“There is only one thing that people agree about technology – it is important” (Kline 215). Indeed, it is hard to underestimate the role technologies play in our lives and the level of their integration into our everyday activities. In the age of technological progress, we do not wonder the new technologies that appear almost every couple of months and humbly accept and use those of them that become radical. Like other people, I use various technologies regularly and for different reasons, from calling my Mom and friends to entertainment and studying. However, it has not always been the same.
In my childhood, technologies were not as widespread as they are now. The first technology of my life was television. Raymond et al. write that television has changed our world (Raymond et al. 1), and the same happened with me to some extent. As far as I can remember, I was about five years old, and I was sitting on the sofa with my Mom and watching a TV show. It was one of my favorite ways of evening entertainments, and I spent some time watching it with Mom almost every day. I had not got iPhone and iPad like most modern children, and my favorite games were the ones played with friends on the streets. I do not know what childhood is better, almost free from technologies mine or completely opposite childhood of modern children, but I think that I was lucky having an opportunity to observe the development of technologies and their integration into human lives on the contrary with the modern times, when we just change old technologies to the better ones.
At the age of nine, I played a computer game for the first time ever. My parents did not allow me to sit at the computer for a long time as were afraid it would affect my eyesight. I can hardly remember what game I played, but remember the feelings I had: it was the new experience, something that I had never done before, and it was incredibly great. I do not play computer games now as do not find it fascinating anymore, and the game I played and the computer I used seem to be old-fashioned and simple. However, those feelings I remembered forever.
When I was at the middle school, I got my first cell phone to call my Mom. It seems to be very simple comparing with the one I have now, but perfectly coped with its main task, and I had never experienced problems with the lack of charging. In high school, my parents presented me my personal laptop, and it was really great as significantly eased my studying. However, I felt the real help of technologies only when I entered the University.
Kline writes that technology allows people to perform tasks that cannot be completed without its help and, thus, extends people’s capacities (Kline 217). I do not know how I would manage the tasks I got at the University without technologies and can just imagine how my parents studied without computers and the Internet and how much additional time they spent. When I got an iPad and there was no need to carry around the laptop, everything became even easier, as iPad weights no more than a textbook but can contain lots of them inside. I started to use iPad and the Internet for completing various assignments and writing papers and reports. Moreover, I started to use it for chatting with friends in different social networks including Facebook and Instagram. I cannot even remember the time when I registered on Facebook and when it became essential for my online communication, but now I unconsciously head over my Facebook page almost every day. The same happened with books and movies; the days when I used a DVD player and bought books in the bookstore have already ended. The Internet and iPad gave me an opportunity to have “everything in one” and to save money, place, and time.
According to Nye, “technologies are not “foreign” to human nature but inseparable from it” (Nye 2). Indeed, technologies are the result of human activities. They have several goals including entertainment and easement of people’s lives. Nowadays, I continue to spend one hour per day watching television with my Mom, and I can even say it has become our little tradition. I use iPad and the Internet for entertainment and studying and Facebook and Instagram for chatting with my friends, looking through beautiful photos and getting inspiration. I even use more basic things as buses and taxes for getting to different places. It is impossible for me to imagine the life without technologies, and I look forward to seeing what their future will bring to humankind.
Works Cited
Kline, Stephen J. “What is Technology?” Bull. Sci. Tech. Soc. 1 (1985): 215-218. PDF.
Nye, David E. “Can We Define ‘Technology’?” in Technology Matters. Cambridge, US: MIT Press, 2006. 1-15. Web. Accessed 7 May 2016.
Raymond, William, Ederyn, Williams, and Roger Silverstone. “The Technology and Society.” In Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London: Routledge, 2003. 1-25. PDF.
