Technology is everywhere! There is no way to escape it, especially here at college. Everyone is either on a desktop or laptop socializing or getting work done. Personal computers are so important that "Time Magazine also noticed the importance of the microcomputer when they chose the PC as their Man of the Year for 1982, the only time they chose a machine for an honor that usually went to important international leaders." ( Swedin and Ferro pg 96 ) PC's in my mind are the only machines that have single handedly revolutionized the world again and again. The invention of a personal computer itself is an amazing feature, but that fact that it can be used to communicate with others to create a cyber community seems fiction. To many people the computer and internet is considered a "norm", but it was not always like this.
The first personal computers created only did commands by the user actually typing in the extremely tedious command prompts. Once that was resolved by Graphic User Interface, more problems arose due to lack of memory and speed. Gradually the PC became what it is today thanks to better technology in microprocessors and software. Programs such as Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program "that was so successful it drove people to go purchase the Apple II", made the PC a business machine. ( pg 32 ) The creation of search engines, have made computers a powerful tool when it comes to research. Using engines such as Google has become such a norm to people that, "the success of Google became apparent as a new meaning to the word rapidly emerged, its use as a transitive verb, as in she googled the information." ( pg 130 ) What people fail to realize is the dependency humans have to technology!
The fact that we incorporate the name of a search engine as a verb is proof in itself. I know I have used that phrase when I mean search some information. Another example would be social networking. Some people can not live without going on Facebook, Twitter, or other social websites. These websites have in a way have brought people closer together since the telephone. Some people feel more comfortable going online and talking to a person through Facebook chat that actually talking to them in person. We as humans have incorporated technology into our lives, being a pro and con at the same time. Ultimately, I do not feel that humans have a choice, you either acknowledge the technology around you and become a part of it, or get left behind as technology leads us into the future.
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