#eng 394

[friendzonecaptain]

Being Sick in the Digital Age

Does it just make you more of a hypochondriac if you haven’t been diagnosed with it but you still think you have it? Probably.

Ever since the Internet (and mostly, WebMD) was invented, people have been asking the computer a question: what’s wrong with me? Am I sick? I have these symptoms, what do I do?

For almost a week now, I’ve been miserably sick, mostly bed-ridden except for days I worked (because unfortunately, I can’t afford to miss work even when I feel like literal death personified). Even though I did eventually go to the doctor, in the days before I went I was constantly googling my combination of symptoms to see if I had some rare disease... just in case. (It could happen, right? I like to try to be prepared.) But alas, after seeing a professional in person and not through a pre-written article on the internet, I was diagnosed with a simple cold and a not-so-simple sinus infection that has led to intense jaw pain. I was prescribed a million antibiotics, which I luckily could not get through WebMD. (On a side note, why don’t they maake antibiotics that work really fast!? I’ve been taking these for five days now and I still feel as shitty as ever!)

In my case, and in many other people I know’s cases, the Internet has become a tool to aid in self-diagnosis, which can be a very good (finding a tumor or cancerous cells early) or very bad (thinking you have some rare infection that only .2% of the population has ever had, when really you just have a rash) thing. It both gives people peace of mind but it can also ruffle the feathers of people who think the worst. 

But I will continue to have WebMD bookmarked for all my medical needs, no matter how much I freak myself out with it.

[friendzonecaptain]

My Teknofear (or lack thereof)

Lots of people I know are terrified of technology. Yes, there are the stereotypical old people who think technology is turning children’s minds into muck and teenagers attention span into nothing. But there are also people who are my age - people who are young enough to just barely remember a time without internet or smart phones or video chat - that feel the same way. They think young adults now are “zombies” to their phones, and that we don’t simply talk to each other face to face anymore and it’s ruining our personal relationships.

I think these people are idiots.

First of all, people have been avoiding talking to other people since practically forever. Before we had phones, there were books and newspapers and staring off into space that kept people preoccupied enough to ignore those around them. All I can think of when people insinuate that technology is ruining society is a shirt that was going around that says “technology is bad, fire is scary, and Thomas Edison was a witch.” Technology has done amazing things for our society, and we can literally hold the entire container of knowledge of the human race in a machine the size of the palm of our hand. 

Do I think technology is going to get to a point where it could take over the world? Maybe. It’s definitely possible.

Do I think technology is inherently bad and that we should keep it away from children, effectively keeping them in the 20th century? No. Not even a little bit.

Kids should embrace technology, since it’s only going to get more and more prominent in their lives as they grow older. Smart phones and laptops and Apple watches are just ways our society has progressed technologically (if it’s for the better or worse is obviously up for debate). Sure, I hope robots and AI don’t become sentient and evil and enslave the human race... but we’ll deal with that if it happens, okay?

[friendzonecaptain]

Reading and writing are doomed.

That’s a pretty scary thought to me. I have always loved reading and I’ve began to enjoy writing even more than before, but now I have this “post-literacy world” idea hanging over my head. 

As I read (haha) “About Reading” on the Beyond Literacy website, I agreed with the description of learning to read. It becomes a part of you to the point where it’s no longer a process, it’s simply something you do. Now that I know how to read, it’s impossible to look at something that has words on it and not read it (which is a terrible thing when I feel sick in a car, because reading anything makes me feel even worse so I have to avoid looking at any billboards or road signs because my mind will automatically read them, regardless of what my nausea wants). Reading truly does become this sixth sense - you can’t not read something you see just as you can’t not smell a scent that’s around you or you can’t not feel the texture of something you touch. It’s actually pretty astounding.

So if you think about it, reading is obviously this pretty miraculous thing we can do (even though after 16 years of knowing how to do it, it kind of loses its magic). So how could reading or writing become obsolete? What I’ve read on the site so far tells me that “reading and writing are good, they are just not good enough.” What does that mean? It all seems like a hoax to me - I mean, can you possibly imagine a world without reading or writing? It seems very scary, but I’m open to ideas. It would seem a lot less scary, I think, if these post-literacy ideas could tell me about what was going to replace reading a writing. Maybe then I would feel more okay with my two favorite past times becoming obsolete, if I knew what was going to replace them...

Especially if it’s something really cool, like on the same level of cool as a time machine or something. 

[friendzonecaptain]

Writing wasn’t always so popular

It’s so interesting to hear about the range of reactions to developments throughout history. How did people feel about flip flops when they first came about? How did people react to the mass production of bottled water? These seem like such trivial things today, but I’m sure people weren’t always so accepting of them. In the same vein, not everyone was on board the writing train when writing was first introduced as an act of communicating. 

In A Better Pencil, the argument of writing being a one-way communication makes perfect sense to me. It’s true that you can’t question writing in a way you can in a conversation with an actual person. If you read something and don’t understand the points it’s trying to get across, you have no way of asking the piece of writing to explain it further (unless of course you somehow have access to the author of the piece). The good thing that comes out of this, though, is that lack of understanding creates discussion between people and that means you are able to get others’ perceptions on the writing, as opposed to only seeing your own point of view on it. I know when I’m reading, I love to discuss what I think and feel about the writing with other people, who can usually offer me some insight into their minds with their opinions on the matter.

Now that I think about it, a book club might be something I should look into. 

[friendzonecaptain]

Writing in the Digital Age

So, in a typical day, I spend hours upon hours on social media, but I never really use it on my computer. My phone is my main source of social media. When I wake up, before I even get out of bed, I check my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I don’t check Tumblr usually until I know I have a lot of free time to waste hours on it. Most of the time, I spend from when I lay down at night until I fall asleep on Tumblr and Reddit. I check my Twitter the most throughout the day, probably not going more than a few hours at a time without looking at it. I check Facebook and Instragram less often, usually only twice a day or so.