This is my research paper for ENG102 that I need reviewed. I would like review on content, presentation, overall flow, and perhaps some tips for MLA style citations if needed throughout. The draft on my Word document is already double spaced and properly formatted, so don't worry about pointing those things out on this thread. And thank you for your help.
Staying Analog in a Digital World
Technology and faster communication has grown exponentially over the last several years. With technology becoming such an integral part of everyone's daily living, it's important to use it wisely so that it doesn't negatively impact our lives and the way we communicate. Since the eighties when the internet first started its rise, the concept of information sharing over vast distances at an accelerated pace has remained the goal in communications. As each year passes, newer devices and apps (applications) arise that help us communicate with others across the world. For personal use or business communication, these tools have started to revolutionize the way we speak with one another on a daily basis. According to the United States Census Bureau "In 2013, 83.8 percent of U.S. households reported computer ownership, with 78.5 percent of all households having a desktop or laptop computer, and 63.6 percent having a handheld computer."(Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013, File, Ryan, 2014). It also continues to say that "74.4 percent of all households reported internet use, with 73.4 percent reporting a high speed connection". Just looking at those numbers, it shows that almost every house in America is wired up to view, interact and communicate with the world at large. It's within this growth that we must ensure we're using these devices and apps as tools to communicate and not in the place of actual face to face or "analog" communication.
Within the realms of communication on the net, social networking has taken the forefront and even became a term common in the daily world. In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, the report states that "As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites"(Social Networking Fact Sheet, 2014). Overall, the report shows a growth of 65% use for all internet users between February 2005 and September 2013. That's quite a change in the last decade. Even as I remember them well, most early sites were pretty basic, like Myspace, offering mainly a way to customize your profile and connect with musicians and artists as well as eventually opening up for the more widely used friend function. From there, I watched as Facebook actually became something that I didn't know what it was, to the massive popular site that it is today. Focusing on its function to keep people connected to their friends as well as streamlining the overall abilities of the site, it surpassed Myspace and became the network for everyone to be on. With all these sites, the goal remains relatively the same: connect and share your life with those around your and those who can't be near.
The sites functionality has made it easy to share your life in a matter of seconds. You can upload photos straight from your phone that you just took and the world can view it in less time than it would take to wait for a Polaroid to develop. Your thoughts, as intelligent, dimwitted or down right ridiculous as they may be, can now be texted and posted almost as fast as your brain thought it. On one hand, this can be a great and spectacular marvel of technology. In fact, that's what's helped social media take off in the world as something we all want to be a part of. The other side, is that with all this quick communicating, we still have one flaw: human nature. In work and school, we've all most likely experienced a course on behavior management. This type of training often focuses on allowing yourself to cool down in heated situations before speaking your mind. With all of us humans being able to "speak" online almost as fast as thinking, many don't take the time to consider the impact of what they're saying. What once may have only been heard by three people or less is now broadcast for anyone on your list of followers. Negative and even hateful things have gone public from all figures in society that later have to be deleted for backlash reasons. It's within this area that it's important to remember to have a sound mind and exercise good judgement in using social media tools.
Before I break down three key areas of my focus, I'd like to highlight some upsides to all this tech. As previously stated, with information being shared faster, more people are getting actual news from social media as opposed to traditional means such as newspapers and even television reports. As far as newspapers, it does negatively impact that job market but it does well to save the trees in the environment by not having so many papers being printed daily. News stations and newspapers have even embraced this technology by creating Facebook pages to keep their readers updated as the source for the news they need. Facebook even allows for local neighborhoods to create yard sale pages where people can search and find people locally selling items they may be interested in. This was usually done by driving around on a Saturday morning or searching the classifieds in the local paper or bulletin board. Social media sites have even helped raised awareness for local community events and charities by getting the word out to more people which in turn, enables more people to help.
There are some downsides however even with those same positives I just covered. With most people using social media as their news source, that also means that false information spreads much faster as well. Many hoaxes about celebrity deaths have grew like wildfires from morning first posting to the news release by the evening that includes a public statement by the actual celebrity claiming they aren't in fact, dead. With these sites, much of our personal information is put in to set up or keep a profile accurate. In doing all this, people are often left open to intrusion attacks where a hacker can obtain all the details about someone and steal their identity. Many people even set up fake profiles, so much in fact that there are television shows that look to expose such individuals when caught. Social media also tends to become distracting to students and employees as they shift their attention instead from the tasks as hand to the ever updating world of their social feeds. This can cause a drop in grades for students as well as a loss of productivity in employees in the workplace. And overall, people who tend to spend more time on the internet using social media as their primary means of communication can actually become anti-social and less inclined to participate in face-to-face interactions.
