Streaming services are affecting the way you and I think. These services have an underlying change to your emotions that you might not notice. Some of these services include Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Steam and countless others. Besides the services that these companies offer, the streaming aspect of it gives us instant gratification. We get what we want immediately without having to wait. At first it may seem like nothing is wrong with that but in reality it is training us to be less patient and to not wait for things. It defies sayings like: “good things come to those who wait” and “everything in due time”. It makes it harder to tolerate when we actually have to wait for something to happen.

Streaming services are a very big players in making us impatient and having shorter attention spans. Another big player in this, although not a streaming service, is Google. Google is a search engine that in a matter of seconds gives back millions of results to any inquiries that you may have. Google has a new feature that allows for us to search from any screen on our phones, so now we have instant answers and solutions on our phones just like we have instant music, movies, and TV shows from streaming services. I didn’t realize that this was a growing problem in today’s day and age until one day my internet connection was having problems and I got angrier than the situation called for. At that moment I realized that I got used to getting things immediately online so when I couldn’t I didn’t know how to process it. Ironically enough I immediately did a google search to see if others have reacted the same way and to my surprise this has been something that has been looked into for years. Since that day I began cutting down on the amount of streaming services I use to try and regain some of that patience that I used to have. I deactivated my Amazon Prime account and switched my Netflix from the streaming plan to the mail-in plan. I still google things because these services are also designed to make our lives more enjoyable and easier even though they come with some negative side effects. This is something that I think people should practice and if not at least be an effect that they should know exists and should act with caution.

Lebanon Times writer, Joel Risser, had the same issue with his son. He says that his son will never understand that in the past if his father wanted to watch a show he had to watch it when it was on or rely on a rerun to catch up on what he missed because it was not on demand or in any of these services like I have previously mentioned. Risser says even if the electricity goes out his son can still watch Sesame Street as long as there is a charged phone tablet or laptop. This proves that other people have noticed that with the help of technology things are becoming available whenever a person may request it. Risser wants to stress the importance of delayed gratification. He shows this by saying that delayed gratification is something that has been practiced since the bible times. He said, “The Bible reverberates with calls for us to be patient in our prayers and to ‘be still before the Lord and wait for him.’(Psalms 37:7)”. Another thing that Joel Risser pointed out is that instant gratification should be only for necessary things, like having to go to the bathroom. Things that are essential, not things that are wants.  (Risser, Lebanon Daily)

Instant gratification has become such a big problem that near Microsoft’s headquarters, The Impulse society opened in Seattle. It’s the world’s first rehab center for technology addicts that have been affected to the most extreme cases. In there are people who are addicted to video games, so much so that their self-control and decision making ability has atrophied. This is a reality that the rest of us might have to face. We might have to figure out a way to live in a society that is too good in giving us what we want. The reason this could be problematic is because in life not everything can be when we want or it might not be possible at all so we have to be ready for those circumstances (Macdonald, Roberts).

I wanted to know if this has affected people around me in the same way it affected me so I asked my 21 year-old cousin Kathleen Rintleman about her uses of streaming services. I asked her what the streaming service she used the most was. “Well technically I use Spotify the most but the one that I can’t live without is Netflix.” I proceeded to ask her how often she used Netflix. “I use it every time I get home from school and work or on the commute there on my phone”. “Why do you say you can’t live without it?” I asked. “It’s not that I can’t live without it but things in general would be a bit more boring. Instead of being able to watch episodes of the Flash when I get home I’d have to wait for a re-run because I’m at work when the new episodes air.” I concluded from this interview that my cousin is now in a state where she thinks her life is better off with Netflix and that she believes that she could not bear without it. I realized that she’s forgotten that there was a time in her life where she didn’t have that and she had no other choice but to wait for a rerun. This made me think that instant gratification takes away the ability we had before to wait.

I decide to ask my father, Luis Betances at age 48 about Netflix. I asked him how often he uses Netflix. “I use it every time I get a Blu-ray in the mail. I have the mail service for Netflix and not the streaming service although I used to have it in the past.” “Why did you choose the mailing service instead of the streaming service?” I asked. “The mailing service to me offers classic movies that are not allowed on the streaming service.” “But wouldn’t you rather see the movies instantly?” “Yes, but I’d rather wait for a movie that I want to see instead instantly seeing a movie that I don’t want to see.” Just like with my cousin I began to think and concluded that my father has been around a much longer time than my cousin so he is better able to control his impulses. I believe that even though my father still might have a natural urge for things that give him instant gratification, he is better able to control them because of his experience which we could think of as like training.

