Teaching methods, a piece of technology that changed my life

Dictionaries usually define technology as “The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives”. Many historians, researchers and scientists have spent years trying to define and come up with an exact and complete definition of technology. As Kevin Kelly stated, the word technology is relatively new, as it was first used in 1829. Since that year, many definitions have been emerging. For Alan Kay, an American computer scientist, technology is anything invented after you were born. On the other hand, for Kevin Kelly, technology is anything useful invented by a mind. Even though most people don’t realize it technology is everywhere, and I am going to relate how it has been an important part of my life.

I grew up back in Caracas, Venezuela where the course of my life was delineated mainly by one thing, school. Several instants of my life show how teaching methods evolved throughout the years. I recall that in pre-school, classes consisted in playing with play-dough, and doing drawings. In middle school these were replaced by spelling bees and math. At this point chalkboards were the main teaching method. A couple of years later we started to do presentations in cardstock with drawings using markers, this is just an example of the evolution of technology. Through these examples it can be appreciated how the means by which one common objective is accomplished change throughout the time. Now presentations aids were not only restricted to a chalkboard, but also was extended to a more creative form through cardstocks, which actually are examples of technology.

Everyone has different types of technology that have been important in their lives, by Kevin Kelly’s concept of technology, clothing is also a significant example of technology. Skirts, shirts, pants, shoes, are all products of the creation of men with the purpose of facilitating people’s lives. Malcolm Gladwell portrays in his text named “Coolhunt” the story of Dee dee Gordon, a “cool hunter,” who started working in a converse store and ended having her own shop. She truly understood how to mark new tendencies, and deciding what is “in” and what is “out” meant.

The author starts by making the following statement: “Who decides what’s cool? Certain kids in certain places, and only the cool hunters know who they are”. There is generally a tendency of acting and dressing one way, but there is always that person who breaks that rule by being him or herself. This is the main idea of technology. Those who think “out side the box” are responsible for marking new tendencies. Probably, when stating these ideas names as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mahatma Gandhi, come to mind; but actually everyone defines new tendencies in their own environment, these are just examples of a few who decided to nail down those new ideas.

The text written by Malcolm Gladwell describes new tendencies, mainly in the northern American environment. But these tendencies change from culture to culture, and from time to time, as they are defined by people’s new ideas. Globalization has been erasing these differences, unifying tendencies across the entire world. Today, the idea of life, tendencies and technology is evolving with time, actually they have always been evolving.

Halfway through Middle School in 2003 there was a general strike in my country, therefore we didn’t have school for approximately three months. This was the first time I saw significant progress regarding technology in my school. During these months homework was sent on a daily basis through the Internet. This was practical and very handy, but took the importance of one-to-one teaching. I remember how my questions weren’t answered by anyone. When there was a confusing assignment, there was nothing to do about it. At that moment, teaching methods portrayed that negative part of technology, which is depriving us gently from the essence of humanity. I had a computer but I lost my social connection.

This idea of technology depriving us from human experience was highlighted by Rosalinda Williams in “Once more to the mountain”, where she relates the story of her brother and her, repeating a trip to the Bernese Alps in homage to their parents. They come to realize how different the place has become after several years. They were able to witness the effects of evolution, as well as the positive and negative consequences of it.

Half a century later, technology has provided more facilitations. Now the trip was more comfortable. The hotel was really improved, and the mountains had additional forms of transportation. Before, they were just products of nature, but now they were products of nature adapted by humanity for convenience. But the place lost a great part of its value. As the author wrote “Nowadays a vacation trip to the European heartland for an American family has become routine.” This has made us realize that there is a negative side to technology. Even though we are taught that technology was made to ease our lives, it is also taking with it that fresh, natural, plain, aspect of life. What I mean is that, a trip that was once exciting because it was hard to do, is now as easy as taking a bus to a shopping center.

Even though, I have not been able to appreciate the evolution of one place or community throughout the time, I still have been able to appreciate the evolution of technology from one culture to another. My arrival this summer to Georgia Tech has seen the most drastic change ever in my life. It is here that I have understood how technology defines and changes from culture to culture. For me, regarding technology, Atlanta is a window to the future. Things that I am able to see here will probably appear in Venezuela in a couple of years. Venezuelan upper class schools are now enhanced with video beams and laptops in class; while in the States there are response cards, videoconference classes, web pages for assignments and syllabi, eBooks and smart board. Globalization has made us understand different cultures and how every piece of technology is important in someone’s life. Being able to watch a TV show on your laptop might be important to some, for me, teaching methods and their impact are.

As “coolhunting” states, there is a moment where a tendency is stated and defined, by an individual or a group. Then, globalization is responsible for spreading it throughout the world. And finally as it is portrayed in the story by Rosalinda Williams, this tendency changes after a couple of years have passed. I have been able to witness part of this process through the last couple of years.

Technology has its positive and negative aspects. Though the general strike of 2003 demonstrated the negative side of teaching methods, I still believe that the positive side is stronger than the negative. New devices have improved the ability to learn, by providing new tools. Previously a class consisted of a lecture in a classroom with a chalkboard and a book; now a class consists on a multimedia and diverse form of teaching, which includes not only what can be learned in a classroom, but out of it too.

Coming from a developing nation into an industrialized one, has made me realize that globalization is accelerating the process of integration between different cultures, and one of the main forces driving this process is continuous technological development.

