William Powers wrote a book entitled "Hamlet's Blackberry." His book is about how to live in the "digital age." When speaking about his book, he mentions people constantly using there cell phones without even realizing it. He mentioned a specific time where he sat down on a bench and out of habit reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone, to do nothing on it.
This is something that happens a lot with our generation today. I know I do this every day. Everywhere you go you see somebody using there phone or using a laptop. Driving down the interstate you look over and someday is having a conversation on their phones. You walk into a Starbucks or McDonalds and people have there computers with them, using the free Wi-Fi these places have. When did restaurants become a place to use your computer rather than eat?
Powers mentions something that he and his family has done that would drive the normal American insane. He said he and his family decided to unplug the Internet on the weekends. Yes, this would obviously create more family time, but this sounds a little drastic. If my parents would have done this at my house we would not know what to do with ourselves. We use the Internet at my house for everything, just like a lot of people today do. It could be to check the weather, get caught up with the news, or check Facebook, whatever it is, we use it every day.
Powers said the first few months were miserable. After the first week he said they were going to take there son out to a movie, but did not know what movies were playing. They could not check the Internet because it was unplugged, so they checked the newspapers. He said they literally almost forgot how to look for these kinds of things because it had been so long since they had to do something like this. If you think about it, this could be the same for a lot of people in America. When everything is a click away, why waste time looking in newspapers for it. We can access the Internet virtually anywhere, so we take advantage of it.
Using this much Internet can take away from your family life. If you are constantly online and not communicating with your family, you can lose what you have with them. I do not think we over use the Internet, but I do think in some cases we abuse it. We all do. The first thing I do when I get out of class everyday is come back to my room and check Facebook, just out of habit. It does not have to be that way, but I am sure that other people do this as well. Right or wrong, this is how our generation grew up, and the habit will not be easy to break. The Internet will continue to grow and so will we. It is only a matter of time before the Internet does everything for us. I believe we have to realize just how much we use it and maybe tone that down a bit before we get so caught up in it we cannot get out.
I liked how you brought up the part where he sat down on the park bench and pulled out his phone for absolutely no reason at all. Thinking about it made me realize that I do that countless times throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteI also really found it interesting when Powers talked about how his family would shut off the internet. At first thought, when Powers said that, I thought that he was crazy and couldn't imagine doing that at my house at all. In this day and age the thought of families doing this is absolutely crazy to most everyone.
I also liked how you talked about why Powers' family shut off the internet. They just did it for more family time. This is something that has decreased a lot throughout the technological advances that we have been through. The more technology that comes out, the less family time we have. Children spend more and more time on their cell phones and laptops.