Can Technology & Culture Adapt to Help us?

With technology always evolving and changing, causing us as humans to change time and time again, it's good to sit back and think of ways that these new and existing technologies can be improved upon to truly best suit users. Take a minute or two to think of some ways technology could change to benefit you, I'll wait so you can think.

Okay cool did you think of a few things? Let's see if we have some of the same ideas! 

I was going to say that there needs to be more of a connection aspect within social media again, but there's always been that. Perhaps it's just me that has felt a push away from that connectivity and community building in recent years. So I'll work on that internally before making a post about something that might not be true. Instead I have two ideas that I can think of right off the bat, and they both start with the letter 'S'. Sesame Street would be proud of me for making the connection don't you think?

For me, two improvements that can be made both technologically and culturally are ways to help improve sleep cycles and slowing down. Now, I don't want to sound like other articles bashing social media and technology - telling you to go outside and touch grass because that's the only way to be happy, because I know that's not true. But there's some improvements I think can be added to our daily usage of technology to improve on these.

Sleep Cycles

The blue light emitted from devices and mobile applications can stop your melatonin, making it harder to fall & stay asleep and affecting your circadian rhythm. And while it's not the only reasoning for it, a bad sleep cycle can have an effect on someone's mental health. So whether someone has a mental health disorder or not, like depression, having a good sleep cycle can help someone out either a little bit or a lot.

With lack of sleep putting such negative impacts on our brain, one big thing that can be done on the technological side is reducing the blue light that the applications emit. This way they will stop having an effect on people. Now, I am not a technology person so I have no idea if this can be done. But I feel like if we can have AI databases and Virtual Reality spaces, there has to be a way to remove blue light.

On a more personal side of things, experts and non-experts say that it's good to limit your usage of technology & media before bed. Most say that at least 30-minutes before you go to bed with no usage. I want to start implementing this in my life, as I know my sleep is not where it should be. I could try to bring this change into my life by using those last 30 minutes to work on my journal since I have this year decided to do that and make sure that I do a nightly routine. I could even get my outfit for the next day set up so that I don't have to do it in the morning.

Slowing Down

In America, we are constantly in motion. Trying to get from point A to point B and then to point C in as fast a time as possible. Technology helps with this, from fast food drive thrus allowing us quick access to food that we can eat while driving or working, to having constant access to email so that we can answer right away. I know that I use all of these, and sometimes it feels like I try and get things done so quickly, that I don't have time to just be in my own world - even though some people just love to say that using your phone all the time is being in your own world and not being a part of society.

Other cultures take their time with everything when they have it. Like taking all the time you need to sit down at a restaurant to eat and talk until you're full of both food and conversation. So with this cultural idea of always being online and connected and everything moving as fast as possible - there's not really anything technological that I can think of to fix to help us slow down. Other than different platforms making a statement encouraging users to take time off the platform.

A way I could think of doing this, at least for myself, could be to take a walk every once in a while, maybe even once a week. And on this walk, do something that I actually have to think about. Like take a photo of anything that catches my eye - good or bad. Snap a photo of some trash left littered on the walkway, then a photo of a flower, a blurring picture of a car that drove by that I thought was cool. I don't have to keep all of these photos at the end of the walk. But I can take time still after to scroll through them, remembering the walk. I could also collect things on the walk. Make a list, either physically or in my head, or items I want to find, see, or collect to bring home. Since the weather is getting nicer I think this could be something that I can at least try and do, I can just picture it now and I can show you how that looks (just don't come for my artistic skills using paint please).

What were your ways that you think technology could improve, either just for you personally or for the world at large? Sometimes it's good to just think about yourself though, don't forget that.

Resources

1. Epstein, C. (2018). Technology Shapes Cultures. Colby Community Web Site. Retrieved from Technology Shapes Cultures – ST112 WA2018 

2. Gloria, K. (2020). The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology. Aspen Institute. Retrieved from The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology - The Aspen Institute 

3. Healthcare. (n.d.). The Link Between Technology and Depression. Health Care 2 U. Retrieved from The Link Between Technology and Depression | Healthcare2U 

4. Media Sources: person sitting | sleeping while texting | park path (without stick figure)

Culture Changes As Technology Changes

Technology.