Music, a nonverbal way of communication, shaped by technology

Communication is a broad concept that can be defined as the imparting or exchange of information and ideas from one person to another. This exchange of information can occur in a written, oral, verbal, electronic, and the most ancient of all, nonverbal manner. Nonverbal communication includes gesture, posture, tone of voice, eye contact, clothing and other aspects that are used to express to the listener something beyond words. Every type of art is a form of self-expression, produced in a nonverbal way. Take for instance music; it is the use of vocal and instrumental sounds to produce a harmony or melody responsible for expressing emotion. As the French writer Victor Hugo once said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent.”¹

Technology is, from one point of view, everything created by mankind and music is one of the earliest inventions of the human being. Therefore, music could be defined and evaluated as a piece of technology. But, for a better analysis of the evolution of music attached to communication we will evaluate and discuss the following statement: How has technology altered music as a form of communication throughout history?

There are several theories regarding the origin of music, one of them includes communication as a universal language. A typical question about music is, where does it come from? The origin of music is actually one of the biggest myths in history. There are several theories, which depict the origin of it, but none of them has been proven to be true. Traces of music have been found from prehistoric time. One of the theories is that music was one of the first forms of communication, and was used as a universal language. Humans tended to imitate natural sounds with percussion instruments, which was basically anything that produced a sound when beat. Instruments and music go way back and have been transforming for centuries but one aspect that has been firmly maintained is that it expresses the musician’s thoughts and emotions. There is always a meaning or story behind a song, though it is true that this can differ based on people’s perspective. For example, the famous “Moonlight Sonata” written by Beethoven is not just a bunch of keynotes put together by a musician to form a melody. It was Beethoven’s way to express his feelings for his pupil Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. For someone in the audience, hearing Beethoven’s music can be inspiring, for some depressing and for others motivational. Everyone has his or her own way of perceiving music, just as everyone is different one way or another.

Even though each individual is unique and has his or her way of perceiving music, it can be agreed on the idea that musicians tend to understand and perceive music as a language. A perfect example is the silent competition between pianist’s practice rooms. Two musicians are capable of maintaining a war between their musical works without ever looking at each other.

Most of the time pianists practice their compositions in common rehearsal rooms where other musicians spend hours perfecting and polishing their pieces. For a pianist, hearing someone else performing a more complex piece is considered as a challenge. Without probably realizing, each pianist is expressing a message to others wherever they are performing. Those who practice the same piece over and over again are expressing persistence. Those who start practicing early in the morning, show organization. Those who perform strong pieces, show strong personalities. Indeed, music is a form of self-expression but how is it related to technology?

Communication through music has been shaped by technology through time. Today communication is not only through classical instruments, or opera songs. Music isn’t even restricted to live performances or concerts. Music is expressed through electronic artifacts or performances as for example DJs. DJs “never say anything, but in a kind of reverse ventriloquism they often mouth the words or gesture while the records play.” ² Even though they perform completely different types of music, pianists and DJs are both able to express and communicate their message nonverbally.

Going back to DJ’s competition, it is a continuous attack-response war between several DJ’s where it is very important to have originality, creativity, talent and knowledge. They are able to express their beliefs without emitting a word. In the book Capturing Sound, the author Mark Katz tells the story of a meeting with a DJ who said,

“We speak with our hands. Many feel that dissing is essential to battles, and I agree. It is not the dissing that I try to prevent, I want to discourage DJs from using racial slurs, misogynistic language, cursing, and other offensive words.” ³

This DJ used music and nonverbal communication to get his ideals and message to the public and wishes to portray a positive message. But this wouldn’t be able to happen without the instruments or tool the human being has been creating throughout history.

As musicians use pianos, DJs use mixers and turntables to express their message. These electronic devices are the product of technological revolution. Through the last couple of years decisive and important devices have been created and evolving to make the daily life of human beings easier. Hence, DJs are able to record from funk or rap to Broadway and classical music. But this is just a final transformation of the first instruments used. As writing tools evolved from scratching pictures with sharp tools to pens, pencils and even computers; musical instruments have evolved from simple percussion instruments to mixers or turntables, where one is able of mixing any song or sound.

Recalling the origin of music and how it has been evolving through time, there are three important examples that should be analyzed: Music through the prehistoric era, classical music and electronic music. They all express the musician or author’s message, but differ in the form of expression. Here is where technology plays a role. The instruments used in the prehistoric era were the product of technology. They were used when language wasn’t created, so music was considered to be practical at this point. Then instruments evolved through thousands of years to finally have what we know as classical music, which is a melodic composition with the purpose of entertaining and transmitting the musician’s feelings. A couple of decades later we came across with DJs and DJ’s battles, being one of the most recent forms of modern composition. It is impressive how they express competitive messages against their opponents with their body and musical pieces.

It is true that technology has shaped music from the prehistoric era to the twenty first century, but it is also true that it has shaped it across cultures. The message that was once expressed by a primitive “musicians” could only reach those around them, probably members of their own tribe or family. Afterwards, as a consequence of the development of acoustic architecture and sound producing devices, as speakers, musicians were able to reach a larger public. Then, many melodies and types of music could be mixed by DJs. Finally, music wasn’t limited to concerts and live performances, but was developed so it could reach other cultures. Music now travels through YouTube, ITunes, record stores, mp3 players, and others; transmitting the musician’s message across different continents through technological or electronic devices.

