The findings of Smith in the Pew study were no surprise. Once again we see that individuals under 30 and those with at least some college education are more likely to use mobile technologies. However, I was surprised to see pictures catching up with text messages at a 92% rate.
“Would be forecasters often forget that human societies coevolve with technology” (Raine & Wellman, 2012, p.276). This quote from our readings this week pretty much sums up my feelings about the discourse within computer medicated technology and where we are heading in the future. There is so much doomsday rhetoric in our society about the role of technology and the degradation of “real” communication as a result, but our readings this semester have provided research to combat that argument. There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention, and we are the reason these technologies are coming to fruition. Take the Lifelogging technology that is talked about in the Raine & Wellman reading, it seems like science fiction, but is it really different than the way we currently document our lives? Instagram and Facebook currently use their photo hosting to keep track of your location, the event date and time and keep it all in chronological order for you, so lifelogging seems like an expansion on the same thought process.
The concern we need to have in the privacy of our information once its loaded into these mediums. The boyd & Hargittai reading confirmed that Facebook users are aware of their privacy settings, and manage them actively. However, with news breaking daily of hackers stealing credit cards numbers in mass from store databases and the CISPA, how much will adjusting our privacy settings matter?
The next few years will be exciting and frightening as our memories are cataloged in chronological order or us but also as our information becomes more vulnerable. As I mentioned in other classmate’s comment section, one of the more exciting things I’ve seen recently is 3D printing. However, I’ve also read an article recently on how this technology could be used to make weapons in the home. All of this is enough to make one’s paranoia spin out of control, but we have to keep in mind all of the pros of technology we now take for granted. For example, instead of being bound to a classroom at least one night a week for 12 weeks, we got to use these blog posts to facilitate our academic conversations.
Do you think we are at the point where computer-mediated communication has become ordinary? And if so, do you anticipate any more drastic changes or phenomena to pop up in the years to come? It seems like the rapidness of change associated with CMC has slowed down in the list two to three years.
I don’t think its become ordinary quite yet, but we may be on pattern of normalization with smartphone owners moving on to their second device and more and more apps going by the wayside as our attention spans shorten. The availability and affordability of mobile may have jaded us to the new developments happening now, but I don’t think that means we are slowing down.
I think anyone who is born after the late 90’s or early 2000’s is living in the era where CMC is becoming a thing of the ordinary. These kids have seen nothing but communication technologies all around them and it is the first generation to be submerged in the idea of the ordinary.
3D printing could theoretically be anything; we don’t have limitations on our concepts yet. It could help as much as it could harm. Yes, it might disrupt traditional business models if they can’t sell products. But they can sell the designs, and the raw materials (something like ink that is composed to create paper, metal, plastic, or even food.) My favorite positive spin on 3D printing was essentially ink of nutrients – where bars of food could be printed that could sustain life and provide all the required supplements. That could be revolutionary.