Unit 3: Reflection 4/28/16

Unit 3 Reflection

            In this third and finally unit I really gained a more full and in-depth insight into my topic as well as the inquiry of the entire class. At the beginning of this class I thought what “Technology and Identity” really meant. As I brainstormed I kept coming back to the issue of how individuals in college are always looking on their phone and their laptops whilst in class. So this spurred me into doing a lot of research in this area. I began to find studies that showed that more and more college students were spending more of their time on their devices. Additionally, I found that the increase in the use of mobile technologies was actually lowering the average human attention span. As I dove deeper into the concept of technology and its effects on the human attention span I started to wonder about what other negative impacts could technology be having on society. That’s when I started to peace together that socially humans were becoming less and less physical in their interaction. This had not been clear to me the entire first Unit as well as most of the second. However whilst writing my Unit 2 research paper a decided that it was necessary to add in.

            In the first Unit I really had no idea what my target audience was going to be. However, when I arrive on the audience of college students during Unit 2, it really helped me to focus in on what I really want to be saying that will directly relate to college students. I decided to turn my argument into something more of a critique of the modern college student as well as how technology has affected them. Being a college student really helped me when crafting my project because I knew what facts and points would resonate with my audience. I was able to add in different aspects to my project that I knew would be digestible as well as informative to my target audience.

            When it came to deciding which medium to present my research to my target audience through I decided to use Microsoft PowerPoint. Yes, it might not have been the most creative and outgoing medium to choose, but I knew that if one can make a PowerPoint correctly it is the best, or one of the best ways to effectively present information to an audience.  Additionally, college students are accustomed to viewing PowerPoint slides in their daily lectures. So they are accustomed to digesting the information in a slide format.

            When completing my Unit 1 and Unit 2 portfolios I received a lot of helpful comments and feedback that really helped me develop my ideas. One good comment that I received stated,

“I liked this breakdown of technology and the way it specifically affects our generation. We were the first to really grow up with cell phones in our hands all through our middle and high school years, which definitely changed our social development. I always notice similar things when walking around campus, everyone has ear buds in and is looking down at their phone and I'm guilty of it too. I thought the initial comparison of our attention spans to a goldfish's and how much it has dropped was a very good use of an introduction because that is shocking so it makes you want to read more. I also liked your use of quotes and thought you did a good job of "unpacking" them like the rubric says to.” (Nate Moffitt comment on Unit 2 paper)

This comment isn’t necessarily feedback in the sense that it was stating areas in my paper in which I should change. However, this comment really came at a time when I was unsure of what idea to do. This comment reassured me that the topic I was heading towards was something that was applicable to college students and society as a whole. Another helpful comment that I received stated:

“I really like this introduction, but I think that I'm missing the link between your pitch and the intro of your paper. Make sure to include the difference between the "writing a note" and being on your phone, from the pitch. Also make sure to avoid comma splices. Your source seems really interesting so far, and I'm excited to see where you are going to go with the rest of this paper: maybe having that "roadmap" somewhere in the intro of your paper would help to see where the reader is going to be taken with your ideas.” (A Wilson comment on Unit 2 rough draft)

This comment really help tie all my facts and ideas together into one full project that flowed nice and smooth through one idea to the next. Additionally, this person helped me a lot with my grammatical and spelling errors within my research paper.

Lastly this comment was given by the same person as the previous one (A Wilson) in response to my Unit 2 pitch. It stated,

Make sure to spell-check again. You can also delete "however" from the 5th sentence. Add commas to make sentences more clear, again in the 5th sentence. You need a qualification for "Technology has shortened the average attention span of teens and young adults". You need a "so" in this sentence, because it could be more effective if you had a reason why this was important to your overall paper, as well as in the pitch as a whole. You can link this sentence to the second to last sentence with a comma to give it that "so". You also don't need the semicolon. Generally, I really like your ideas for this paper. – AW

Other than attending to my grammatical errors in my pitch this comment really helped my address what I was writing about. Previously I was only really writing about how technology was lowering the attention span of humans. But after the comment I turned my writing into more of how that change in attention was affecting society. This was the “so” that I was addressing in my paper. This comment really helped me steer my project into what it is now.