With those pros and cons stated, that's why there should be a focus on being sure you're using the tools intelligently when dealing with key situations in life. In general, most goals for people center around one or a combination of things like getting an education, finding a great job/career and finding someone to spend your life with as a partner. These traditional goals are evolving along with the advent of the technology available. Schooling has seen an increase in online attendance given its ease and ability to lower the cost of tuition. In looking at a study on E-Learning, it shows that almost 50% of college students are taking at least one online class. This is likely to keep increasing as the benefits to online courses stay on the rise. The ease of taking courses online makes it possible for many working adults of any age to find time to complete a level of higher education. The downside here is that more time on a computer means I higher rise in the likely hood of distractions. Being on the device that actually connects you to sites like Facebook and Twitter makes most people inclined to look "just for a second" to see what they may be missing out on instead of studying. Also, the shift in focus I believe also changes the ability to retain the information being taught. I know it's fairly common place for most situations I've been in to hear the comment "Just Google it" when someone doesn't know something. This instant access to information has the benefit yet people aren't retaining the key core knowledge that once was a taught and focused on.
From an offline perspective, there are psychological effects to all these social media sites as well. Often times, young teens who are learning how to deal with the world, can put too much weight on the interactions that take place online. Not being someone's friend or even the greater crime of unfriending someone on Facebook can start trivial fights for no real reason. And as if media didn't already do this enough in television and magazines, but social networking has a way of pushing impossible images of perfection to the youth culture obsessed with trying to obtain these standards. Sure, it can push people to better themselves or work to achieve those goals, but often times it actually causes those who don't fit into the status quo to develop low self-esteem towards their own appearance or physical attributes that make them anything less than perfect. This psychological shift isn't helped when thousands of strangers on the internet make hateful comments towards one's differences. The amount of hate comments online by far outweighs the amount of support some people get for the things they do daily.
In the workplace, there's always been training on proper business communication. As phone conference calls and web cam meetings take place more often, the need to focus on how to speak properly becomes more prevalent. Beyond just the possible upper level meetings, the regular average employee is receiving more coaching as well. As the studies show, almost everyone is on the internet voicing their opinion. When it comes to company information, you might not want things out in the open. Training on corporate levels focus on instructing individuals how they should conduct themselves online as agents of the company. It's not just that person anymore that is affected by what they say, but it's read by so many people and that employee is associated with the image of the company. As a representative to an employer, it's important to maintain the mindset that you are an agent to that company and shouldn't say things online that may tarnish their image as well. Such actions can often result in disciplinary actions and even termination if the damage is severe enough.
Beyond that, there's also the customer service angle to contend with when dealing with sites like Yelp. Many companies now are starting to realize that people use their phones to find ratings for places and often will decide whether or not to shop their based on what people are saying about that business. This is changing the way employees handle customers as the companies teach them to focus more on creating a better experience each time someone walks in. It's no secret that most people will always remember the bad more than the good, so it's no surprise that people tend to be more verbal in their reviews when they have been done a dis-service. Another aspect to that is the reporting of these dis-services which can at times be very public. In the news, it happens frequently when they'll cover a story of a receipt that was tweeted by an individual that had some negative remarks on it. While there is also at times reports of positives, the negative ones tend to get more coverage and are more outlandish. This kind of thing stays in people's mind. Even the corporate level C.E.O.'s have felt the burn as they try to adopt this technology. There's been several instances where a business or company owner tweets their opinion or belief and when it's met with a non-favorable reaction, it's re-tweeted and sent across the world so it sticks in people's minds.
Dating is the final point to touch on when it comes to the changes in society. As old fashioned movies and the stories from our youths would most likely tell us, dating used to consist of seeing somebody you liked and doing the chase until you swooned them so they'd be yours. These days, the chase typically involves starting up the internet browser and doing a search of all available candidates within your radius that you choose. It certainly takes a lot of the leg work out of things and actually can help you find a partner easier considering you enter a number of data search points that fit your specific needs. Many relationships have actually been the culmination of the proximity searching we now do and some even work out really well. So well that there's over 2,500 dating sites in the United States alone and many of those are specialized by need such as by age, ethnicity and even perhaps job function such as farmersmeet.com.
