iWrite—Gabriel Molina

How would your life have been different if you'd grown up 20 years earlier? How would you interact with others? Do you think your relationships then would differ from your present relationships? Which time period would you prefer and why?

This is a question with what I would call a complicated answer. My first response to this prompt is that before the technology we have now, people would probably be much more relational. Without texting and social networking and indirect means of communication like that, people would be forced to interact with others on a more personal level. I know people today that will not have a legitimate heartfelt conversation in person, but they are perfectly willing to over text. It’s frustrating, honestly.

On the other hand, technology has opened up many new doors for relationships with people. I can imagine how difficult large-scale communication would be without twitter or cell phones. Social media like Facebook also allows people to remain in touch with others over long distance. So although technology can limit how relational people are with others, it also allows for communication that would not be available without it.

In light of both of these, and considering that I am a pretty relational person, I would probably prefer to have grown up in the previous time period. Relationships are difficult sometimes but they are extremely important, and sometimes I feel like technology allows a degree of cowardice to keep up from fighting for authentic and personal relationships.

iwrite- Andrew Collins

It seems that most people have a fairly negative understanding  of technology's impact on our society. I, however, believe that it has had a mainly positive impact on our society, and I believe that it's positive impact will continue in the decades to come.

Technology has already become a defining factor in the way our society functions today. As we progress through the next decade, I think that we will become even more dependent on that upon which we depend on so much today. I think that wearable technology reveals much of what our relationship to technology will be in the coming years. As we seek more immersive ways in which to interact with our technology, we increasingly find that our technology is more personal when it feels more natural.  As a result, we will continue to find ways to make the line between human and technology more skewed than it has ever been before.

As we have moved through the past few years, one trend in the tech world has become evident: as time passes, we get better technology for smaller price tags. I believe that this trend will continue for quite a while,  making technology more accessible to all.  As technology becomes more accessible to more people, it will start to be viewed as even more routine.  This more lax view of technology will most likely result in innovators pushing the boundaries of how we use technology. As a result, we will probably experience a technological revolution in the decades to come like we've never seen before, for better or for worse.

iWrite - Julia Wilson

Technology has had an incredibly positive impact on my life. A good majority of what I love to do involves technology and the internet, and without it I wouldn't be the kind of person I am right now. Let me explain.

I've already told you that I maintain a YouTube channel, and that wouldn't be possible without the technology we have today. Without editing softwares created by Apple like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, without digital cameras that can have footage easily transferred to computers, without iPhones to easily capture and share video right from the phone, not even needing a computer. Without these capabilities, YouTube wouldn't be around. If YouTube wasn't around I would never have had this incredible creative outlet where I can share my content with other people from all over the world, and interact with those people right through keyboards and a computer screen.

Also without technology I wouldn't be writing this blog post right now so I guess that's another plus amiright?

Anne Russell-iwrite

How would your life have been different if you'd grown up 20 years earlier? How would you interact with others? Do you think your relationships then would differ from your present relationships? Which time period would you prefer and why?

I chose to respond to this prompt because I actually think about this from time to time! I love thinking about the good old days when people wrote letters to each other and we didn't have all these awkward situations created by social media and texting. It all seems a little more romantic if you asked me!

I think I, and the majority of people, would interact so differently with others. We'd be so much more excited to see our friends because we wouldn't be constantly texting them or reading their social media posts. We'd be forced to spend considerable time writing letters to people we cared about, or actually call them and actually have something to say. It seems so much more personal than taking two seconds to text someone!

Not to mention we'd be SO much more productive. I can't finish one math problem without being tempted by my devilish device to check instagram, snapchat, or any other counterproductive app that has wormed its way into my routine.

Relationships in general I think would be greatly benefited. A lot less harassment would occur since social media would not exist, and friendship would be mostly in person, which I find much more meaningful. Romantic relationships also would be much less weird and awkward without being able to ask weirdly personal questions over text which we somehow find to be acceptable in today's world. I just think it would all be so much simpler.

Despite the tremendous help smart phones are with helping us remember our schedules and keep up with friends, I would much rather live in a world without them.

iWrite- Zachary Whitehouse

Technology is thought to be an imconvience as much as it is thought to be a conience. I love technology at times, in fact I love it most of the time, but, I have been hurt by technology... physically. I was just laying in my bed during what I thought would be a peaceful night. sscrolling through my twitter feed, and liking ppeoples Instagram photos. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing life threatening. So I thought. In one false movement and lapse of thinking, I quickly lost a handle of my phone. In that tenth of a second before my phone dented my head I saw my life flash before my eyes, a streak of a bright white light, that was my phone screen flashed before me like lightning. I quickly became a victim of a hit and run. A "run" because my phone proceeded to bounce its way deep into the dark jungle that is the underside of my bed. End of story, technology hurts... literally.

iWrite - Emily Cashman

I went on a 10-day trip this summer, and we weren’t allowed to bring our phones. Of course our trip leaders still had theirs in case of emergencies, but us kids were completely disconnected from all of our devices during the trip.

It was really weird at first because we would all unconsciously check around for our phones, and when we couldn’t find them, we’d momentarily freak out and think that we’d accidentally left it somewhere. It wasn’t just me experiencing this strange sensation, but all of my friends as well.

It took about a full day for our brains to realize we didn’t have our phones and to stop trying to find them. After this happened, I can honestly say that none of us ever thought about what we were missing on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook for the rest of our trip. We had more face-to-face interactions and we paid more attention to what was going on in the world around us.

In this case, I think not having access to technology was a weird at first, but then it became a great thing and made our trip 10x better. However, I still believe that technology has many positive effects in today’s world.

iWrite- Caroline Totty

            Technology, overall, is a positive thing to have in today's society, but it can definitely be an inconvenience at times. For example, last year I spent several hours researching information and putting together a French power point. Unfortunately, my computer totally crashed and I lost everything. It was such a hassle because I had to take it to the Apple Store and they had to reboot my laptop and I still had to redo the whole project. If we didn't have technology (as scary as that is), nothing like that would have ever happened.

            I think technology has somewhat of a negative impact on society today. It definitely limits how often people actually talk face to face and how involved people are in conversations. It is not unusual for a group of friends to go out to dinner and just sit on their phones the whole time. People don’t interact face to face nearly as much with all the social media and texting that is available. Many people have relationships with people they have never even met and that is scary to me. When I’m with my friends I like to actually spend our time talking and laughing and having fun, not just sitting on our phones. Even though technology is very useful in today’s society, it does have some negative impacts.