As it was previously stated technology has boosted positively the musical world; but it is also affecting it negatively. There isn’t anything positive in life without a negative side in it. People are starting to give less importance to live concerts; this is because they are able of watching the same presentation in YouTube or television, or they could just wait for it to be produced in CD, buy it, and watch it over and over again. Because music is becoming more accessible every day, artists are recycling music and copying that of other authors. As well as the common public is downloading music without permission. Piracy has increased through the last decades, being directly proportional to the last developments of technology. After raising these aspects a question must be asked, is the overall effect of technology over the evolutions of music positive or negative?

Songs are messages and ideas produced in a musical way and shouldn’t be copied or heard without permission. This tends to happen often mainly because of the Internet. But this is only a small dot in a pool of positive aspects technology revolution has brought. The important thing about it is how you use it. Technology can shape music positively or negatively; it depends completely on its application. The essence of music can never be lost through the transformation of it. Whether it is through a piano, mixer or any other instrument, the message of the author should always reach their audience, whoever this is.

“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn” ⁴ (Charlie Parker). As music expresses that which cannot be said, it can be referred as: The nonverbal method of communication by excellence. Throughout centuries the way music is being expressed has been manipulated by technology and evolution. As time passes we get closer to globalization and the expansion of the message the author or musician wants to express. Hopefully, music will find its way to progressively change and preserve its essence of self-expression.

The imitation of different sounds from nature can be considered to be the origin of music. Human beings started to use instruments to communicate different messages. After the increasing progress of instruments by evolution, today, new pieces of technology are still used to communicate with each other but through different methods. It is portrayed through the examples of practice rooms and DJ battles how competition is represented silently. Even though these examples use completely different artifacts, they portray the positive aspect of technology in music, which involves communicating the author’s message through sounds and melodies, where they “…enter into a dialogue in which no one speaks, but much is said.” ⁵ For one to understand the message a musician is trying to express, one should always keep in mind that music is not solely a form of entertainment but a complex form of communication.

Resources

1. Theodor Adorno and Hanns Eisler, Composing for he Films. London: The Athlone Press, 1994.

2. Mark Katz, Capturing sound: How technology has changed music. California: The Regents of the University of California, 2004.

3. Terence McLaughlin, Music and Communication. London: Faber and Faber, 1970.

4. “The importance of communication in music: Interview of Kirk Whalum”

http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/the+importance+of+communication+in+music (Accessed on 10/13/2011)

5. “Good Reads”

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/14451

(Accessed on 10/12/2011)

6. “Roberto Spano on music as philosophy”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-MLUgFHbrA

Accesed on 11/10/2011

7. On music and non-verbal communication with Naomi Bell.

http://musicianintheboardroom.com/2011/10/23/on-music-non-verbal-communication-with-naomi-bell/

Accesed on 11/10/2011

Green Architecture

Architecture has been influenced and developed a lot by Technology. Today we are more than used to the technology but it has been used in Architecture for thousands of years ago. We just have to look back to the ancient Rome and see the aqueducts or the cathedrals built in the Middle Age.

But when we talk about Energy Conversation Architecture we have to go back just a few decades ago. In the second half of the nineteenth century the level of pollution rapidly inflated in a short period of time due to an increased use of automobiles, heating…etc, that used, and are still using fossil fuels. That was when people started to realize that they should do something to try to mitigate the Climate Change.

Before the beginning of the fossil fuels “revolution”, Architecture wasn’t focused on energy conservation because they didn´t have the problem that we have now. The first thought that architects had before starting a construction was how it was going to look whenever they finish the project and if it was going to make the function that it was made for. Now is kind of different because architects are also committed to the image of the building but, some of them (the majority) are starting to add the idea of energy conservation of the building.

This idea of energy conservation is something that at least in my country, Spain, is happening due to the fact that the government has created policies that include sustainable goals at the time an architect starts to build a building. Some of these policies are the mandatory construction of solar panels or systems designed to reduce the spending on electricity and gas.

Now the energy conservation idea has become the main important part in a building construction. Technology is currently improving a lot in this area because is something that our planet needs, and is going to keep improving until the day that the problem of sustainability ends. This is something that I’m not pretty sure it is going to happen, at least in a short period of time because there are too many things to change a too much work to do.

Now we are paying for what we did wrong in the past centuries, with the overspending of fossil fuels and the not long term perspective of what was going to happen with that overspending. With the discovery of oil people started thinking about how they could used and how to maximize its function, but they didn’t realized that it was a limited resource and it would end some day. In addition, they didn’t take into account the cost that it was going have for the next generations.

People at the moment are starting to realize that we have to change a lot of little things to solve the problem that we made in the past centuries. These last decades architects have been working and are working in a lot of projects with the new technologies in order to try to turn the situation.

There are a lot of examples, future projects etc. regarding how technology is improving. The ones that I found that better represent this topic are the Bournemouth Airport which has solar panels on its ceiling. These panels help to reduce the energy expense because the airport uses the energy produced by these panels to light the inside of it. The other example, the energy generating bridges, uses their altitude and their sun exposure to generate renewable energy. Most of them are just projects but hopefully one day every bridge will have those functions in addition to linking two different points! There are too many other examples but these can give us an idea of what are the thoughts and projects of the future constructions.

Taking into account the articles that I have read, we can say that right now, in our world, people are starting to think about Climate Change and how we can fight against it. Architecture is a good example to see how people (architects) have realized that if we don’t do something against the Climate Change, the sustainability of our world could be jeopardized.

