There's an App for That!

People in today’s society are always on the go. Mobile apps allow you to perform tasks from mobile devices.  Apps are making many things accessible that weren’t accessible in the past. Most people in today’s society have access to resources that were once very expensive. Cameras, video cameras, GPS, and editing software are now available on phones and tablets.

People are finding innovative ways to incorporate the use of apps into our daily lives. This has changed the way that we interact. Some apps provide communication through audio, video and text. People are becoming closer because they can use Facebook and Skype apps to communicate from their phones.

Studies show that apps are making us smarter individuals. People have access to information that was harder to obtain in the past.  Libraries and schools are no longer the most popular avenues for learning. There are many educational apps that are available to people of all ages. Quizzes, trivia, and DIY apps are actually teaching people about various topics.

Mobile apps are extinguishing boredom.  App stores have a large supply of entertainment. Many of these apps connect people from around the world. Some game apps show the country that each player is from. Some games even allow you to chat with opponents. People are able to connect with people from different cultures. This increases interaction with people that are outside of our communities.

Businesses are able to use apps for advertisement and marketing. Businesses use news, and stock market apps to stay up to date on important information that may affect their business. Apps have also changed the way that we shop. People shop while using QR code readers to check prices and find discounts. Mobile apps opened the door for smart shopping and virtual stores. QR code stores, restaurants, shopping centers, schools, public spaces and even business are encouraging the use of mobile apps.

WARNING: Post with Caution!

      It is no doubt that many people of all generations are using social media sites these days. Even my grandma has a Facebook! Not to mention, a lot of her friends have a Facebook as well. Although social media is great for keeping in touch with one another, it has its dangers. When we post things on the internet, there are a variety of people who can see what we post. Our "friends" can definitely see what we post, but who else is seeing our daily lives?
     My mom often lectures me about my privacy settings on Facebook or Instagram. I have always understood why she tells me to make my page as private as possible, but its never really been important to me. I usually just nod my head and brush it off. Then one day she told me to do an experiment to prove why it is so critical to make every aspect of my Facebook page private. She told me to type in a random name and go to the page of someone I did not know. She then asked me to tell her all the information I know about that person just by looking at her page. I was able to see where she lives, where she used to live, where she went to high school, where she is going to college, who she is in a relationship with, and when her birthday is. On top of all that, I was able to see exactly what she looked like thanks to her pictures. It amazed me. If I was a stalker or psycho person (which I am not), then I would easily be able to find this girl that I don't even know. It never really hit me how easy it would be for someone to find me if they wanted to.
       On Youtube, I saw a guy perform a similar experiment only he was using Instagram. He would search random people's Instagram around the area where he lived and find where they were at based on a picture they posted. He would go up to them and say their name and talk about things in their life that he saw from their pictures. Like if one of them had a picture posted of a dog, he would mention their dog, or if they posted a picture on their birthday, he would mention their birthday. Many of the people were creeped out, some were very mad. After he told them what he had done, some of them immediately made their pictures private. A lot of the people took it very well and thought it was a cool idea to get people to be more careful about who they share their information with.
     I now have my social media pages completely private so that someone who is not my friend can't see anything about my life. It is important to protect ourselves when using the internet. Make sure that if you post something, it is something you do not mind a complete stranger knowing about you. How private is your life?

The Transformation of Banking

Sometimes it takes society a while to catch up with technology but when it does anything is possible.  For example, the ATMs are widely used every where, everyday, thousands of times a day and yet in the 1960s when it was first introduced in the United States people had a hard time using a machine to transact their business.  For this reason it was discontinued.   History:  John Shepherd-Barron invented and installed an ATM in the Barclays Bank in London in the 1930s.  Don Wetzel invented an American ATM in 1968, which could only dispense cash. Then in September, 1969 Chemical Bank revolutionized banking with the first ATM but it also only dispensed cash.  However, by 1971 ATMs had evolved to where they could not only dispense cash but it could also provide customers with their balances, and some other functions.  By the 1980s ATMs were in wide demand, and like every good thing with time comes change.  In the 1990s the banking industry came up with a new way to make money, they started charging for the use of ATMs.  For a customer to use their bank’s ATM it will cost nothing, but when it comes to the use of any other bank’s ATM there will be a charge associated. Today banking has evolved so drastically that the way we think of banking has taken on a totally different image.  There are still tellers in the bank, people still stand on line to cash their checks or make deposits and the banking industry continues pretty much the same in its day to day activities.  However, technology has given us online banking, direct deposit, the use of smart phones, it enables the taking of a picture of a check and deposits it directly into an account.  It doesn’t stop there, the financial industry and technology continues to change and expand every day.  We’ve come a long way baby!



