Category: technology

Perpetual Addiction

raining17Leave a comment

A constant fight between adults and teenagers is the apparent crisis of technology, and the misconception that teenagers are addicted.

Yes, teenagers use technology a lot. But so do adults! Even if teenagers use it in the form of social media and adults to check email, both are online. Plain and simple.

Another misconception is that the current teenage generation is the first ever to be antisocial. Before we were on our phones, other generations were just as invested in reading books or newspapers, or listening to the radio. Heck, this could go all the way back to knitting by the fire or crocheting a new hat!

Photo Credit: michaelsmithnews.typepad.com

Honestly, the current generation is probably more social than the last, since phones enable us to talk to others and stay connected.

Basically, to say that our generation is the first to be antisocial is entirely false. People have been antisocial, or invested in a certain belonging for as long as people have been on earth!

It’s human nature, people.

As times change, belongings and interests change with them. What’s important, however, is that awareness remains constant.

The Spiders Rise pt. 1

indigoshell

Sunday
11pm (on Saturday) and I’m piling wet clothes into the drying machine. A few socks fall to the ground and I feel an ominous tingle touch my spine while reaching for them. In the gap between two machines is one of the largest spiders I’ve ever seen in my life, about an inch long with legs. Now, I’m not afraid of spiders, but I could’ve sworn that this one was looking right at me.

Photo cred – Spiders.us

That night (or morning), all was well until 3am. Alarms blared and the whole dorm seemed to shake as 40 girls fell out of bed. The fire alarm had been triggered, and the standard protocol was to all file outside into our circular driveway.

I was in such a rush that I forgot my shoes and glasses, which normally wouldn’t be a problem. It was dark out and the little moonlight we had were shadowed by the bodies of stumbling girls. Twice I nearly fell down the stairs.

The real kicker? There was no fire. And we all knew it.

Monday
While making tea that morning, a (rather normal sized) spider scuttled across my feet and made its way out the door. Spiders are very normal occurrences around the girl’s dorm, but most of them actively avoid humans. So this was a very, very odd thing to experience early in the morning.

Everybody went to bed that night as usual, not suspecting a repeat of the night before.

5am came around and the same shrill sirens went off, startling the dorm and ejecting the girls into the cold. I remembered my shoes this time, but it was still cold, dark, and disorienting. 5am was an odd time for us to wake up, as most girls wake at 6:30 anyways. I considered staying up, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to decide.

I knew that this was just the beginning.

Everything It’s Cracked Up To Be

kennyrooLeave a comment

Trivia Crack a game that’s taking over smartphones worldwide. Trivia Crack is an online trivia game very similar to the board game trivial pursuit.

There are six question categories: science, art, history, entertainment, sports, and geography. Win 3 questions in a match to earn a crown, and you must get six crowns to win a match.

You are afforded three lives and your lives are replenished one per hour. When the game opens, you spin a wheel to randomly select your topic.

The question is presented in multiple-choice fashion with a thirty-second time limit to answer it. If you answer the question wrong, the right answer is flashed on the screen momentarily.

This game is not only addicting but educational as well. Most students and teachers on campus are challenging each other with questions all through the day.

While I’m sure at some point this game will fade out like all other iPhone trends, but as of now, the widespread rush of trivia knowledge is ever so present.

Photo Credit to: http://www.whatishub.com

 

Unplug

kennyroo
cnn kid with phone
photo credit to: http://www.cnn.com/

When I was younger my brother and I shared a flip phone and we were over the moon thrilled. Our house had one big black computer, and my dad had a laptop for work. Adults had small flip phones to text, call, and take horrible quality photos — but that was it.

Phones weren’t buzzing and beeping 24 hours a day, and we could all get through a meal without even mentioning technology. Today, I have my phone with me most, if not all of the time. I can’t even go into a mall without seeing at least a handful of toddlers playing on tablets, or crying because they don’t get to watch television on their mother’s phone. The kids that are being born today are being born into a generation of technology – a generation that cares more about taking pictures of their lives, rather than actually living them.

