Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Technology vs. Communication

The use of technology is changing and evolving the world in which we live.  Google continues this trend by introducing a floating balloon that will connect more people than ever before through Internet access. Currently Internet is not available to all rural, poor, and desolate locations. The use Google’s free-floating stratospheric balloons will create the opportunity to further connect individuals across the globe in every location. Google claims that with stratospheric balloons more coverage and knowledge can be had during a crisis situation, such as the typhoon that recently hit the Philippians. In reality more than one balloon would be directed to the Philippians to provide stronger Internet connection to know what is going on. While this is an intelligent idea I see a gap in the availability of devices to access the Internet during a crises situation.  One other positive Google states is that the balloons will provide economic opportunities and education for the individuals who are lacking the necessities to evolve with the speed of technology and communication.
            More access to the Internet could lead to great things for every individual, however it could also minimize and extinguish the opportunity for personal connection through face-to-face contact. Google’s hope is that cafés, restaurants, and airplanes will be able to provide free Internet access without any delays or the experience of slow coverage.  Communication will then be limited through a device. The device will play as the middleman between two people, whether the two people are thousands of miles away or sitting across the table from each other. This trend is seen today as well. For example when I walk around campus more people are looing down at their phone than looking up at the world around them.  The chance to engage in a conversation is becoming narrow. With easier access to Internet it will continue to narrow the window of opportunity, our society will then lack the knowledge of how to converse.
            As technology increases I believe verbal communication decreases, which creates a lack of knowledge far greater than what the Internet can provide or teach. It is vital that companies ponder the affect a product has on society and it’s future before placing a product to the beckon call of consumer’s.
             

3 comments:

  1. This is an awesome idea. There are so many places around the world that could benefit from this. Even this last weekend a plane went down in Idaho but they didn't have a strong enough signal to tell rescue searchers where they had crashed. I liked that you talked about it being used in times of crisis. It could better communication enough to save lives. That is awesome.

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  2. This is a technology that seem very realistic. All of the other technologies that we were talking about in class were beyond anything that I can imagine. This would be a great way to better communicate through technology. At the same time, I do agree that the more advanced we become the less we will know how to communicate face to face. We are raising generations to be illiterate and that is scary. Great job.

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  3. This is so cool, and beneficial. I didn't know that they were doing this. I thought you did a great job explaining it and showing how beneficial this technology is going to be. I totally agree this will totally change the way our world will communicate.

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