Bring on the Snow

In my first post I briefly mentioned that my family and I were stranded for a few days without power due to a snow storm. We didn’t have electricity. No electricity meant no internet, no cable, no refrigerator, and no microwave. We had none of the technology that we’d come to depend on. The experience was not fun, but it was educational.

The power went out around 4 am, according to the power company, but we didn’t notice it until 7, when my mom woke up because she was cold. She crawled out of bed to check the thermostat and realized how quiet the entire house had become. She let me and my sister sleep but she woke my Dad and they built a fire in the fireplace to warm the house up a little.

Thankfully, we have a gas stove, so we weren’t worried about not having food. At first we thought it might be nice to have a day with no distractions, just have family time. That worked for about an hour, until my sister tried to turn the TV on. She realized she couldn't so she got her laptop out and was going to watch YouTube videos… but she couldn’t because the Wi-Fi was down too. Needless to say, she was a grumpy Gremlin for the next few hours. We were all kind of grumpy.

My dad missed his silly electric blanket that he puts on his feet because he refuses to wear socks. My mom missed watching House Hunters International on HGTV. My sister missed searching anime movies on YouTube and I missed watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

It was then that we realized how much we let technology affect us. We used to have game night every Saturday where we’d battle one another for the title, Champion of the Board, but now we play apps on our smart phones. We used to sit at the kitchen table when we had dinner, but now we huddle around the TV and fight over the remote. We used to cook dinner together as a family, but now we just throw a frozen pizza in the oven and go back to our respective rooms and ignore one another.

I’m not saying it’s all technology’s fault, because some of the blame lies with us. But technology has been detrimental to my family. I am very thankful we were left without power for a few days because it took some of the technology out of our lives and put family time back in. 

Laptops In The Classroom

By, Khephra Hines

“Fixing Our Schools”

Technology and computing has always been an important part of education. Students have to become familiar with current technology so that they can effectively operate in the careers that they choose in the future.  Most schools have libraries and computer labs for students. This provides them with access to card catalogs, the internet and educational software.  Schools across the nation are now allowing laptops and tablets to be used in classrooms.  This has encouraged many people to create, eBooks, applications, and software that can be used during class. Allowing laptops into classrooms has a positive influence on education and society.  

Allowing students to use laptops gives them a chance to develop computer skills. Laptops give students the opportunity to become familiar with keyboarding, spreadsheets, databases, word-processing, internet and multimedia.  Many students are able to use their laptops to stay organized. They can use homework apps and online programs to manage their assignments.  Websites, like turnitin.com, can be used to check students work for plagiarism.

There are downsides to allowing laptops to be used in classrooms. Using a laptop can become a crutch for students with illegible handwriting. Many teachers complain that students are too dependent on spell check.  Simply sitting in the back of the classroom will expose another major problems with allowing laptops. Students become distracted by social media and other websites during class time.  There are programs that teachers use to monitor the activity of students in class.  

Permitting students to have more access to technology in class, has a great impact on society. Most jobs require that the employees have some experience with technology. If students have advance computing skills, then they can contribute to society when they have jobs.  





'Hybrid' Charter Schools on the Rise

Social Media: Potential Threat on Future Job

By: Rena Smith

 
             In Seattle, Matt Watson, a bitter-barista, as his blog was also called, learned the harsh consequences of social media activity on a job. Unhappy with many circumstances of the job, such as repetitive customers, Watson's blog gained popularity quick but unfortunately resulted in the loss of his job.
              In Denver, a 10th grade math teacher, Carly McKinney was fired for very inappropriate comments about her "hot" students. In addition to promiscuous tweets, McKinney's employers discovered controversial photos of the teacher smoking marijuana. While the teacher was placed under leave during the process of the investigation of McKinney's twitter account, she was ultimately fired.
                     
               While both Watson and McKinney lost their jobs during their shameful social media posts, activity on the Internet can also prevent job seekers from employment. While parents, professors, and mentors advise many teens on the reality outside the Internet, social networkers are still unaware of the severity of their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts.