            As previously stated I translated my Unit 2 research paper into an informative PowerPoint presentation to be presented along with my narration to my target audience. When opening my presentation, I gave a fact that opened many people’s eyes due to its absurdity. The fact that opens my presentation is one that will draw my audience in and it is that “The human attention span has actually decreased over the years and is now lower than a goldfish’s attention span.” (Unit 3 presentation) Now that I was able to capture my audience I can really address the real problem, which is how technology is shortening the human attention span and changing the social dynamic of this modern society. I was able to convert many of the facts that I had drawn from my research into info graphics which I used to visually represent my argument. I felt that by doing this it would be a more effective way of showing my target audience verses telling them.

            The reason for me doing this presentation and choosing this topic is because I would hope that after viewing my presentation and reading my Unit 2 paper my target audience would understand what technology is doing to society and maybe attempt to use their phones less. In this project I am not trying to argue that technology is bad for society, because it definitely is. I just want them to understand that using certain types of technology such as phones and laptops excessively is actually affecting them in ways they may not expect. I hope that after viewing my project individuals will go out and explore the world and meet people verses keep their attention, and in a way their life, in the virtual world of the internet. The world is a beautiful place filled with many interesting people, why not go and see what it is all about?

            

Unit 3: Final Presentation 4/28/16

This is the link to the audio I could not figure out how to get it on the video. Start them both roughly at the same time.

https://soundcloud.com/nathan-hines-10/presentation

Unit 3: Graphic Novel Post 4/14/16

This book is subtitled "The Theology in Peanuts," and is made up around 125 of cartoons taken from "Peanuts" strips spanning the twenty-five years from 1958 to 1983. Philosophically and theologically, they give the reader a lot to think about, as well as being flavored with Schultz's brand of humor. The book is arguing how Schultz was able to weave threads of Christianity throughout the entire Peanuts comics during his career. It gives numerous examples showing subtle instances of maybe a bible verse or just a Christian custom. Even though this cartoon strip is meant for the purpose of humor and pleasure Schultz cleverly peppers in some religious and philosophical messages that can only be understood on a deeper more intellectual level. This book is breaking down the carton and showing how Schulz uses the Peanuts characters to illustrate Christian theology. I enjoyed reading this book because I was a huge fan of the Peanuts comic strips as a child. However, this book opened my eyes to a side of the Peanuts that I honestly never even thought about. As I read the popular strips like Christmas and Halloween and was opened to a new side of the stories that I had previously never noticed.

Unit 3: Documentary Review 4/7/16

I chose to analyze a Hollywood Reporter review of “On the way to School”. After reading this review I have found a few aspects of the review that generally are aspects of the genre. To begin, a review should give an honest summary of the movie to include either direct quote or paraphrases of certain scene. This helps to give the reader a general idea of what the movie is about without completely ruining the movie. Additionally, a review should give an over arching theme of the production. In this review of “On the Way to School” the author states “We often forget how lucky we are to go to school” this is an example of the main idea of this documentary film. Furthermore, a film review should address the audience that the movie is geared towards. For example in the “On the Way to School” documentary the author states that the documentary can “be marketed to parents and students alike”. This is good because it lets the reader know if it is appropriate to watch if there are children. Lastly,  I feel a review should have a little bit of the authors opinion. I’m not say to be noticeably biased but just to hear the authors personal voice and giving his/hers opinion in the review.

Mintzer, Jordan. "On the Way to School (Sur Le Chemin De L'ecole): Film Review." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.

3/29/16 Unit 2: Reflection

Unit 2 Reflection

            As I moved on from Unit 1 I decided to focus my topic on how technology is affecting the human attention span. This fit well into the enquiry of the entire course because as the attention span of humans shortens, due to the distracting affects of technology, it is altering the identity of the younger generations. As I began to research my topic I decided to evolve my topic to include some of the social effects that technology is creating in this society. So at the end, I had established the general effects of technology in relation to attention and how these effects are changing society.

