Last week I asked if there were any other troop greeting groups in the US. After some research I found a group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire called the Pease Greeters. There is also a group that greet soldiers at Minneapolis St. Paul Airport in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A group of troop greeters at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport recently gained national recognition for welcoming their millionth soldier.
Last week in class we watched a TED talk about the Nine Shift and then had a discussion on how technology is affecting our generation. I'm not actually sure what a nine shift is, but the speaker discussed the difference between 1900-1920 and 2000-2020. For example, in 1900 the automobile was a revolutionary invention that changed society. Now automobiles are becoming obtuse because there are quicker and more cost effective way of transportation. We also discussed how things like the internet and automobiles changed society. Through this discussion we realized there was a generational gap between current students and our parents. We were given a project that encompassed the past couple lessons of value assumptions, The Way We Get By documentary, and the nine shift to discover more about the differences between generations and how society has changed from our great-grandparents time to now.
I thought the Nine Shift TED talk was very interesting. Although the speaker was not that good, what he was actually saying was thought provoking. The automobile and the internet are the two most important inventions of the 20th century. In the early 1900's, the car changed all aspect of life. It effected the economy, lifestyle, home, work, and environment. People no longer had to live in cities, they could live outside of the cities and commute to work. Transportation was faster and self-reliant. You didn't have to wait for a train, bus or street trolley, you could go anywhere anytime that you wanted. Car also became a sign of wealth and status. The rich would go for a drive just for a leisure activity, while the poor walked wherever they went. Automobiles also made more jobs. The manufacture, sale, and repair of cars opened up new job opportunities.
The internet also restructured American life. People could work from home, and email became another source of communication. Social media has also exploded in recent years. There are very few people without a Facebook, Google, Twitter, or YouTube page. But social media is also has negative effects. Anyone can talk to anyone, even if they are halfway around the world. As a middle schooler I remember being warned about stranger danger on the internet, because who you are talking to isn't always who they say they are. Social media also opened up the realm of cyber bullying, which can lead to depression and suicidal behavior in teens. The internet created more jobs as well. Software and computer companies, electronic stores, and computer program makers are all jobs that didn't exist before the internet was invented. People can also shop online for convenience, but online shopping can cause debt when shoppers don't monitor their spending.
Technology and the internet have been great for society, they have also created a generational gap. Kids are always plugged in and accessible by cell phone and internet. They often lack face-to-face communication skills because they are used to communicating online or through texts. Kids my age hardly wear a watch unless its a accessory because they have a cell phone or iPod that keeps time. We don't often have a need for analog clocks and thus have trouble reading one when it is the only clock available. I know that I have to really think about it when reading an analog clock because I'm so used to knowing the time instantly with digital clocks. Our parents are of the Analog Age, and we are the Digital Age. We have a hard time entertaining ourselves without an iPod or cell phone or television, when the games are parents played with very much more low-tech;they could play by themselves or just read and be happy.
Talking about the Nine Shift and generational gaps last week made me think of a recent experience I had babysitting. I often watch a family that lives down the street from me with a eight year old girl, five year old boy, and two year old girl. Each child only has 30 minutes of "screen time" a day, which includes TV, video games, and being on the computer or iPad. The youngest girl at one point asked me if she could play on the iPad, but since I didn't know where it was I told her she could if she could find it. She knew exactly where its was kept and immediately opened the case and started navigating through to find a game she wanted to play. There were many children's games because this was the "family" iPad and not the one her mom used for work. The fact that they even had designated iPads was insane to me. At this point she wasn't even two years old, but her knowledge of navigating a tablet computer was second nature. This amazed me because when I was her age playtime was much more low-tech. You could watch TV, play Nintendo 64, or insert a computer game CD-ROM into a boxy monitor that still made dial up sounds and took 10 minutes to turn on. Everything else was playing board games or "house" or "school" with friends and siblings , or entertaining yourself with a book or individual game. I never really though there was much difference between my childhood and the childhood of the kids that I babysit, but after this I realized there was even a generational gap between myself and a two-year-old.
I wonder what the Nine Shift actually is. I know it has something to do with how society has changed over the 20th century, but I didn't fully understand it from the TED talk.
Works Cited:
1) FAQ. (n.d.). peasegreeters.org. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://peasegreeters.org/faq.htm
2) Troop Greeters Welcome Millionth Soldier at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. (2010, January 10). abcnews.go.com. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/PersonOfWeek/troop-greeters-millionth-soldier-dallas-fort-worth-airport/story?id=12593760#.Tt7Q4nrleSphttp://
3) Note to Babies: Magazines are not iPads. (2011, October 14). mamamia.com. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://http://static.mamamia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Screen-shot-2011-10-14-at-11.49.37-AM-380x335.png
4) Use Analog to Digital Converters Properly. (n.d.). videomaker.com. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://http://www.videomaker.com/article/14560/
No comments:
Post a Comment