Untitled

Yes, my post is untitled. Way too many things going on today. First there was the incredibly sad yet amusing post about the MSU calculus professor who stripped naked during class, yelled obscenities at students, and roamed the halls (I couldn't help but laugh, but honestly....poor guy :(!!!).

Then there was the story about a study that found 66% of people fear being without a mobile phone. While I admit my phone gives me a sense of security, I don't know that I would say I fear being without one. My phone makes my days more convenient for me, but there are those times when I enjoy tucking it away and paying no attention to it. I think people really fear being disconnected - disconnected from the Internet, a seemingly-infinite source of information, and also out of the loop of what's going on in their social lives. Let's be serious - If you are an iPhone user and your iPhone were to disappear, you could hop on your iPad and still chat with anyone who has iMessage. But, you know, the job of the media usually is to report what's been found...not interpret said findings.

I'm appreciative that the reading assignments are shorter this week. It's been nice to have pieces instead of a single, long document (although they are from the same book). However, I found these readings harder to get through. Again, because they're online, again, because they're a little dry. I want to be interested in them, but the language used just gives me a headache. I'd rather read journal articles or psychology books (sorry, Dr. W). I wish the chapters were in more manageable chunks, but I look forward to class discussion. The same theme rises from the readings anyway (even explicitly stated in the final one): "Technology determines history."

One section I did think lots about was in the first Heilbroner section - The Absence of Technological Leaps. where everything continually evolves in a logical manner. Computers went from taking up whole floors to being tiny and lap-size. Cell phones went from huge and chunky to sleek and thin. I tried thinking of an instance where a leap was made and I couldn't think of one. An iPad is basically a cross between a cell phone and a computer. Xbox is the evolved version of Pong/Atari. I suppose it's good I can't think of any leaps, or it could be Judgment Day before we know it.