Instant gratification might not be all bad however, it is a result of technology coming a long way. It was a result of us being able to speed things up like getting 4G LTE on our cell phones, meaning we can look things up in seconds. Humans strive to make things easier, more effective, and overall faster. This is a choice we make and with it comes instant gratification so maybe it’s something we shouldn’t oppose and just accept as a natural result of our improvements. Instant gratification is a result of our advances technologies that ultimately make our lives simpler. Imagine a world where when trying to watch an online video there is a 5 minute pause just to train ourselves to have delayed gratification. Instant gratification as a product of streaming services might not necessarily bad but it is something that we should keep in mind.

Works Cited

Betances, Luis. Personal interview. 27 Nov 2015

MACDONALD, NANCY. “The Impulse Society: America I n The Age Of Instant Gratification.” Maclean’s 127.35 (2014): 76-77. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Rintleman, Kathleen. Personal interview. 29 Nov 2015

Risser, Joel. “Instant World Is Making Teaching Patience Difficult.” LexisNexis Academic [LexisNexis]. The Lebanon Daily News, 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Jean Betances

Profesor Ellis

English 1101

11/8/15

My name is Jean Betances and I am a student at New York City College of Technology, majoring in Electrical Engineering Technology. I am in the program for an associates in this field, which would make me an electrical technician and then I will pursue a degree in a four year institution in electrical engineering. I am excited about this career because it’s something I have wanted to do ever since I was a child. Technology has always been something that intrigued me and that I wanted to find out about more. I wanted to see how it worked on the inside, what makes it run the way it does and what tells it to do the things that they do. It has always been something that has captured my attention so it seemed natural to choose a career that deals with technology.

For a long time I thought about mechanical engineering but later on I discovered I was more interested in the electrical side to things. I think I was drawn to the electrical aspect of things because I realized that without it the whole operation would be pointless and not operational. It seemed to me that the electricity portion was the most important aspect of any technological piece. I wanted to know how every machine around us and the houses we live in are powered and how to fix any electrical problem that I may encounter. Another reason I chose this career is because a lot of people in my family are engineers themselves. For example my two of my cousins, my uncle, and my aunt back in the Dominican Republic. In this essay I will address what is the role of an electrical technician and what is expected of his position. I will also further explain my reasoning for choosing this particular major.

An electrical technician, when working in research and development, may be needed to construct breadboard layouts of electronic devices and experimental chassis and cabinets of prototype equipment. (College Catalog, 243) A breadboard in electronics is a circuit assembled on an insulating surface, often with solderless contacts, in which components can easily be replaced for circuit alteration and experimentation. In drafting a cabinet is designating a method of projection in which a three-dimensional object is represented by a drawing having all vertical and horizontal lines drawn to exact scale, with oblique lines reduced to about half scale so as to offset the appearance of distortion. They may also have to design and construct test fixtures and apparatus, plot graphs of test results and write reports, and inspect and calibrate test equipment. The main responsibility of electrical technicians is mostly in maintenance and control of installed equipment. However they are often put in teams with electrical engineers, other engineering technicians, and draftsmen. In a group the electric technician may suggest positions of electronic components on a panel or chassis, they may suggest modifications and perform design calculations for engineers. They could also prepare specifications for certain materials and parts, estimate the cost of alternate design possibilities and help write use and technical manuals for electronic equipment users. Employers for this career include companies like Con Edison, IBM, ITT, Avaya, USPS, NYPD, MTA, JPMorgan Chase and Verizon. Electrical engineering technicians work in offices, laboratories, and factories because the job requires both engineering theory and assembly-line production.