Maybe we couldn’t see the consequences of not doing this in a short period of time because it is a long term issue. However, this doesn’t means that we don’t have to focus on it, because the definition of technology from the perspective of human prosperity is to meet the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This means that we don’t have to be “selfish” and should work for the next generations to live better.

However, as we can see in the article “Buildings don’t use energy: people do”, Kathryn B. Janda explains why people have a relevant importance when they have to act against Climate Change. She says that we can use purely architectural solutions, such as those proposed by the Architecture 2030 Challenge, to be necessary but not sufficient to achieve climate change mitigation targets. Architecture 2030 could be defined as a global construction model which adopts energy performance targets that can be accomplished through design, on site renewable generation and up to 20% renewable power purchase. The targets are:

- All new buildings, developments and major renovations shall be designed to meet a fossil fuel GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 60% of the regional (or country average for that building type.

- At a minimum and equal amount of existing building area shall be renovated annually to meet that fossil fuel.

- The fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings and major renovations shall be increased to:

· 70% in 2015

· 80% in 2020

· 90% in 2025

· Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG-emitting energy to operate).

This Challenge has inspired recent legislation in the US and has been adopted by firms and individuals in 54 countries.

The problem that we can find here is that any of this cannot make sense without the help of each concrete person. In this article, the author mentions the importance of education and social responsibility, which is something that sometimes is forgotten and is key to achieving a great level of commitment with the energy conservation issue.

Also, in the other article, “Architectural Shaping Potential in Energy Efficiency Provision of Buildings”, we see that we have to take advantage of what we already have. And what do we already have? Nature. We understand that a building’s, in order to be more sustainable, have to take into account in their construction, the natural factors like the Sun, the Wind, the Precipitation and the Earth energy (groundwater, surface water, subsoil energy…) in order to maximize the save of energy. The fossil energy reserves are declining so we have to make a gradual transition from fossil energy to renewable sources, and this sustainable Architecture is a big step to achieve that transition.

Some of the specific examples regarding that type of Architecture based on the Nature are a building which can “catch the rain” and with that, it can provide the daily needs of water for the building’s people. Another example is the “Rotating solar house”, which rotates itself in order to get the maximum amount of sun and then use this energy to heat the building.

These examples are just projects at this moment, but hopefully we will be able to see them more often in a short period of time thanks to the development of technology.

The other example that we can use to explain the energy conservation in Architecture is on the article “Strong, Long Lasting, Energy Efficient-Addressing Future Needs with Concrete”, where the author Martin Peck, explains the different uses of this material, concrete, in order to save the maximum amount of energy. This material has specific characteristics such a high thermal-storage capacity and, in comparison to brick masonry and wood, favorable thermal conductivity. Concrete is initially in a viscous state which aloud its use as thermal storage and buffer, and a transport medium. All of these characteristics enable energy transfer free of thermal losses and with maximal exchange rates.

In buildings we can find concrete, for example, in precast elements, geo-thermal piles, and geo-thermal slab foundations. These materials are used in constructions to hold the outside energy and then use it in different ways inside the building (heat, illumination…).

Concrete is just at the beginning of its development for energy-efficient construction, because the potential of this material is great. In addition, the concrete has a high recycling rate which contributes to ecological sustainability.

These are some of the multiple examples that I could find regarding the Architecture and energy conservation. Having read these articles we can say that all of them have something in common, and it is the fact that people, since the past few decades, even more, have been working on how they could improve what we had before, because energy conservation became a need.

Each example has its own way to fight against the climate change, policies (Architecture 2030 Challenge), the use of the environment (take advantage of the nature and its resources in construction) and “green” materials to construct (concrete). All of them are a step to achieve the sustainability, and technology has the role to help Architecture to find as many possible ways to reduce the unnecessary energy expenditure and also, maximize the quantity of energy that we use.

All of those inventions and projects have been created thanks to the Technology. This is something that is going to keep developing over time because the human being always is thinking in how he can improve what he already has. That is one of the most important reasons that make us different from the other species in the world.

Human being has this ability to know what it is going on around him and be able to act quickly (fast adaptation). Technology is the result of those answers and whenever we have something to adapt to, people will keep developing Technology. In this case, the energy conservation Architecture is one of those answers.

Now people are working on how we can get a higher level of sustainability. All of the current studies and works for energy conservation are not only a benefit for the actual world population but more importantly, are a benefit for the next generations.

We learned reading these articles that people have an important role in this topic and although these engineers and architects are able to create and design those sustainable buildings, without the help of each person, the final goal, which is to get the highest possible level of sustainability, is going to be impossible to achieve. Technology will be developing itself as long as the human being is committed with it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Erenovable.com, renewable energy blog: http://erenovable.com/category/edificios-sostenibles/

Janda, Kathryn B, Buildings don’t use energy: people do,( Architectural Science Review, Mar2011, Vol. 54 Issue 1, p15-22, 8p, 1)

Peck, Martin, Strong, Long Lasting, Energy Efficient-Addressing Future Needs with Concrete, (Mar/Apr2010, Vol. 2010 Issue 2, p178-182, 5p)

Riekstins, Roberts, Architectural Shaping Potential in Energy Efficiency Provision of Buildings, (Architecture & Urban Planning, 2010, Issue 4, p100-105, 6p)

Media players, from the radio to the IPhone

Taking into account the first rough draft, where I talked about my relation with the music players and its development during time, I would like to say that it was just a little example of how the Technology influences our life.

