I interview Ryan through text messages. I began by reading his introduction so that I could get some background information on his technology use. From that short post I developed the following questions and then received the following answers:
1. In your introduction you seemed reluctant to join social media sites, but gave in eventually. What was your main motivation for joining and do you think it’s a necessity for everyone of this generation to eventually join?
I think my main motivation for joining was that alot of my friends used these sites and they looked interesting so I figured I’d give them a try. I feel like we are, as a society, being pushed into this new era of technology and social media and that eventually, If we choose not to join, it will hinder us rather than help.
2. Do you think there is a productive way to use technology instead of to just posting statuses and reblogging?
I think there are productive ways to uses technology. I mean obviously in the medical field technology allows for huge advances. On the smaller level, posting statuses can actually be beneficial if the messages are for a purpose.
3. How much time do you think is an expectable amount to spend using technology? Do you use it more or less than this ideal amount?
I think the amount of time we should devote on technology isn’t fixed. As long as it’s being used for a purpose, it shouldn’t matter how much time we take up using it. That being said, I probably spend way too much time using technology.
4. There has been a lot of speculation on how technology effects our generation. How do you think that it will effect the generation after us?
I think that, with the way we keep advancing, the next generation will be far more advanced than we are. At the rate technology is developing, our generation could easily be left in the dark as new and more advanced technologies are introduced. This may cause problems in the next generation because they will have everything at their fingertips and won’t really have to work hard for anything.
5. Do you think the education system should integrate more technology into learning? For example more classes in high school or lower grade levels on social media, etc.
I do think there should be more technology integrated into education. Children and teenagers today are constantly using social media and new media devices. If that is incorporated into the education system, it has the possibility to do wonders(while on the other hand, it has a risk of crashing and burning horribly).
Ryan believes, and I agree, that technology is an important part of today’s society whether we like it or not. Those that resist it will eventually get sucked in and those already accepting will just be pulled further in, especially for the generations to come. It is for this reason I attempted to find a picture for the top of my post of something a long the lines of a computer eating the world, but since it seems no such picture exists, I settled for a picture that looked like it could represent what the world would be like after the computer ate it. Technology is consuming our daily life, it seems to be still up in the air though as to whether it’s a good thing or not; it helps our society but then again there is the saying about “too much of a good thing….”
Using texting for an interview proved to be very difficult. I had trouble sending my messages because I am used to sending shorter messages when texting regularly. The questions I had for Ryan were much longer and therefore it took more time to type them out on my phone than I’d imagine it would have on the computer. Also in the questions that were too long, and in the responses as well, the message was sent in multiple text messages. This broke up the flow of the conversation.
mmcsurveyofnewmediaspring13 