Electrical engineering Technician’s pay median is $57,850 per year which is $27.81 per hour while the bottom 10 percent of the technicians make $34,560 and the top 10 percent make $83,120. The work schedule usually follows the same time as production workers in the industry in which the Electrical engineering technicians work in. For example, if you work for the federal government you follow their standard workweek schedule or if you work in a manufacturing industry you would follow theirs, although sometimes overtime might be required. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Electrical Engineering Technology)

A man named Erik at which is a part of the Energy Programme is a post-secondary teacher in Sweden. Erik teaches Energy Technology but before becoming a teacher like his father he was a plumber for 15 years. In an interview Erik stated that when he was a plumber he just turned screws but the never understood what it was that he was doing or how the whole thing worked. I realized that this was a warning for the future. I need to learn in City Tech the Engineering Theory before I can do anything in the real world. I might learn on the job but having an understanding of the big picture makes the job a whole lot easier. (Reasons for choosing a technically oriented education: an interview study within the fields of pipefitting and industry, 382)

Technology has always been interesting to me ever since I was a kid. One day years ago my parents got both me and my sister a virtual pet toy called Tamagotchi, which were very popular at the time. From playing with it so much I must have broken something on the inside of my toy because it stopped working. I decided to replace the inside screen with my sister’s Tamagotchi instead of just asking my parents for another one. I got a set of screws that my father got for me earlier in the year and I took apart both my sister’s and my own Tamagotchi. I took out my broken screen and replaced it with hers, then I put the hardware back together and to my surprise the toy worked just like new. I found it shocking that I was able to do that successfully. After that I tried to fix everything that was broken electronically around the house. One time after that day I tried to fix the vibrating mechanism on my PlayStation 2 controller. Although I failed to fix that, I found the inside of these things very intriguing and wanted to learn more about it. That was when the interest for engineering truly sparked for me and I started to look more into an engineering career. In high school I wanted to learn more about how engineering worked so I joined a robotics club and we worked on a robot to enter the First Robotics Competition. This furthered my interest and helped me decide what I wanted to become. In the program I learned the different things between the mechanical aspect of the robot and the electrical. I leaned toward the electrical side a little bit more than the mechanical. This always felt like the right career and it was the one that I always had in mind. If not this career, I’m not really sure what I would do instead. Another big reason I chose this career is because I want to see my work become something real and be able to say that I helped design whatever it may be. I want to be able to point out exactly what I did and see how I contributed to the final product.

What I want to get out of my time at City Tech is a working knowledge of how the real world of engineering works and knowledge that I could apply on the job. Just like teacher Erik stated I want to understand the big idea before I get to the details of my career. In the future I plan to have a comfortable career as an Electrical Engineer on a firm. I plan to live right here in New York City but travel around the world with the opportunities I get in my career. I also want to use my knowledge from City Tech to in my everyday life. I want to learn things that could help me in day to day situations.

Works Cited:

New York City College of Technology College catalog 2015-2016 (City Tech) New York: NewYork City Technology, 2015.PDF.

“Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technicians.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

de Camargo Ribeiro, Luis Roberto. “Electrical Engineering Students Evaluate Problem-Based Learning (PBL).” International Journal Of Electrical Engineering Education 45.2 (2008): 152-312. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.

My name is Jean Betances and I have been playing video games almost every day for the past 10 years. It quickly and easily became my favorite pastime and source of entertainment. So much so that even when not playing video games, I probably looking at something related to it. Video games are something that with time started to define who I am today. It helped me make connections with people and learn a language. Videogames also made me more competitive and taught me teamwork.

I was born in New York City but lived in the Dominican Republic with my grandmother for 7 years before returning back to New York. As a Spanish speaker it was a challenge to make friends with the other kids, who only spoke English. When I turned 8 my aunt gave me a Gameboy Advanced, the latest handheld gaming device from Nintendo. When I took the Gameboy Advance to school, it gained me sudden popularity with my schoolmates. Since not many of the kids in my grade didn’t have one, they took turns playing with the game, and in turn, we got to know each other. Without realizing the handheld device was helping me make friends in elementary school. Since the games I was playing were all in English, it was also an incentive for me to learn the language, since I had to know what was going on in the game to be able to pass the levels.

Even a couple of years later in middle school, when I was speaking English almost fluently, video games still helped with social environments. I remember inviting a group of friends over to play Guitar Hero on the PlayStation 2, a game in which instead of playing with the regular PlayStation 2 controllers, it was played with smaller plastic imitation guitar controllers with buttons in the place of strings and a long switch to strum. Inviting friends over to play different games became a regular occurrence.