The music players are a very small part of the items that have developed during the past 15-20 years, and today, they keep developing.

My relationship with the music players began long time ago, that much that I can broadly remember. I just can visualize a big radio turned on in the living room while I was doing anything that it was mainly what I did, and I think everyone do, when you are 6-7 years old, but I cannot even remember what it was playing. Also I can remember when all the family went to have lunch in my grandmother’s house and while she was cooking, she was listening old songs in another big radio like the one I had in my house.

Shortly after, when I was 10 more or less the radio became part of my life. In those years I lived in the outside of Madrid’s area, and every morning to go to school my mom drove us, my sister and me, for almost an hour because of the traffic. That make us to spend a lot of time listening the radio in the car and also to know all the songs that they played!

The beginning of the second decade in my life started with the cassettes. My uncle, who is very close to me, is a big fun of rock music and he was the one who made me become a rock music fan. He gave me a lot of cassettes with his favorite artists which we used to played them in long trips because the old radios didn’t work between big cities, at least in Spain. But not everyone in my family was a big fan of rock music so, during these long trips there were always discussions about it which always ended up with my mother putting her cassettes which no one liked them.

Because of that, the appearance of portable cassette players was a big help in our family life! I keep listening my uncle’s music: roky erickson, radio birdman, wipers… but I started to know Spanish artists and other kind of music so by the time the CD appeared, my shelf was packed of cassettes, I think I had around 30 more or less.

The CD’s for me followed the same path in my life than the cassettes. I used them in long trips and also in radio cassettes during classes, mostly in English class to do listening, which is something that my sister, 4 years younger than me is still using. To all of this we added 6-5 year ago, the Walkman, the portable CD player. I started to go everywhere with my Walkman and it became a part of my body during my teenage.

I have been using CD in long car trips until one or two years ago when I started using the cable to plug my mp3 into the car radio system.

The mp3 was a revolution in the word of Technology. The simple fact that you didn’t have to pay to download all the music you wanted even movies or whatever made everyone to bought one. In addition it wasn’t only the fact of the money. It was also the easier way to get music from your computer, laptop even now in your cellphone.

All is this has happened in Spain and in Europe since the last 10 years. I know here in the U.S to download stuff for free is a felony but, back in Europe the download media is more than a custom. That is why, it surprise me a lot when I came here to the States.

This mp3’s have been one of the things that have been developed more in the last years. We have gone from the mp3’s through all kind of iPod’s until the latest IPhone’s.

These electronic devices have been part of my life and I could say that they have been part of the lives of the majority of the developed world people.

This is something that is going to keep developing because both parts end winning. Costumers get the device and the companies get a lot of benefits because there are a lot of people who want their product.

That is one of the most important parts when we talk about Technology, it is always changing and improving and we cannot even think about and end of the Technology, we don’t have this thought in our minds, maybe because we think that always someone is going to improve something that we already have it.

Since I am in this world, I have experienced to many changes in my in daily things, like cars, tv, computers, media players, and also in my sport, tennis.

This develop is something that we can’t realize while it is happening. We have wait a few years to have the time perspective in order to compare what we had and what we have now.

The develop of devices trough Technology have a mainly goal. To make our life easier. But this can be a problem too.

Do you remember the last time that you go to play outside your house with your friends instead of stay at home watching tv or playing videogames? All of these changes are really good, but if we use them correctly…

Taking into account the reading “Technology matters” we can ask ourselves some questions about the “correct use of Technology”.

Are we doing a good job working on something that really doesn’t help at all?

We can find the answer in the new video games where you have to move yourself to play and you cannot be seated on the couch. Thank of this we can find to different types of develop.

Firstly a big boom in the industry of video games who made people (young people) to stay at home instead go outside and do healthy stuff and secondly another develop in order to change the last develop, so if we outline the process, it would be: people who went out to play, people who stay at home and then people who stay at home doing things that they used to do outside.

With this, we can say that Technology is going forward day by day and it is making us to change our style of life.

But here is another important question:

Should we change our style of life because of the technology, or Technology should adapt to our style of life?

I can think on many answers to that question but the one which I prefer to tell you could be that the technology should adapt to our style of life. Our work in the future should be focused in create technologies which can help us to have an easier life but maintaining our healthy habits.

The Cell Phone Evolution

    I have seen mobile phones change drastically during my lifetime. First, there was the pay phone and the car phone. Next, was the giant, brick- like cell phone.  Eventually, people started to have smaller phones that could fit in their pockets. Most people today have cell phones that not only have the capabilities of a phone, but also the capabilities of a computer in the palms of their hands.  These changes in cell phone technology have also brought about drastic changes to the view that our society has of communication. Having grown up during the digital generation, I have come to realize that technology impacts society.

            When I was younger, I used to see pay phones everywhere. The invention of the pay phone made communication for my family and I. We could stop by a pay phone and make a quick call to family or friends.  My family and I would receive collect calls from pay phones when we had family coming from out- of- town. After we accepted the charges of the collect call, we could tell them the directions to our house. Within our society, it made communication easier while we were on the go.

 Car phones also changed the way that society viewed communication. When I was little, my family had a gold Volvo that had a car phone inside. The car phone was small and black with a cord, and it was mounted on the console of the car. The car phone could only be used in emergencies, and it could not receive calls. One day when my dad had a flat tire, he was able to call a tow truck without stepping foot out of the car. Car phones were convenient. They gave us the ability to use a phone in the car instead of having to stop somewhere in order to use a phone.