When I say that word, what comes to your mind first? Your smartphone, your television, your computer even? Maybe the way your phone and car connect through Bluetooth. While those are all true examples of technology - they're not the only ones. Technology encompasses all different part of the human experience and culture from food, travel, art, and government. Fire and stone were technology during the stone age because they helped our early ancestors be able to protect & feed themselves differently - thus changing the culture. Machines that harnessed the power of water and steam were technology that changed the culture of the time too. It's the same with today and our immediate thought on what technology is, the more knowledge of culture along with media helps us to understand the world around us and expand our own knowledge and culture. One could say it's as important as an education in Literature.

As technology advances, especially in this day and age, walls are being broken down that allow us to learn more about other cultures and our own. Think about how life changes when socio-economic walls are broken down so that lower-income communities can access the same information as wealthier ones. Technology also has been seen to start changing the way we look at many of our relationships to the people around us; romantic, platonic, networking, and more. As we break down these more local effects of technology on our culture, we can see the more global effects too. We are able to see into other places and peoples that before would require a vacation trip to know. This increase of available knowledge of other cultures and people can lead to higher acceptance and understanding of those different from you.

To focus on the culture of food we can see how the US compares to France. In the United States eating is for the most part seen as a way to get from A to B, one activity to the next. We need to eat quickly so that we can continue what we were doing before or a new task that needs completing. Just look at how many microwave meals & drive thrus are in the country. Some of those TV dinners even directed specifically at kids (looking at you Kid Cuisine: as much as I loved your blue tray as a kid I'll never understand why we had to put PUDDING in the oven!). With France on the other hand, they take eating as a whole social event, taking hours at a restaurant to catch up. There are fast food restaurants and drive thrus, but nowhere as many as in the US. The French want to focus on who they are with while eating, or eating itself, than what they need to do afterwards. Before the invention of the internet, most people would only be able to learn that by traveling there - and that itself was a cultural change on who was able to purchase tickets to be able to fly out to another country.

As we shape technology, so does technology shape us and our cultures.

Resources

1. Epstein, C. (2018). Technology Shapes Cultures. Colby Community Website. Retrieved from Technology Shapes Cultures – ST112 WA2018 

2. Tatarnikova, A., Oleshko, A., Voronovska, L., Shvets, N., Sushkova, O., & Sbitnaia, D. (2022). The Impact of Media Culture on Future Professionals’ Training. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 11(1), 117–128.

3. Tolić, M. (2011). Media Culture and Media Education in Modern School. World Journal of Education, 1(2), 89–97.

4. Media sources: technologies | Kid Cuisine | family meal

Technology: Bringing Us Together and Keeping Us Apart?

In the last few years - everything has been online. From shopping, to work, to keeping up with family and friends. Even before this time there was talk about the effects on technology usage and how that connectivity attaches to us. The human experience is wired to the ability to connect, so surely being so online would have negative effects right? Not entirely. Especially since the lockdowns from COVID-19, the online world we navigate has become more nuanced than what it was before and originally thought to be. That nuance comes from the context and how people use the technology, it's how you use the technology just not the fact that a person uses it. Using technology to scroll on social media for an hour has a different effect on a person versus spending that hour to video chat and connect with family and friends.

Since the dawn of time, each new technology or 'thing' has received backlash from the general population for it's unknown effects on people, with high focus on that of children or adolescents. Books were once thought of the same way TikTok is today. However, frequent connectivity helps with psychological well-being and sometimes even physical health. Current and new media being created each day can help people create new relationships and strength the ones that they have. Though it is true that being more online could take you away from those connections in-person.

With the creation of new technology and technology applications, it's good to think of the population as a whole, along with those more vulnerable communities, like the elderly who may find technology hard to navigate at first. This population of people have seen more communities shrinking from reasons of those going into retirement or others passing away: new media like Social Networking Sites could be a way for them to stay connected to those friends and family. But by joining later in life, it can be more isolating and frustrating to understand. Layouts and designs can change while usage and motor skills and make it harder and harder to use applications. It's been linked though that in the older communities that more usage on different technologies lead to a higher connection to cognitive functioning, so there's good research into getting the older generations onto social media, besides the push from family and friends to join.

Whether part of the 'old crowd' or a 'digital native' there are both pros and cons to usage of social media and other technology. But focusing more on the why of technology rather than just using it in general could help research in the future really get a good picture of the full benefits and affects.

