Tuesday, 1 April 2014


Throughout this module we have been constantly faced with issues surrounding our ever evolving society, the role of technology and how the two form together to create a relationship.
Verbeek, P . (2006) - “because of the pervasive role of technologies in our daily lives, it is hard to find an activity or experience which is not technologically mediated”.
Ultimately Verbeek is implying technology can be found within every aspect of our lives - encouraging us to question whether perhaps without realising it technology has taken over control of us.
If we take a glance at modern western society of today it is clear to see we are surrounded by technology. We are constantly using the power of technology to function within our daily lives. Relying on it to complete even the most basic tasks. For example on average who actually wakes up now days using an actual alarm clock or do you use your smart phone to do so?
Technology has advanced so much even over the past two years it’s a scary thought thinking where we might be in lets say ten year time. It seems life a lifetime ago when people would write letters to each instead of sending a quick text or email. Or perhaps waiting a whole twenty four hours to get an update on the current affairs of the world where now we can get constant updates second by second via News apps on our smart phones or social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Years ago time passed in fairly large units, everything was slower and perhaps more appreciated. A few hours wasn’t considered a long time to go between not talking to your friends or work colleagues or checking your email.

According to figures collected by a screen lock app, the average user checks their phone around one hundred and ten times a day (Mail Online, 2013). This figure is unbelievable, and makes us question as humans do we rely on technology to much? Perhaps we have forgotten what life used to be like without technology?

Latour (2002) as cited by Poel and Royakkers (2011) 
“Without technological detours the properly human cannot exists”.
I do think Bruno Latour is very much correct and believe as humans we have now become immersed within new media and technology resulting in a change in social conventions and expectations of life. For example it is considered peculiar and abnormal now a days if you do not have a smart phone (most commonly iPhone – apple domination).
 Our smart phones are the gateway to instant and continual connection with the world we live in via new media and modern technology. The main function of a mobile phone should ultimately be to contact one another may that be via speaking on the phone or even by text. However technology has alerted the basic use of phones. We now use our phones for multi purposes not just to contact one another. The introduction of apps on smart phones opened a sea of opportunities for us; there are millions of apps ranging from books to finance, entertainment, health and fitness, religion, medical or even apps based on outdoors and nature.
The power of persuasive technology is incredibly strong, as it does appear to play an affect in our every day lives, as there is quite literally an app for everyone. The most common apps used are social media apps such as, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Many of us now feel the need to update our Twitter or Facebook status when something changes in our lives. Suggesting maybe we are living more in ‘virtual online worlds’ instead of the real world.
It is clear to see society has changed but is it just the new generation who have followed and engaged with new media and modern technology. Or have older generations also followed? Meaning all our past ways of life have been completely vanished.
I think many of us would disagree and say our past ways of life haven’t been completely vanished. But ask yourself this,
When was the last time you bought a cd instead of downloading it via iTunes or listening on Spotify?
Do you still get all your holiday pictures developed at the photo printers? Or do you upload them onto Facebook in albums only printing select pictures.
And when was the last time you went to Blockbusters to rent a DVD or do you now just watch it online via Netflixs?
Society has changed, and clearly new technologies have drastically improved our lives in many aspects but - have we also lost part of our old lives that we will never get back?
Persuasive technology has become so immersed within our lives it’s affecting us in places that we don’t even realise. Popularity is now rated on number or retweets or followers on Twitter or the amount of Facebook likes on your chosen profile picture. Language has even been adapted new phrases such as ‘selfie’ was even adopted by the online version of Oxford English Dictionary in 2013 (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014). The fast pace nature of technology was mirrored in other phrases such as ‘lol’ ‘cbb’ and ‘brb’.
I wondered if this new social way of communicating was the same for everyone? Do different age groups have a different way of connecting?
To answer my question I devised my ethnography project on researching the reliance humans have with their smart phones and new media technology and the social conventions and etiquette that come hand in hand with social media.
If you go anywhere in Western society of today it will be the social norm to see people staring at their smart phones. I can predict half of the people that you see staring at the little square screens will not be using their smart phones to contact someone instead they will be using their phone to browse. Browsing upon either social media sites finding out what their peers are up to or surfing the Internet finding out about the world news or even just playing a game to pass the time. This form of browsing to fill time has turned into a human habit, and is now considered to be a life style choice – we are choosing to be obsessed with our smart phones we are allowing the media to control us let us. The new generation in particular do not know any different they were born into a media obsessed world. 
I can account for this, I feel lost without my phone almost the feeling of being naked when I leave the house without it by mistake or when the battery dies. Shutting down the constant contact and update with the world causes upset within me which in a way encompasses the need society have with technology and their smart phones.
For my ethnography project I used participant observation to gather my information. I observed different people all from different age groups over the time period of one hour. 

 Why did I do this you ask? 