Throughout my life, without me realizing, video games have helped me develop long term friendships. Even to this day, after going to different high schools and now colleges I still play online on Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 and on PlayStation Network (PSN) on the PlayStation 4, which are networks on home consoles that allow players to play together through the internet. I used to stay up late to play online in these networks with my friends after school on the weekends.

As I grew up and kept playing, I began to understand what the difference was between a casual gamer and a hardcore gamer. The type of gamer you are is usually defined by your mindset about games. While casual gamers play regularly for fun and entertainment, it’s more about having fun with your friends and socializing. On the other hand, hardcore gamers dedicate more of their lives into gaming, including going to competitions and conventions, like the Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, which is an annual convention for the video game industry in which studios present their new and upcoming games, ideas, and projects. A lot of the times they also spend large quantities of their money to build their own computers, gaming setups, and to grow their home theater sets. I felt like I didn’t really fall into a specific category, but got the best qualities from both sides. In that I like to have fun with my friends and relax while playing games, I can also get competitive and try to become a better player and beat the game with as much skill as possible.

Another way that my love for video games developed was through watching people play video games online. I liked watching these videos to see their own experiences while playing the game, or just to watch them play a game that I couldn’t afford or wasn’t planning on buying anytime soon. Gaming videos became so popular that YouTube recently decided to make a specific section just for the gaming community, and a separate mobile application, which made gaming videos easier to find. I usually watch gaming videos almost every day as a source of entertainment. So much so, that it became a regular habit and I don’t really watch television programs as often anymore. Some of my favorite gaming YouTubers are DashieGames, TheRadBrad, SeaNanners, and DownrangeGaming. The reason I watch these specific gamers is that they are funny and entertaining, and they play most of the games that I enjoy. By watching these guys, they help me consider and decide on certain games that I wouldn’t have considered buying before. They also inspire me by doing things that I would enjoy doing for a living, like getting paid to play games.

Going back to the YouTubers in the gaming community, there are channels that are dedicated to gaming videos, information about the games, guides on how to play and walkthroughs, as well as fan made videos based on the games. A popular video genre that has recently become more popular are game reaction videos where you get to see people’s genuine reactions to games, usually horror or thriller ones. A couple of popular channels with millions of subscribers are IGN, Machinima, and RoosterTeeth. They have become popular because they make great informational videos about old, recent, and upcoming games that are going to hit the market. These are channels which I frequently watch to compliment my gaming experience.

In the beginning I thought that playing video games as much as I did was common, but later realized that this wasn’t the case. My friends and I were more into games than other people our age, who were more into other activities, such as basketball and baseball. I thought everyone was into gaming as my friends and I were because the people I was surrounding myself with were all into the same things. Videogames also opened up other doors for me because through the people I met because of video games, I was also introduced to other things, such as basketball, weight lifting, and anime, which is a style of Japanese animation.

Since I was a young boy I started collecting more and more consoles, beginning with the Gameboy Advanced, then the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo 3DS XL, Xbox 360, and finally the PlayStation 4. As I grow older and gain more responsibilities, I will still continue to buy new consoles and make time for games because I believe that you are never too old to enjoy some relaxing videogames might not be for everybody but people of all age ranges enjoy them. When playing online multiplayer you will be paired up with random people usually in your region but sometimes even from around the world. When in these multiplayer matches you could choose to plug in a microphone into your controller and speak with others in the group. You can talk to people of all ages and from places all around the world. In the online group people might not always be saying the nicest things, but it is still a fun experience. The different types of people that usually partake in the online groups ranges from little kids in a mature rated game like Call of Duty, to adults with responsibilities in games like Mario Kart.

Though some people believe that video games are a waste of time and for people who don’t have any responsibilities, it can actually help young kids to make friends, become confident in their skills, and learn new things, such as in my situation when I came from another country. Video games helped me make longtime friends and learn a new language and I now consider my first language. As long as there is a balance between your responsibilities and leisure time, everyone can enjoy video games. My passion for games is something that will not let down in the future and will definitely continue to grow with me.