Resources

1. Armstrong, K. (2020). Technology in Context: The Surprising Social Upsides of Constant Connectivity. Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved from Technology in Context: The Surprising Social Upsides of Constant Connectivity 

2. Fingerman, K., Birditt, K., & Umberson, D. (2020). Use of Technologies for Social Connectedness and Well-Being and as a Tool for Research Data Collection in Older Adults. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Use of Technologies for Social Connectedness and Well-Being and as a Tool for Research Data Collection in Older Adults 

3. Gloria, K. (2020). The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology. Aspen Institute. Retrieved from The Future of Social Connection, Loneliness, and Technology - The Aspen Institute 

4. Hage, E., van Offenbeek, M., & Boonstra, A. (2020). New rules of engagement: How adaptation to online media changes older adults’ social connectedness. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(2), 182–197. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1093/jcmc/zmz028

5. Media sources: rainbow group | woman on tablet

Mental Health and Technology - How They Mix (And How They Don't)

There is an "understatement that social media [and technology] has had a significant impact to our culture and our lives" with a 65% jump in usage from 2005 to 2019. But is this impact to our culture good for our mental health?

Now everyone responds to technology differently, and studies have even shown the using VR headsets can help people experience positive emotions by putting them in calming places, but other studies have shown the opposite. Some studies show that while those with depression, anxiety, and even PTSD can go to social media for comfort and support, if they use it for too long or too excessively it can have negative impacts on them. Those impacts can include a higher or more sensitive response to items that trigger them as they have not been able to immerse themselves enough in the outside world from the digital one. With rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide going up right around when smartphones got popular this is not hard to imagine.

Another effect on mental health is the way that social media and other new media technology is our sleep cycle. The artificial and blue light from our screens can throw off our circadian rhythm, thereby affecting our mood. Social media can be addicting to users, causing a "black-hole allure of techno-realms and crippling social isolation." By being online all the time, you could miss out on important social interactions that are in-person, which could bring on feelings of loneliness and that feeling can get you to go deeper into social media - creating a never ending cycle. And while there are groups of people out there without social media who still have high rates of depression, the reasons for their depression are related to how their society run, and nothing to do with technology. For something that stated it would help connect and reconnect people together, there's much evidence that it's doing quite the opposite.

So it might be a good idea to look into your own media usage and determine if it's all good for you, or if removing one or two scrolls a day could potentially uplift your mood for the better.

Resources

1. Binford, J., Dolan, M., Elhai, J. D., & Contractor, A. A. (2022). Examining relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder severity and types of media/technology usage. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1037/tra0001333.supp (Supplemental)

2. Brivio, E., Serino, S., Negro Cousa, E., Zini, A., Riva, G., & De Leo, G. (2020). Virtual reality and 360 degrees panorama technology: a media comparison to study changes in sense of presence, anxiety, and positive emotions. VIRTUAL REALITY. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1007/s10055-020-00453-7 

3. HealthCare. (n.d.). The Link Between Technology and Depression. Health Care 2 U. Retrived from https://healthc2u.com/link-between-technology-and-depression/ 

4. Singh, M. (2022). It’s Easy to Blame Mental Health Issues on Tech. But Is It Fair? Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/depression-social-media-tsimane-mental-health/

5. Media sources: mental health world cloud | teen in phone

On The Job Training Through Online Technology

Today's job world has changed drastically within the last few years with some jobs going fully remote or hybrid where possible. With this now online world of work, online training is becoming the new normal. By doing trainings, both onboarding and reinforcement, you can give your employees an edge and help them stay competitive in their given field. By having their skills grown and nurtured in this technological field, they will take it back to their work: therefore making your support of their success, a success for your company.

There's new types of technology to do these trainings as learning in general has become more complex for just a pencil and paper to handle. But with these new systems employers are able to help tackle all the unique learning needs of their employees all at once and track their knowledge - giving extra assistance where needed. Bob Lockett of ADP says that with online job training & development there are four steps:

1. Assessment > what do they know ahead of time

2. Simulation > real-world practice of the learning

3. Reinforcement > keeping the knowledge fresh & integrated

4. Feedback > make the knowledge come alive

All of these are able to be done through virtual video chats, so training is not limited by location. And for trainings not specific to an employer, like if it is through an internal development software, the world is filled with resources employers & staff and find that are accessible, engaging, and convenient. Like an animated video with subtitles that's easy to follow along. Working the technology to make the information easier to navigate makes the technology people-literate, instead of making people technology-literate.