                According to Forbes.com, 34% of employers who scan social media profiles of applicants found material that prevented them from hiring the candidate. Among these employers, over half noted that the material found was inappropriate of provocative photos.

So, while your resumé may be professional be mindful of photos and posts on your social networking sites.

Technology Keeps You Close to Home

  

By: C.J. Kerns

Up until I was fifteen, I lived in a small town in Georgia that no one ever seemed to leave. I thought that would ring true for me, but here I am in South Carolina. Growing up in a small town, I always knew everyone, not to mention pretty much all of my immediate family lives there. I grew up being forced to be around the same people all of the time, and I loved it. I loved them. Then at the end of ninth grade, I moved five hours away to South Carolina. How would I ever stay friends with those people I grew up with in that small town in Georgia? Technology.

      Nowadays, it is close to impossible to find someone who has not heard of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the list goes on and on. I still keep in touch with many of my old friends and all of my family thanks to these social media sites. I can see what is going on in their life and I can like it or comment on it, without ever having to really be there. I am able to know what college my friends are going to, when they get a hair cut, or when something sad or happy happens in their life. It is so nice to be able to watch my family and friends lives from a five hour distance.

      Another great perk to technology is having video chats like Skype and Facetime. I Skype my grandparents and my dad, who all live in Georgia, just to talk about things going on in our lives. It is great to have that opportunity. I also use Skype with my step-dad because he just recently started a job in Maryland and that is a good way for us to still see him. The technology of cell phones alone has played a big part in me being able to stay in contact with my family and friends. Being able to send a text at random times just to say "I love you!" or being able to give someone a quick call when you get the chance, no matter where you are. 

      Technology has helped me maintain so many of the relationships I have built. Technology has kept me close to home. 

A Continuous Need to Improve

     
                 By: C.L. Wright 

“…yet a true creator is necessity which is the mother of our invention,” Plato wrote that in 369c, and he could not possibly have known how accurate he would be.  When I started writing this I had no idea who said that, but with a search engine it is possible to find anything that you want with a click of a mouse.  Researching a paper in the library requires the reference number, searching the aisles for the specific reference and then searching the pages for the desired information.  Reading will never become obsolete but the way that we read has changed dramatically.  Instead of picking up a book, we pick up a tablet or a laptop.  Most books are digitized and downloadable to any device and can be slipped into a pocket for ease of transporting. 

The look and feel of the computer has also changed drastically.  A few years ago, while the banking corporations always had big main frame computers, desktop computers were introduced in the work place. Those desktops operated on a system called DOS.  When a DOS systems came online it opened a blank screen with only c:/ the operator would type in the code to tell the computer to run a certain program.  Computers at that time were not user friendly they were built for programmers and not the average user. They were hard to learn, which made them hard to use, which made them arduous and they were expensive putting them out of reach for the average person.  Now they are sleek, light weight and the cost had dropped.  Most everyone have a cell phone, a laptop, a tablet or all three.  How cool is that?

                                                                                          

Technology becomes too much

By: Ashly Higgins 

We might not realize it, but technology can have a devastating impact on our social health if we don’t practice moderation. Although technology has helped advance our society in remarkable ways, it has also harmed us in ways we often don’t see. Before Twitter and Instagram we played board games. Instead of walking around with our eyes glued to the device in our hands we talked and made eye contact with other people. But that all changed when technology became an integral part of society.

What does integral even mean? Well, according to Merriam Webster integral is defined as being necessary to the completeness of the whole. So if technology is integral to society, then society cannot function without it.

That’s a scary thought for me. During a winter storm in January, the power went out here in South Carolina and my family and I were stranded. We didn't have electricity. No electricity meant no internet, no cable, no refrigerator, no microwave. No technology.

It was then that I realized how technology had infiltrated my life. We've become so dependent on technology: phones to communicate, refrigerators to store food, cars to park themselves. It’s kind of ridiculous.

I realize how awesome technology can be. I personally suck at parallel parking so I one day hope to own a car that can parallel park itself. That would be awesome! Even though technology can be super cool, it can sometimes be too much.

I encourage you to put your phone down every now and then and take a step back in time. Go back to a time when technology wasn’t everywhere you look. Step back to a simpler time and play a board game.