Technology Autobiography ROUGH DRAFT

Technology Autobiography

            Growing up, technology has definitely had a huge impact on my childhood, and thus far through my young adult life. I feel most young adults and kids these day don’t realize how big of an impact technology has had on them but there’s been a significant change in lives that has come through these new technologies. Though some of these technologies may seem very insignificant in our lives, they were not around decades ago and have majorly shaped our modern world. Who would I be without a cell phone and the internet? We may never know. But, one thing I do know, I would not be the same person.

            In first grade I got a Nintendo 64. Man, it was the coolest game a kid could own back then. I would invite friends over to play Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong. This game gave me my first insight on the world of videogames. I vividly remember sitting down with my best friend, my sister, and her best friend. We would have two versus two battles in Mario Party, getting quite upset when we lost. The point of the game was to collect the most stars, having mini battle games along the way that could hurt or help you. The videogame world advanced very quickly. It seemed like as soon as you bought the coolest thing, a new one came out that you had to buy. I went through Nintendo, PS2, and finally the Xbox. It has shaped the world of entertainment, and now some kids prefer videogames over the outdoors.

            I remember our first internet access was dial up AOL. You used to have to sign into your account, and listen to the dial-up sounds as it connected to the internet. It would have the little AOL man running across the screen indicating how close it was to being signed in. From there you could browse the internet, check emails, and play games. Next came my first mode of communication besides our wall phone; AOL Instant Messaging. I specifically remember my IM name being “jujubeexoxo.” I would get on after school and as often as I could. I would sit online waiting for my friends to Instant Message me, and as soon as one of their usernames would pop up on my screen, I would IM them. This lasted for hours of the day. I was also very flattered when a cute boy would instant message me. Before texting, this was how I communicated with my middle school boyfriends. Of course, we were too afraid to talk in person, but instant messaging was our scapegoat.

            Later, as the internet advanced, our dialup disappeared. Internet Explorer was the new big thing, and to this day I use it. I soon learned about the world of games on the internet.

TO BE CONTINUED.................

Born Digital

                                In “Born Digital,” I feel that the audience for this piece is more aimed towards the older generation that might not understand the digital world quite yet. It is aimed for people who have grown up sending hand-written letters, calling home phones to get in touch, and not reading blogs or using Facebook. There are some key parts that show their intended audience. “Or maybe your daughter never comes down for dinner on time because she’s always busy online, chatting with her friends. And when she does come down to dinner, she won’t stop texting those same friends under the table,” (Born Digital, page 8).  I feel this is a solid example showing who he is aiming the text toward. Another example is when he writes, “Indeed, many aspects of the way in which Digital Natives lead their lives are cause for concern,” (Born Digital, page 12). He also has several examples about college aged students and younger.

                I do not feel that I am part of the intended audience for this piece of writing, because the author seems quite upset about the new Digital Era, and the way kids are acting with it, but, for us it’s normal. I am one of those kids that grew up when the internet started getting big, that used to chat on AOL to friends, and played Neopets. I do not feel the digital world is bad, as long as we don’t let it affect our face-to-face social skills too much. His writing felt angry towards people of our generation, so it made me skeptical while reading it and what he was going to say next.

Sponsors Of Literacy

                After reading Brandts’ writing, I could think of many “sponsors” of my literacy that have led me to where I am today. Literacy has become a key component of becoming successful in America, and other countries around the world. Without it we would have pretty much nothing we do today. Literacy has always been looked at with respect, and it has been very important for centuries.

                Some sponsors of my literacy have been, first off, my parents. Before I even attended Kindergarten they would read books to me, and read a word off the page and have me repeat it while I was looking at the word. Next it was my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs.Bonica. There we learned to write and read even better. She would have a name tag at our desk with our name on it, and every day we would look at the name tag and learn to copy it and write our name. We got assigned books to read, with different levels to get to. As the years progressed, my other elementary school teachers taught us even more, including cursive, which is not used very often anymore.

                Reading and writing are essential in everyday life. The people, institutions, and even electronics are key in teaching people literacy. Without it, who knows where we’d be today.

(E)DENTITY -- Dawn of the Digital Natives Activity

Dear NEA Director,

                The NEA argues that students now are reading significantly less than they were years ago, and that their literacy skills are decreasing. Although, this may be true for a small portion of students, I feel the majority is still reading a lot, but through the internet more so than books. The NEA fails to recognize Online and computer reading in their statistics. During my first semester of college, I had an e-book (book on the internet), and I read through the whole entire text book in order to take my tests for the class. It was a lot of reading, but in your studies it would not count. I have had a total of about 5 text books for my classes thus far, and this is only my second semester of college. Every night I have about 2 hours of reading to do for my classes, and I just recently finished a booked called The Lone Survivor for fun. As college students I feel we encounter a lot of reading, and that you should look over your stats again and include internet and computer reading.

Sincerely,

Julia

About Me

My name is Julia Kennedy. I am from Portland, Oregon and I came to Montana to study Nursing and live near the beautiful mountains. Some of my interests include snowboarding, wakeboarding, basketball, hiking, photography and basically all things active! I have one sister named Camille, and she is a junior in college at Oregon State University. Yeah, thats about all there is to know about me :)