Maybe we should all unplug. Take a break from other peoples’ lives and start living your own.

A comparison of two ages

frog3Leave a comment

frfrfrfrf

The Americas were discovered in 1492,a little over five hundred years ago, much has changed since then. Living in the United States and looking around it is hard to imagine that the journey to the Americas was once a voyage filled with hardship guaranteeing nothing but hardship and possible death. However the periods between 1492 and 1750 were one of the most explorative periods in human history. Humanity still has at least one more massive exploration opportunity ahead in the foreseeable future. That opportunity is the settling of Mars.

To Mars and beyond

frog3Leave a comment

grtg

Humanity sits on the cusp of a new explorative era, one in which humanity will no longer be confined on a single planet. Setting foot on mars and the subsequent colonization that will occur will socially and politically transform Earth. Some have said that the cost, economically as well as in human lives is too high. To those I say simply look at an earlier era were the brave and foolish sought to push the boundaries of what is impossible.

Does YouTube mark the end of the TV?

infamousdolphinLeave a comment

With new forms of entertainment such as the internet, or more specifically YouTube, the TV seems to be consistently getting lower use each year.

Maybe it is because people prefer cheaper and more versatile forms of entertainment instead of being stuck with a strict schedule or constant ads.

Another website that is stealing the show is Netflix, a website that allows people to watch TV shows for only eight dollars a month, with no ads and tons of variety. Even though Netflix doesn’t have the newest episodes, it still allows you to watch entire seasons in a row with no interruption.

It is time for the TV to step aside and allow the age of internet dominance to begin, even though some argue it has already begun.

Netflix and YouTube are also widely known for ruining people’s grades in school.

Weibo Effects

enternity1030Leave a comment


Instead of using “Twitter,” Chinese people have “Weibo” to express their thoughts and posting pictures. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website, which people refer to hybrid of Twitter and Facebook. It is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of Internet users, with a market penetration similar to the United States Twitter.

It was launched by SINA Corporation on 14 August 2009 and has 503 million registered users as of December 2012. About 100 million messages are posted each day on Sina Weibo.

However, same as the other popular social media websites, it has been a trend for almost everyone to check his or her Weibo everyone minute in case of missing any news. Well, I admit that websites such as Weibo and Facebook have created a way for people to communicate with each other and letting people from different parts of the world know what they are doing.

They are magical but harmful as the same time. It is no longer rare to see especially young people holding their cell phones in the restaurants, on the streets. It has become the most “practical” way to kill time. But I realized that the more time we spend on such social medias, the less we care about the actual physical world around us and about the people who are actually staying by our sides.

So don’t let Weibo control our lives. We have better things to do instead of wandering around in an illusory world.

Up and down

frog3Leave a comment

frfrf

It begins with a white red blast.

 

Will the velocity ever last?

 

Takes much time to break that one rule.

 

Reaching for such heights makes one a fool.

 

Stage one is simple, there’s no doubt.

 

The engines come alive with a deafening shout.

 

Stage one the last barrier is broke.

 

The fire of human ingenuity is stoked.

 

Stage two the rocket leaves earth behind.

 

The view could only satisfy mankind.

Rockets to the Rescue

frog3Leave a comment

m,m

The future is here. Space X, headed by Elon Musk, has invented the first soft landing rocket in human history. Just what is a soft landing rocket you ask?

Traditionally space rockets have one use, all fuel is used up and the rockets attached to the spacecraft burn up in atmosphere or crash in the ocean. With a soft landing rocket the rocket will enter in a controlled descent through atmosphere and then safely land at its launch point intact. This will cut the cost of space travel by seventy percent. Instead if costing fifty million dollars to launch a rocket, that same rocket would only cost seven million dollars

This is one of the most significant inventions the world has seen it will revolutionize space travel and human history.