            I decide to focus my topic audience on college students. I did this for two main reason: One because I am a college student so I have physical either witnessed or partaken in the effects created by technology; secondly I believe that the generation that has entered colleges and universities around this time is the first to fully display how technology is really, fully altering ones attention as well as the social aspects of college life.

            In modern research, this topic is at full swing. In particular due to the claim that has been stated dropping the average human attention span lower than a goldfish. This has interested many people just due to the ridiculousness of the statement. All the sources I pulled from directly related to my topic. Many of them were either survey or experiments done at actual college campuses. So the researches interpretations and conclusions from their data explicitly fit my topic. To make my research better I probably could have used some primary research and actually gone out and observed students in my lecture. That would have most likely made my research paper stronger. I would have gotten similar results to my secondary research so I could have compared them.

            My pitch was engaging because I was able to draw people in because of the absurdness of saying goldfish can focus better than us. I feel like that statement really grabs ones attention because people can be slightly offended by it.

3/29/16 Unit 2: Technology, Attention and its Affect on Society

Technology, Attention and its Affect on Society

            What is the average human attention span? Well in a short news story, broadcasted by WBRZ, it was stated that, “According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average attention span has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds in the matter of just a few years.” In comparison, the news story also stated,  “The average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds.” To most people this might come as a significant shock. How can an organism, which is significantly less developed and much less intelligent, have a longer attention span than humans? Well for that we can thank the influx of technology, growth of social media, and increasing number of handheld devices over the past 3-4 years. They are altering the social interactions between individuals as well as changing the focus of many peoples attention from the real world, to the universe that lives within the World Wide Web.

Technology has rapidly changed the society we live in today. It has made the seemingly impossible, possible and allowed unimaginable feats to be performed with the most precise accuracy and detail. Additionally, technology, especially smart phones and social media, has transformed the way people interact and connect. In an article posted by the Technology Review the author, Manuel Castells, states that “Globally, time spent on social networking sites surpassed time spent on e-mail in November 2007, and the number of social networking users surpassed the number of e-mail users in July 2009.” These applications like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are becoming increasingly more popular because of the way they are able to connect individuals. They are allowing people to stay up to date with one another’s lives even when they are miles apart. People are now capable of posting their entire lives online, keeping all their friends linked into their everyday activities. However useful, this new level of connection can be quite addicting. Castelles writes, “most Facebook users visit the site daily, and they connect on multiple dimensions, but only on the dimensions they choose. The virtual life is becoming more social than the physical life.”(Castelles).  This alteration in the social dynamic of society is what is driving the shortening of the average human attention span. Since the virtual world is becoming more social it is only human nature to fix more of ones attention onto it. However, this world is not physical, it does not exist in the dimensions of reality and is impacting individuals ability to focus on the here and now. As soon as someone puts down their phone or closes their laptop they are severing themselves from their virtual world. In this modern area there is an invisible battle between two worlds for attention and it seems like the physical one is loosing.

This technological transformation and its effects on human attention are quite evident on college campuses through out the U.S. Technologies such as smartphones and laptop computers have become essential for college students. They allow teachers to easily communicate classroom information with their students as well as allow students to stay up to date with the goings on at their university. However, these technologies may be more of a disadvantage than a advantage on college campuses.  In the WBRZ news program, which looked into the effects of smart phones on the Louisiana state University campus, Social Etiquette Expert Marthanne Calvi stated, “We have a generation that does not want to deal face-to-face with other people. They are simply more comfortable with that machine." These “machines” are distracting students because they allow individuals to be connected with one another without the physical interaction. This means that students attention is more focused on their technologies and the digital world, than what or whom is physical right in front of them.

Originally, smartphones as well as cell phones were used as tools that allowed for instant communication over long distances. However, nowadays they are being used in a significantly different way. Instead of using them for long distance messaging, phones have become the new way of communication across any distance. Individuals will call or text others who may be a few feet from them rather than just go over and talk to them. In a study done at Baylor University researcher Jim Roberts stated, “some people use a cellphone to dodge an awkward situation. They may pretend to take a call, send a text or check their phones,” Technology is having an affect on the social dynamic of humans. People’s interactions are becoming less and less physical as communication is now done electronically. There is a glaring problem with this because it’s hard to truly understand emotion over electronic communication. Most of an individual’s emotion is stated through their non-verbal communication, which is not present when reading an email or text message. This absence of non-verbal emotion leads many individuals to miss judge and miss interpret a situation. Technology is increasing the ability and frequency in which humans connect to one another; however, it is lowering human’s ability to make physical connections. It is changing people’s interactions as well as the social dynamic of this modern society. 