This access to instant dates paired with a society that's becoming akin to throwing things away and replacing them with the newer and better is causing what I believe to be a shift in thinking about relationships. As someone who is braving these same digital waves, I've found that people don't put the attention or time into building a solid relationship. After all, why go through the hard times when the grass might seem greener with a new candidate. Between experience and personal accounts from other individuals, a fair amount of online relationships end when one person just fails to delete their profile and continues to look even after being committed to someone. Another inherent problem is that with smartphones offering so many applications and chatting tools, many people actually step outside of their relationship by finding people on hook up apps such as Tinder. There's actually even a dating site that is specifically set up for people who are cheating and who don't want to get caught. Now that's not to say that this hasn't been a problem all these years, but in the days of newsprint and land lines, it was simply harder to do.
There's a reason I believe people step away from their partner and it actually ties back in nicely with every other point made so far. Communication is one of our most basic tools in society. It's what gets ideas out in the world, it's how we take action, how we voice our concerns and how we make sure our exsistence on this earth isn't quiet and lonely. People are so focused on technology and remaining faceless behind what they say online that we're forgetting how to properly convey messages on a one on one level. If you think about a conversation face-to-face, there's tone, inflection, body language and all kinds of factors that go into what is someone is saying. Those things also affect how such statements are interpreted. Behind the digital screen with which we've become so fascinated to read, there's none of that. Sure, all caps can almost always be read as yelling, but beyond that, it's all just black print on a white background. On twitter, one is to express their full thoughts with a limited space of 140 characters. When you actually count that up, that's not very many. Such is why a viewing of any posts on twitter has several miss-spelled word, over shortened phrases and tons of emoticons. Emoticons, by the way, is a visual picture used to represent a word or emotion based on the picture. Even those are over used as people use these basic short hand versions to sum up what they say.
Now to close, I'm all for these advances we've had in society. In many great ways, they've helped change our lives in ways that are for the better. With each new day, there's something that gets shared with the public that might spark a great change or even help create the next new wave of products that will help us enjoy life. It's my belief though that as we move forward, we should use caution and common sense to not let these tools become the way we define ourselves. There's nothing wrong with picking up a good old fashion print book and studying the old fashion way by taking notes in a notebook. Sparking up a good conversation by the watercooler at work is a good way to get everybody physically in the office involved. And no digitally placed smiley face can change the actual feeling you will get by making someone's face light up and having them smile because they like you for everything that you are. I think at the end of the day, the world's been "analog" for this long and it's got us pretty far. Some things in life don't need to be updated, but rather kept in focus so that we don't fall apart should the line get disconnected someday.
File, Thom; Ryan, Chamille., "Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013"., census.gov., 2014 November, web, 2015 July 24th
Staying Analog in a Digital World
Technology and faster communication has grown exponentially over the last several years. With technology becoming such an integral part of everyone's daily living, it's important to use it wisely so that it doesn't negatively impact our lives and the way we communicate. Since the eighties when the internet first started its rise, the concept of information sharing over vast distances at an accelerated pace has remained the goal in communications. As each year passes, newer devices and apps (applications) arise that help us communicate with others across the world. For personal use or business communication, these tools have started to revolutionize the way we speak with one another on a daily basis. According to the United States Census Bureau "In 2013, 83.8 percent of U.S. households reported computer ownership, with 78.5 percent of all households having a desktop or laptop computer, and 63.6 percent having a handheld computer."(Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013, File, Ryan, 2014). It also continues to say that "74.4 percent of all households reported internet use, with 73.4 percent reporting a high speed connection". Just looking at those numbers, it shows that almost every house in America is wired up to view, interact and communicate with the world at large. It's within this growth that we must ensure we're using these devices and apps as tools to communicate and not in the place of actual face to face or "analog" communication.
Within the realms of communication on the net, social networking has taken the forefront and even became a term common in the daily world. In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, the report states that "As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites"(Social Networking Fact Sheet, 2014). Overall, the report shows a growth of 65% use for all internet users between February 2005 and September 2013. That's quite a change in the last decade. Even as I remember them well, most early sites were pretty basic, like Myspace, offering mainly a way to customize your profile and connect with musicians and artists as well as eventually opening up for the more widely used friend function. From there, I watched as Facebook actually became something that I didn't know what it was, to the massive popular site that it is today. Focusing on its function to keep people connected to their friends as well as streamlining the overall abilities of the site, it surpassed Myspace and became the network for everyone to be on. With all these sites, the goal remains relatively the same: connect and share your life with those around your and those who can't be near.