Once I saw car phones, my perception of what a phone should be changed. I began to think that phones should enable us to communicate without the inconvenience of going out of our way to use a phone. Car phones also made me think that mobile phones were only supposed to be used in emergencies and not for trivial things like just to have a casual talk with a friend.

 At first cell phones were very expensive. One of my teachers from high school once said that cell phones were only affordable to drug dealers and doctors due to their cost. Everyday people could not afford cell phones, so if one owned a cell phone it was assumed that he or she made plenty of money either legally or illegally. Eventually, cell phones became more affordable and available to everyday people.

The comment made by my teacher corresponds to an idea addressed in “The Coolhunt.” In “The Coolhunt,” the author says that at first only a few people will start to wear a new style. Then, I few more people after that and the ripple effect keeps going until many people are wear a style or participating in a trend. The same correspond to cellphones. When people saw that others who were affluent, drug dealers and doctors, had cell phones, they began to see that cell phones were a way to show status. Then a few more people began to have more and this effect continued until almost everyone had a cell phone.

The first time I ever saw a cell phone I was around seven years old, and my mom just purchased a silver phone bigger than my hand from the AT&T store. To talk on the phone, my mom had to lift up a little black antenna that was on the side of the phone in order to get a signal which was not very reliable. She only used it if she had an emergency. My first encounter with the cell phone was significant because I realized that now I could talk on the phone anywhere and not just in the car. It also made me think that now I could not only contact other people from my mom’s cell phone, but they could also contact me. My mom’s first cell phone maintained my thought that cell phones were only used for emergencies. Early versions of the cell phone enabled us to cell people as long as we had cell phone service. This was very different from car phones that only allowed us to call people from our cars.

As time progressed, not only doctors and drug dealers had cell phones. I got my first cell phone when I was in sixth grade, and all of friends had cell phones, too. It was a red flip phone that could easily fit in my pocket and weighed no more than two pounds. It had a camera and games, and I could even call and text my family and friends whenever I wanted. Cell phones were no longer heavy, large and only for emergencies only. In addition, they were accessible to everyone, even twelve year-old girls like me.

The invention of the smart phone brought about many changes to the way society views communication. On my phone, I can not only make calls, but I can text, play games, use the internet, check my email, update my Facebook status,use a compass, get directions to any address, and so much more. Phones today have so many more capabilities than older phones that have changed what a cell phone is. A cell phone is not just a phone, but a mini- computer, an iPod, a planner, an alarm clock, and so much more.

This summer when I went to Mexico, I had no cell phone service. I felt so disconnected from everything the week that I spent there. I could not text my friends, I could not see what everyone was doing on Facebook, and I could not get directions to a restaurant. While I was there, I realized how dependent I have become on such a small object. With the extra time that I had on my hands, I would look around and see that everyone was on his or her phone. Adults, teenagers, small children—everyone was on a phone. I began to think: “Who do these people have to talk to all the time?” I realized that dependency on cell phones is not just an American thing, it impacts all cultures.

Although cell phones enable us to communicate more with people, they also hinder us from communicating. When I walk into the Student Center on campus, almost everyone is looking down at his or her cell phone. People who I know do not even look up to acknowledge me because they are engrossed in writing a text, making a call, or checking their email. When I am in line at Chik-fil-a, I do not engage in a conversation with the person in line behind me. Instead, I click on my Facebook app and see what other people are doing.

However, with all of the advancements in cell phone technology, there have also come expectations that are placed on us about communication. Last year, I was in a club where our advisor would email us all the time. On a few occasions, she emailed us a few hours before she needed something to be done, and she would expect us to have it completed by that time since almost everyone had email accessibility on the smart phones. However, she forgot that we were in school. Since cell phones today have so many capabilities, people expect us to be able to immediately respond to emails and to readily have access to information on the internet.

Cell phones have even shaped what we need for college. On the list of necessities for college that is sent out by Georgia Tech, a few things that it says we need to bring are a phone, an answering machine, and an alarm. First, I thought to myself “Who uses an answering machine?” and “Why would someone bring a landline phone?” Many people that I know do not even own landlines because they have their cell phones.  I also did not bring an alarm because I have an alarm on my phone. I do not know how long it has been since the list has been updated, but obviously it was not recently. There is even an app on the iPhone for the clicker that I use in my math and chemistry classes.

One of the questions posed by David Nye in “Technology Matters” is “Does technology shape culture or does culture shape technology?” From the above examples, I have concluded that technology shapes culture. With the advancements in cell phones, you would think that people would be more connected, but from the above example, it is evident that people are less likely to be interactive because they are so engrossed in their cell phones.

Also, I think that cell phones have made us very dependent on one device. Have you ever lost your cell phone? I haven’t, but I have had the feeling that I lost my phone for a few seconds. I panic when this happens. If I lose my cell phone, I will be completely lost. No contacts, no texting, no Facebook constantly, no internet in the palm of my hand, no alarm clock, no YouTube at any time. My life would be miserable. Obviously, losing a cell phone is not that serious, but this is also an example of how cell phones have shaped our culture. We have become so dependent on one device. Twenty years ago, people could live perfectly fine without a cell phone.

In addition, cell phones have shaped our culture by allowing us to be constantly in contact with each other. From the example of my club advisor, it is evident that expectations about communication have changed the expectations of teacher- student interactions, boss- employee interactions, as well as other interactions in our lives.

