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.