The sites functionality has made it easy to share your life in a matter of seconds. You can upload photos straight from your phone that you just took and the world can view it in less time than it would take to wait for a Polaroid to develop. Your thoughts, as intelligent, dimwitted or down right ridiculous as they may be, can now be texted and posted almost as fast as your brain thought it. On one hand, this can be a great and spectacular marvel of technology. In fact, that's what's helped social media take off in the world as something we all want to be a part of. The other side, is that with all this quick communicating, we still have one flaw: human nature. In work and school, we've all most likely experienced a course on behavior management. This type of training often focuses on allowing yourself to cool down in heated situations before speaking your mind. With all of us humans being able to "speak" online almost as fast as thinking, many don't take the time to consider the impact of what they're saying. What once may have only been heard by three people or less is now broadcast for anyone on your list of followers. Negative and even hateful things have gone public from all figures in society that later have to be deleted for backlash reasons. It's within this area that it's important to remember to have a sound mind and exercise good judgement in using social media tools.
Before I break down three key areas of my focus, I'd like to highlight some upsides to all this tech. As previously stated, with information being shared faster, more people are getting actual news from social media as opposed to traditional means such as newspapers and even television reports. As far as newspapers, it does negatively impact that job market but it does well to save the trees in the environment by not having so many papers being printed daily. News stations and newspapers have even embraced this technology by creating Facebook pages to keep their readers updated as the source for the news they need. Facebook even allows for local neighborhoods to create yard sale pages where people can search and find people locally selling items they may be interested in. This was usually done by driving around on a Saturday morning or searching the classifieds in the local paper or bulletin board. Social media sites have even helped raised awareness for local community events and charities by getting the word out to more people which in turn, enables more people to help.
There are some downsides however even with those same positives I just covered. With most people using social media as their news source, that also means that false information spreads much faster as well. Many hoaxes about celebrity deaths have grew like wildfires from morning first posting to the news release by the evening that includes a public statement by the actual celebrity claiming they aren't in fact, dead. With these sites, much of our personal information is put in to set up or keep a profile accurate. In doing all this, people are often left open to intrusion attacks where a hacker can obtain all the details about someone and steal their identity. Many people even set up fake profiles, so much in fact that there are television shows that look to expose such individuals when caught. Social media also tends to become distracting to students and employees as they shift their attention instead from the tasks as hand to the ever updating world of their social feeds. This can cause a drop in grades for students as well as a loss of productivity in employees in the workplace. And overall, people who tend to spend more time on the internet using social media as their primary means of communication can actually become anti-social and less inclined to participate in face-to-face interactions.
With those pros and cons stated, that's why there should be a focus on being sure you're using the tools intelligently when dealing with key situations in life. In general, most goals for people center around one or a combination of things like getting an education, finding a great job/career and finding someone to spend your life with as a partner. These traditional goals are evolving along with the advent of the technology available. Schooling has seen an increase in online attendance given its ease and ability to lower the cost of tuition. In looking at a study on E-Learning, it shows that almost 50% of college students are taking at least one online class. This is likely to keep increasing as the benefits to online courses stay on the rise. The ease of taking courses online makes it possible for many working adults of any age to find time to complete a level of higher education. The downside here is that more time on a computer means I higher rise in the likely hood of distractions. Being on the device that actually connects you to sites like Facebook and Twitter makes most people inclined to look "just for a second" to see what they may be missing out on instead of studying. Also, the shift in focus I believe also changes the ability to retain the information being taught. I know it's fairly common place for most situations I've been in to hear the comment "Just Google it" when someone doesn't know something. This instant access to information has the benefit yet people aren't retaining the key core knowledge that once was a taught and focused on.
From an offline perspective, there are psychological effects to all these social media sites as well. Often times, young teens who are learning how to deal with the world, can put too much weight on the interactions that take place online. Not being someone's friend or even the greater crime of unfriending someone on Facebook can start trivial fights for no real reason. And as if media didn't already do this enough in television and magazines, but social networking has a way of pushing impossible images of perfection to the youth culture obsessed with trying to obtain these standards. Sure, it can push people to better themselves or work to achieve those goals, but often times it actually causes those who don't fit into the status quo to develop low self-esteem towards their own appearance or physical attributes that make them anything less than perfect. This psychological shift isn't helped when thousands of strangers on the internet make hateful comments towards one's differences. The amount of hate comments online by far outweighs the amount of support some people get for the things they do daily.
In the workplace, there's always been training on proper business communication. As phone conference calls and web cam meetings take place more often, the need to focus on how to speak properly becomes more prevalent. Beyond just the possible upper level meetings, the regular average employee is receiving more coaching as well. As the studies show, almost everyone is on the internet voicing their opinion. When it comes to company information, you might not want things out in the open. Training on corporate levels focus on instructing individuals how they should conduct themselves online as agents of the company. It's not just that person anymore that is affected by what they say, but it's read by so many people and that employee is associated with the image of the company. As a representative to an employer, it's important to maintain the mindset that you are an agent to that company and shouldn't say things online that may tarnish their image as well. Such actions can often result in disciplinary actions and even termination if the damage is severe enough.
