…odds are it is within and arms reach of you and some of you might be reading this on your smart phone.  When a friend of mine losses his or her phone, I hear them say they feel “lost” or even “naked” without it.  I know I can relate to this because without my phone I wouldn’t know what to do, I would rarely check my email and would be unable to stay in touch with my friends.  So, it’s strange to think about a life without a smart phone, yet for well over half my life I didn’t have one.  I can’t even count the numerous times I have seen student texting down the south oval of OUs campus oblivious to what’s around them.  Sadly I will admit, I have done this several times and one of those time almost walking into traffic on Lindsey Street.  It has become habitual to check our phones constantly, almost to the point of where it is unhealthy.  The question that needs to be asked is, are these devices necessities or luxuries?

Smart phones have changed almost every aspect of how we handle our daily communication with people, making things more stressful for us.  It seems that I can never have lunch with a group of friends without several of them whipping out their phones and texting somebody.  Communication has become desensitized due this phenomenon known as texting. Calling people has become but a thing of the past, according to studies two thirds of teens prefer texting to calling.  While texting does give us the opportunity to be in immediate contact with people, it also allows people to think about what they are going to say and doesn’t give us a true representation of whom that person really is.  Things can also be lost in the translation of texts because you don’t get to hear the persons tone of voice.  This can lead to arguments and fighting because a innocent joke turns into a serious matter.  In the future, will we take a more personal form of communication such as facetime or continue our trend of sending impersonal text messages.  Also, having our phones with us at all times having to adapt to the ever changing plans of the world, constantly translating impersonal and staying in contact with people, creates a stress which otherwise wouldn’t be there if we didn’t have our smart phones.  

            In short I am neither for nor against the use of smart phones.  I think there are both positive and negative effects of this technology, making it hard to decide whether or not this technology is bad.  If used in extremes it can be bad but also if it is used the way it has been designed to be used it can be very productive.  Is it possible for this technology to expand even more? Only time will tell but should we continue to develop these smart phones or should we just leave them at their current level?  And are these devices good for our society or not?