With the advancement of cell phones, many social constructs have changed regarding communication. My mom, my professors, and my friends expect to be able to constantly get in contact with me. They also expect for me to be able to respond to emails and complete tasks in a short period of time. This expectation has changed the relationship between businesses and clients, teachers and students, and many more. Cell phones have also shaped my necessities, and consolidated them into one small phone.

Immodest Modesty

Underwear is worn solely for the purpose of adornment, not necessity. As the most intimate form of dress, underwear has a myriad of meanings and connotations. During the nineteenth century, underwear began to convey a sense of immodest modesty in terms of female sexuality. Nobody actually needs underwear. The significance of underwear is not what it does, but what it means. The changes in women’s underwear during the nineteenth century brought about change in the social constructs of women’s sexuality.

Underwear as we know it today has only been around since the nineteenth century which implies that underwear was not deemed a necessity. Before the nineteenth century, undergarments consisted of shifts and stockings that were worn by both genders for warmth and comfort.[1]  Until the twentieth century, women wore open underwear.[2]  This open construction provided easy access to the female body which shows that the underwear was used as a way to control women’s sexuality. The association of divided garments or trousers with masculinity, and undivided garments or skirts with femininity, influenced the design, use and implications of women’s underwear. [3]

The gendered division of clothing characterized underwear until the nineteenth century, when women began to wear underwear constructed of two leg tubes attached to a waistband.[4]  Before this time, the two leg tubes underwear were only worn by men for warmth and to protect outer garments from wearing effects of direct bodily contact.[5] The women’s version of this underwear was feminized by fabric, ornamentation, and open-crotch construction, the separate leg sections of nineteenth-century underwear were joined only at the waistband.[6] The open seam extended below the waistband, front to back, exposing inner thighs as well as genitals.[7]

Figure 1 Early 20th Century Open- Crotch Drawers. Artefact 982.183.1 Courtesy Ontario Royal Museum.

The new female garment’s design upheld gender distinctions regulated by dress that a divided garment for women challenged, and by the mid-1800s open drawers were a required component of respectable middle-class women’s dress in the United States and industrializing Western Europe. The transition from open to closed underwear demonstrates how the duality of modesty and eroticism operates in social constructs responsive to and productive of changes in understanding women’s sexuality.[8]

While the shift in underwear showed the duality of modesty and eroticism, it also demonstrated the difference in views of men and women. Distinctive male and female dress represented the different daily lives of middle-class men and women. Flashy or extravagant fashion was considered feminine.^[9] This was especially true for the middle class, which sought its own identity by distinguishing itself through manners and morals from the aristocracy and the peasant classes.^[10] Divided undergarments became part of women’s fashionable dress during the early nineteenth century, a period of heightened gender differentiation, when bourgeois values replaced those of deposed aristocracies throughout the West.[11]

The newly redefined middle class also differentiated between the underwear that was acceptable for young girls and women to wear which communicated a shift from being a young child to being sexually available. Differences between nineteenth-century girls’ and women’s dress reveal the sexual meanings of crotch construction in women’s underwear. Underwear for girls transformed into short breeches and pantalettes.[12] A rite of passage for girls in transition to adulthood was abandoning pantalettes.[13] Visible drawers worn by most girls under short dresses had a closed crotch, distinct from the drawers their mothers and older sisters were beginning to wear in the nineteenth century’s early decades.[14]

Because young girls wore closed- crotch underwear, it encouraged girls to participate in active play, solidifying the message of young women’s shift to wearing open drawers, corsets, and other layers of underclothing. This also shows that young women were not supposed to be active. Their constricting undergarments made it hard to move and difficult to perform many tasks. Putting on adult apparel restricted movement, and evokes ‘coming-of-age’ rituals that in many cultures assign the status of potential sexual partner. Wearing open-crotch drawers was a signal, if not reality, to a young woman and the men in her community that she was sexually available.

Young girls were not sexually available, so it was acceptable for their underwear to be exposed below the dress hem; however, this differed greatly for young women who were sexually available. Underwear worn by young women during the nineteenth century’s first decades extended below the dress hem in order to display their lace trim.[15] The exposure of girls’ underwear below dress hems was condoned.[16] However, this practice among young women proved controversial for moral reasons, and by 1820 drawer length receded so they were hidden when a woman was fully dressed.[17] By the 1840s, open-crotch drawers, made of lightweight fabrics such as muslins and lawns, were worn by most women of the middle classes.[18]

With the changes in the fabrics from which the underwear were constructed, there was also a change in the type of skirts that women wore. In the 1850s, women began to wear broad bell shaped skirts, achieved through many heavy layers of petticoats suspended from a tightly corseted waist.[19] Because underwear had an open crotch, if a woman lost her balance completely, her lower legs might remain covered but her upper thighs and genitals may become exposed. Despite this much remarked upon potential exposure– whether of naked flesh or of legs and crotch shielded by fabric – a woman dressed in open crotch underwear conformed to contemporary notions of propriety and modesty.

The growing volume of the bell-shaped skirt silhouette from the 1840s to the 1860s stimulated further male interest in viewing the lower female body region hidden in the increasing space created by layers of petticoats and hoops. The changing fashions in underwear encouraged this interest, though underwear also protected bare legs from the direct gaze of men as long as the wearer remained upright. Two images, both titled ‘A Street View’ and published in the New York City newspaper the Weekly Rake in the 1840s, illustrate men’s fascination with viewing the nether regions hidden beneath women’s long and full skirts.[20] One illustration (Figure 2) shows a woman on a street who has just fallen and landed on her bottom, exposing legs spread apart above her in the air. She wears both stockings and drawers, but a well-dressed man standing above her is staring directly between her legs.