 I wanted to calculate the amount of time individuals interacted with their phone while in my company and what the purpose was for each individual for doing so. My aim was to see if there was a correlation between age and reliance humans have on their smart phones.
I observed five participants in total meaning a total of five different age groups took part; my younger sister Olivia 15, my best friend Megan who has just recently turned 20, my auntie Jo who is 28, my mum Lorraine 47 and last but not least my nan Lorraine 68.  I predicted there would be a correlation with the youngest age group using their phone the most and the oldest the least.
But what did I find out you are asking?
Well as predicted I was correct. However there was also surprising outcomes which were found. Olivia the youngest of the participants fulfilled to all expectations using her phone the most she constantly had her phone held in her hand, and when I attempted to look she became very closed off and secretive suggesting she values her phone with the highest importance. This valuing was also clearly present with her quick constant replies to any alert she received, as well as constant scrolling checking for updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp.
 Megan was similar to Olivia in some respect as she did keep a keep an eye on her phone for most of the duration she did this by holding it in her hand or placing it near her however unlike Olivia Megan wasn’t scrolling for updates the whole time she just replied to messages when received.
 Breaking my prediction Jo did use her phone the entire time I was with her, however she wasn’t browsing or using it for social purposes she was using an app to search for baby names as she is currently pregnant and was applying the app and information gathered from the app to our conversation. My mum Lorraine wasn’t on her phone at all and kept it on the side at distance from herself. She did however receive texts and did reply back however in comparison to Olivia and Megan did so at a much slower pace she also aplogised when doing so suggesting new media and technology was out of her comfort zone and it wasn’t the social norm for her.
 Last but not least my Nan Lorraine the oldest of the participants she did not use her phone the entire time I was present. However she did ask if I could show her how to reply back to somebody on a Facebook message.  Do the older generation think they will have to understand technology more in order to fit in?
 All of this information gathered allows us to form the understanding that the younger generations are technology obsessed, constantly updating their social networking sites living more I their virtual worlds than the real world. This obsession is carried on through the generations however does decrease with age suggesting old habits of the old not so technology determined world are still present. However how long they will last cannot be determined. My ethnography project moreover did show how technology (smart phone apps in particular) are now not only influencing are spare time but also how we interact.
Continuing my ethnography project I also used Facebook one of the most popular social media sites, to gain an understanding of the social rules and etiquettes of the technology world and if different rules apply to different age groups. I kept the same participants as before and commented on each of their profile pictures saying ‘you look great here”.
Not all of them replied unfortunately however here are the replies from the ones that did. The younger generations Megan and Olivia understood I was joking straight away where as the older generations misunderstood the joke. This suggests the older generations are still getting to grips with the technology world.
Perhaps different age groups have different social techniques on social networking?
Maybe society involvement with technology has adapted the way we communicate to each other – are older generations more sincere?
 Des freedman claims “social media, online platforms, digital technologies and collaborative networks have fundamentally changed the ways we socialise, amuse ourselves” (Freedman, 2008) .
But do we really understand how much information we are giving away just from interacting with social media and online platforms. Yes we all understand the basic meaning of persuasive technology but do we understand the extent that it is affecting our lives. Surveillance has been and is currently expanding. In today’s society is not just gathered from medical records, census data, employment records or even CCTV. Information is constantly being gathered and representations of us as individuals are being formed. Information is gathered from all aspects of our lives from our Internet web history to loyalty cards in supermarkets. Our world is based upon a voyeuristic outlook and has been this way for many years. As humans natural instinct is to observe and learn.

 However has surveillance combined with modern technology gone a step to far?  
If we know surveillance is taking place on simple aspects of life such as smart phone apps and supermarket loyalty cards and our web history.  
What surveillance is taking place without our knowledge?  
And another important question... what information if being gathered? And why? 

 Our lives if we like it or not have become immersed with technology some may argue this has caused problems but ultimately we would of not achieved some of the world’s biggest achievements and attributes if it wasn’t for technology. This does not however mean technology is controlling us and we live in a technology determined world, in fact I believe to a certain extent we are controlling technology we choose to let it in to our lives, we choose how we apply it to our lives. Yes society has changed because of the advances in technology such as surveillance but everything needs to change once in a while. Change should be viewed a in positive way, culture survives on change and our world survives due to culture.
Biblography
Freedman, D. 2008. The politics of media policy. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Oxforddictionaries.com. 2014. selfie: definition of selfie in Oxford dictionary (British & World English). [online] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/selfie [Accessed: 2 Apr 2014]
Poel, I. V. D. and Royakkers, L. M. M. 2011. Ethics, Technology, and Engineering. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Verbeek, P. (2006). 'Persuasive Technology and Moral Responsibility: Toward an ethical framework for persuasive technologies.' Paper given at the First International Conference on Persuasive Technology for Human Well-being, The Netherlands, May 18-19, 2006. Avalilable from" http://www.utwente.nl.gw/wijsb/organization/verbeek/verbeek_persuasive06.pdf