The smartphone, which is essentially a handheld mini computer, has become one of the most distracting technologies that are lowering the average attention span. This is evident within colleges as students are always attached to their phones, either texting, checking social media, or listen to music. If one was to look at a campuses quad on an average day they will most likely see students walking to class with their face glued to the screen of their phone. Similarly to texting and driving (however not on the same scale) walking while looking at ones phone is not particularly safe. One can only see a few paces ahead of themselves and run the risk of running into other students. In the Baylor study it was found that generally “Women college students spend an average of 10 hours a day on their cellphones and men college students spend nearly eight.” There are only 24 hours in a day and on average 8 of those are spent sleeping. That means that 50% for men, and 62.5% for women of the remaining 16 hours are spent using a smart phone. This is absurd. College student’s attention is being devoted more and more towards the screen in the palm of their hand than anything else within their day.

This increased smartphones use has spurred a social change within today’s young adults. It is a change that has occurred quite recently and is directly linked to the drop in human attention span. The language of the virtual world is short, conscience, and to the point. Everything is organized and structured in a way to be read or understood as quickly as possible. For example, acronyms such as LOL and OMG are used to quickly communicate ones feelings or emotions. Additionally, on the social media site Twitter there is a maximum number of 140 charters that one can type into a tweet.   This shortening of information is having an affect on the younger generations as well as college students. This is because individuals are now so accustom to everything being packaged into small segments they are becoming unable to spend long periods of time looking at information. When was the last time you saw a college student casually reading a newspaper? Modern media has become something that can be understood within a matter of minutes. Nowadays people don’t have the time to spend more than 5 minutes reading an article. So after a while they have become unable to put their attention on something for longer than a short moment. To counter this lack of attention, the media has condensed everything so that now there is no need to be able to focus on things for extended periods. Everything is quick and to the point. No eloquence or fluff, just cold hard facts.

The switch from paper and pen to computer is one that has only recently swept across the nations collegiate society. If one was to go into a large lecture only ten years prior to this day they would see students either asleep or taking notes on a note pad.  Nowadays, most students prefer to take their lecture notes on their laptops, however, many of them end up surfing the web or watching videos rather than paying attention. In addition to the smart phone the laptop is becoming more of a distraction to student learning rather than facilitating it. It is allowing students to access the plethora of information that is stored on the web with a click of a button; and sadly the temptation is too hard to resist. Carrie Fried in her article about the effects of laptops in classrooms stated, "The level of laptop use was significantly and negatively related to student learning. The more students used their laptops in class, the lower their class performance." (p. 910) Laptops are more of problem than a tool. Students are on their laptops rather that digesting the material that is being taught by the professor. This lack of focus is affecting their attention in addition to their grade.

            Modern society is changing as technology is being incorporated in everything. Socially, communication is shifting from physical to digital as people rely more and more on their phones and social media to keep up with one another. In colleges and universities, students are spending more and more time on their respected devices than any other activity during the day. It is affecting their social interactions as well as their attention span. Students are becoming less able to focus their attention on the real world without glancing at their device.  How long until all classes are done online and all social and academic interaction are done through the Internet. This may sound crazy, however, this is where it looks like the world is heading.

             

Bibliography

Fried, C. B. (2008). “In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning.” Computers and Education, 50 (3), 906-914. 5 Sept. 2006. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Weiss, Brittany. "Technology Makes Our Attention Spans Shorter than a Fish." WBRZ. WBRZ, 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.

Castelles, Manuel. "The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective." MIT Technology Review. MIT, 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.

Roberts, Jim. "Cellphone Addiction Is ‘an Increasingly Realistic Possibility,’ Baylor Study of College Students Reveals." Media Communications. N.p., 27 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.