Beyond that, there's also the customer service angle to contend with when dealing with sites like Yelp. Many companies now are starting to realize that people use their phones to find ratings for places and often will decide whether or not to shop their based on what people are saying about that business. This is changing the way employees handle customers as the companies teach them to focus more on creating a better experience each time someone walks in. It's no secret that most people will always remember the bad more than the good, so it's no surprise that people tend to be more verbal in their reviews when they have been done a dis-service. Another aspect to that is the reporting of these dis-services which can at times be very public. In the news, it happens frequently when they'll cover a story of a receipt that was tweeted by an individual that had some negative remarks on it. While there is also at times reports of positives, the negative ones tend to get more coverage and are more outlandish. This kind of thing stays in people's mind. Even the corporate level C.E.O.'s have felt the burn as they try to adopt this technology. There's been several instances where a business or company owner tweets their opinion or belief and when it's met with a non-favorable reaction, it's re-tweeted and sent across the world so it sticks in people's minds.
Dating is the final point to touch on when it comes to the changes in society. As old fashioned movies and the stories from our youths would most likely tell us, dating used to consist of seeing somebody you liked and doing the chase until you swooned them so they'd be yours. These days, the chase typically involves starting up the internet browser and doing a search of all available candidates within your radius that you choose. It certainly takes a lot of the leg work out of things and actually can help you find a partner easier considering you enter a number of data search points that fit your specific needs. Many relationships have actually been the culmination of the proximity searching we now do and some even work out really well. So well that there's over 2,500 dating sites in the United States alone and many of those are specialized by need such as by age, ethnicity and even perhaps job function such as farmersmeet.com.
This access to instant dates paired with a society that's becoming akin to throwing things away and replacing them with the newer and better is causing what I believe to be a shift in thinking about relationships. As someone who is braving these same digital waves, I've found that people don't put the attention or time into building a solid relationship. After all, why go through the hard times when the grass might seem greener with a new candidate. Between experience and personal accounts from other individuals, a fair amount of online relationships end when one person just fails to delete their profile and continues to look even after being committed to someone. Another inherent problem is that with smartphones offering so many applications and chatting tools, many people actually step outside of their relationship by finding people on hook up apps such as Tinder. There's actually even a dating site that is specifically set up for people who are cheating and who don't want to get caught. Now that's not to say that this hasn't been a problem all these years, but in the days of newsprint and land lines, it was simply harder to do.
There's a reason I believe people step away from their partner and it actually ties back in nicely with every other point made so far. Communication is one of our most basic tools in society. It's what gets ideas out in the world, it's how we take action, how we voice our concerns and how we make sure our exsistence on this earth isn't quiet and lonely. People are so focused on technology and remaining faceless behind what they say online that we're forgetting how to properly convey messages on a one on one level. If you think about a conversation face-to-face, there's tone, inflection, body language and all kinds of factors that go into what is someone is saying. Those things also affect how such statements are interpreted. Behind the digital screen with which we've become so fascinated to read, there's none of that. Sure, all caps can almost always be read as yelling, but beyond that, it's all just black print on a white background. On twitter, one is to express their full thoughts with a limited space of 140 characters. When you actually count that up, that's not very many. Such is why a viewing of any posts on twitter has several miss-spelled word, over shortened phrases and tons of emoticons. Emoticons, by the way, is a visual picture used to represent a word or emotion based on the picture. Even those are over used as people use these basic short hand versions to sum up what they say.
Now to close, I'm all for these advances we've had in society. In many great ways, they've helped change our lives in ways that are for the better. With each new day, there's something that gets shared with the public that might spark a great change or even help create the next new wave of products that will help us enjoy life. It's my belief though that as we move forward, we should use caution and common sense to not let these tools become the way we define ourselves. There's nothing wrong with picking up a good old fashion print book and studying the old fashion way by taking notes in a notebook. Sparking up a good conversation by the watercooler at work is a good way to get everybody physically in the office involved. And no digitally placed smiley face can change the actual feeling you will get by making someone's face light up and having them smile because they like you for everything that you are. I think at the end of the day, the world's been "analog" for this long and it's got us pretty far. Some things in life don't need to be updated, but rather kept in focus so that we don't fall apart should the line get disconnected someday.
File, Thom; Ryan, Chamille., "Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013"., census.gov., 2014 November, web, 2015 July 24th