Although women’s underwear was supposed to cover the women’s nether region when upright, it provided no protection if the women happened to fall which added to male fixation. At this point the underwear was a tool that enabled men to get a quick glance of a woman’s nether regions. This correlates shows how gender prescribing access to power. Men had power over women in all regards, including women’s sexuality and women’s undergarments.

Figure 2 'A Street View', The Weekly Rake (1842). Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.

During the time of increased volume in the volume of women’s skirts and a male fixation with viewing women’s nether regions, there was also a great change in the manufacturing of textiles. The advent of the textile mill and the commercialization of the textile industry also brought about new styles in women’s underwear. The development of new dyes, machinery, and textiles had a great effect on the clothing industry, including women’s undergarments. The inventions of the toothed cotton gin, the power loom, and the foot- and- water powered machinery in the late eighteenth century made factory production of cloth possible.[21] It also made clothing more available and styles spread quicker from the upper class to the lower classes.

Chemical dyes for undergarments were introduced in the 1860s which promoted the idea that colored underwear made readily available by the advancements in the textile industry was not only made for concealment, but also to be seen. This novel underwear was frilly, richly colored with decorations that made them designed, constructed, and worn with the idea that they were meant to be seen.[22] These new underwear was meant to conceal and also display the area that it was concealing. The change in women’s underwear from unadorned to highly adorned shows a shift in the views of women’s sexuality. This decorative underwear promoted the idea of immodest modesty.  The immodest modesty produced a of sense eroticism by drawing attention to the concealed, yet highly adorned, part of the body. The change in women’s underwear displays is a change in style of dress in order to be sexually attractive to men. The adornment on the underwear meant that a woman was supposed to show off her underwear to a man.

The changes in women’s undergarments communicated the idea that women could be both respectable and express their sexuality. “As moral concerns shifted and Victorian structures of behavior became less compelling, an increasing number of women claimed the right to sexual desire, pleasure, and respectability.”[23] It was unheard of for women to be able to possess sexual desire, pleasure, and respectability simultaneously.

To add to the respectability of women’s sexuality, a few medical and psychological frameworks that regard female sexuality were gaining legitimacy.[24] For Victorian scientists, sexuality represented a “biological urge to procreate and further evolution.”[25] This view of sexuality was revolutionary; before this time, white, middle-class women were viewed as sexually passionless.^[26] This view was beginning to change with the advent of adorned underwear. Women’s sexuality was gaining legitimacy in medical and scientific journals of the nineteenth century. Female sexuality was also becoming more recognized through the commercialization of women’s sexual expression.

During this period, consumer culture was commercializing female sexual expression. In western culture, gender prescribes distinct behaviors for men and women, and regulates access to power.^[27] Underwear was a tool that was used to control women’s sexuality, and when the underwear began to change, so did the social constructs regarding female sexuality. The view that women were passionless and possessed no sexuality was starting to shift as women began to express their sexuality by wearing underwear that was meant to conceal and also be seen. The open- crotch, highly adorned undergarments of the nineteenth century reinforce the idea that female sexuality was becoming more and more acceptable and recognized.

Bibliography

1.      Fields, J. "Erotic Modesty: (Ad)dressing Female Sexuality and Propriety in Open and Closed Drawers, USA, 1800–1930." Gender & History 14, no. 3 (November 2002): 492-515. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 29, 2011).

2.      “Fashion,” http://library.thinkquest.org/C004179/fashion.htm.

Archive." Textile History 40, no. 2: 185-201. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed September 29, 2011).

3.      Fields, Jill. "Drawers." In An Intimate Affair: women, lingerie, and sexuality. Berkley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2007.

4.      Houlbrook, Matt. 2010. Desire: A History of European Sexuality. Victorian Studies. 53, no. 1: 183-185,193.

5.      Storr, Merl. 2002. Classy Lingerie. Feminist Review. 18-36.

           

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[1] Storr, Merl. 2002. Classy Lingerie. Feminist Review. 18.

[2] Storr, Classy Lingerie. 18

[3] Storr, Classy Lingerie. 18.

[4] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 493.

[5] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 494.

[6] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 495.

[7] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 495

[8] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 498.

[9] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 498.

[10] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 501.

[11] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 500.

[12] Fields. “Drawers.” 10.

[13] Fields. “Drawers.” 10.

[14] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 502.

[15] Fields. “Drawers.” 11.

[16] Fields. “Drawers.” 11.

[17] Fields. “Drawers.” 11.

[18] Fields. “Drawers.” 11.

[19] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 497.

[20] Fields. “Erotic Modesty.” 499.

[21] “Fashion,” http://library.thinkquest.org/C004179/fashion.htm.

Archive." Textile History 40, no. 2: 185-201.

[22] Fields. “Drawers.” 22.

[23] Fields. “Drawers.” 22.

[24] Fields. “Drawers.” 22.

[25] Houlbrook, Matt. 2010. Desire: A History of European Sexuality. Victorian Studies. 183.

[26] Fields. “Drawers.” 22.

[27] Fields, J. "Erotic Modesty: (Ad)dressing Female Sexuality and Propriety in Open and Closed Drawers, USA, 1800–1930." Gender & History 14, no. 3 (November 2002): 492.