So while reading chapter one of the text as well as the articles I noticed one common theme. First and foremost the idea that technology is not just digital, it’s more the progression of ideas and tools over time. While the article and PDFs shared the same theme their delivery was really mundane and hard to relate to.

Chapter one : “Mediated me” was the most meaningful. On page 19 “..they allow us to do things in the physical world that we would not be able to do without them.” This made me think of how much technology we rely on just to function day to day. I think about the way I shop, bank, share or gather information. All of it is a result of some form of technology. I haven’t had to go to the bank to make a deposit in over a year I simply do it from my smart phone. When I want to pick up a prescription I scan it in and go get it. So much of our lives is simplified it makes me wonder if these things ceased to function what would happen. I remember a few years back I was filling out a deposit slip and realized I don’t know half the information required on it, its all done for me online.

In some ways you can say these things have become a crutch for us, a wall to hide behind, but in some ways its a bridge. While it may limit our functionality in some ways, like social skills or conversation, it bridges us to tools, people and cultures thousands of miles away. You can befriend people clear on the other side of the world, but if you met them face to face would you be able to dialogue with them? On page 21 a reference is made to “luking”. I think online communications have turned some people into real life lurkers who can’t hold conversations, while others have used it as a chance to flourish.

I think the way you’re mediated depends a lot on you. Some people can spend hours blogging and light up a room, others can do the same but are wall flowers. You can be well versed digitally an socially if you consciously balance it out. Lastly i wholly agree with the section titled “thinking”. It has in a sense reprogrammed us, think about when the bill comes at dinner when you figure out who owes what nobody picks up a pen but everyone will whip out their phones. Think about being on vacations and site seeing, its no longer “wait till i tell people its wait till i upload this!

Technology has dramatically changed who we as humans are, both positive and negative but the ultimate effect it holds on your life relies on your balance on and off the screen.