Resources

1. Flores, G. (2021). How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development. MadCap. Retrieved from How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development| MadCap Software 

2. Hyder, S. (2021). How Technology Is Transforming Workplace Training in 2021. Forbes. Retrieved from How Technology Is Transforming Workplace Training In 2021 

3. Lockett, B. (2020). Elevating the Role of Technology in Training and Development. ADP. Retrieved from Elevating the Role of Technology in Training and Development. 

4. Media Sources: remote training photo - technology/digital literacy

Training the Future with New Technology

"Technology has always been at the forefront of human education." - Purdue University

This has always been the case since the beginning of education. Technology gave way for new technology for newer technology. Like the Magic Lantern to the chalkboard, to the overhead projector, to the photocopier, to the smart board. There's even talk of brining Augmented Reality (AR) into the classroom. So while some of the technology may now seem outdated, like the overhead projector from the 1930s, at the time of it's invention it changed the way student's were learning & being taught for the future. Just take a look at this video, posted on YouTube in 2022, showing video instructions on how to use the overhead projector. (Just a warning: it goes for about 10 minutes and then does the whole video again in French!)

This video is an example of teachers needing to stay up to date on the latest technology to teach students, or they'll all fall behind. But it's also not just the technology itself that needs to be learned, but how to use it & interpret it. Media & Culture Literacy helps students understand how the media around them works, how each aspect is different, and how it relates to them & their future. Even I learned about Media Literacy in my undergrad studies and wrote another blog post about it on this very blog! But media culture is so engrained in the lives of students today, but it's so important to get that literacy knowledge out to them for better success outside the classroom. Media literacy can be as simple as knowing a satirical article from a real one, knowing the right post format for Twitter versus Facebook, to more complex concepts of how harmful rhetoric is shared online disgusted as something else.

With each day more media are brought online, which means more and more is being use in the classroom; like teachers using social media within the classroom lesson & outside to answer student questions. This helps not only the students, but also the teachers in their educating by helping reach the students where they are. By teaching students about the digital world around them, we can better prepare them for the physical world they'll enter in adulthood. There's so much about Media Literacy to know, check out the infographic to the right from the EAVI - Media Literacy for Citizenship site.

Resources

1. Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice. Sport, Education & Society, 19(7), 927–943.

2. Purdue Online. (n.d.). The Evolution of Technology in the Classroom. Purdue University Online. Retrieved from The Evolution Of Technology In The Classroom | Purdue Online 

3. Tatarnikova, A., Oleshko, A., Voronovska, L., Shvets, N., Sushkova, O., & Sbitnaia, D. (2022). The Impact of Media Culture on Future Professionals’ Training. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 11(1), 117–128.

4. Media Sources: Projector Video - Let's Talk About Media Literacy infographic

Teachers Using Technology to Advance Their Training (and Themselves!)

Teachers today have to navigate different ways to develop and hone their skills, along with the new digital media world we live in. Normally for trainings & conferences you'd have to find a time to go, and work out the funds to also get yourself there, but now teachers don't have to go to training conferences far away. Instead the 'virtual workshop' is right in their phone. Social Media & Networking! This tool can help teachers build a network of other educators to help develop their skills, adjust & change curriculum, and have autonomy in their development.

Social media helps give teachers the tools to pick how they want to do the training, when, and how to implement it back into their classroom. While the set up of the classroom is for the most part the same as back in ancient Greece when philosophy was the main subject, the way teachers use that space has changed just as rapidly as the technology has.

There's another great benefit for teachers using social media and virtual spaces for their development and networking: fighting isolation. Sometimes teachers can feel isolated without a network of teachers in their field or subject to get & bounce ideas off of. Being able to tweet at another history teacher about how to set up a lesson on the Victorian Era that's successful can help grow the network & grow the ways a student's curriculum is taught to them.

This digital dexterity of teachers will not only allow them to develop and achieve better outcomes in their teaching, but also help get better outcomes for students and the school overall.

Resources

1. Flores, G. (2022). How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development. MadCap. Retrieved from How New Technology Has Improved Training and Development| MadCap Software 

2. Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Tweet me, message me, like me: using social media to facilitate pedagogical change within an emerging community of practice. Sport, Education & Society, 19(7), 927–943.

3. Harvey, S., & Carpenter, J. P. (2020). Chapter 3: Genesis and Change in Physical Educators’ Use of Social Media for Professional Development and Learning. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 39(4), 445–453.

4. Media sources: Ancient Greece - Virtual Learning