Technology: A Love/Hate Relationship - ISYS100summer

Who is at fault?

Have you ever had that experience where you have finished some kind of computer project and you need to print it out before you leave the house to take it to school, uni or work. Now if you are anything like I was yesterday, you may take your time getting ready to leave and just think to yourself Ï will print that out before I leave”, so it comes time to go and you head over to your computer and turn it on…..hold on we now have to wait for 32 computer updates to finish installing before the computer is ready to start using….we now have 5 minutes left before we seriously have to be in the car….hold on…oh man the computer froze, we have to restart….we now have only three minutes left, we finally open the document and press print…hold on….oh no, the printer is out of paper….we put more paper in and are getting really frustrated by now cos we really have to go, we press print again and …. oh, now the printer is out of ink…..we put more ink in and finally print the document and we are now running 7 minutes late, we race to the car and realise we left the document on the printer, we race back inside the house, grab the document, race back to the car and we are finally on our way, but are running quite late …argh!!! (by now we are probably thinking or saying some really frustrated thoughts about how annoying the computer and printer were for not hurrying up and doing their job)…. I had one of these moments….I needed technology to help me out right then and there, but no, it failed me…. But then when I calmed myself down, reflecting I thought “Who is really at fault?” With the great advancements in technology, I think we now put more expectations on technology to perform right NOW!!! We try to fit so much more into our day and assume that the simple process of printing a document should only take a second so we leave it to the last minute….we could have printed it out hours ago, or before we spent all that time reading through the junk mail that arrived in the letter box and had a really good bargain on nose hair trimmers or that really cool deal where if you get a gym membership now it will be so much cheaper….we waste more time now because of our expectations of our electronic technologies. I believe that technology, although very useful, is making us more impatient and demanding. After all we must remember, slow down, take a big deep breath – the object you are getting annoyed at is a computer/printer/television etcetera, not a human. We can’t really be annoyed at technology when things don’t go our way, computers aren’t vindictive and thinking to themselves “Ha ha I might freeze now to make your life a little slower”, but we can control our own selves, be organised, utilise technology, but be more prepared rather than getting frustrated, take some responsibility for your own choices.

Gaming - a true development

Anyone who played video games 10 years ago, and still plays today, would know that gaming graphics have come a long way. The improvement in graphics has been extraordinary. I remember my first game that I played on the PlayStation 1, the excitement on my face said it all. Back then the cartoon figures looked amazingly good, and no one knew or cared about 3D. Today, 3D animations are everything, both in gaming and movies. There is always a thrill in playing games with advanced graphics. Nearly every game that’s part of series such as Battlefield or Call of Duty brings something new to the table.

A series in which one can clearly see the development of graphics is The Elder Scrolls. The first game in the series was Arena back in 1994, a 2D role-playing game and the first of its kind. The next in the series was Daggerfall, featuring one of first true 3D worlds on a large scale. Morrowind was next in line with somewhat improved graphics, but the fourth game in the series was a massive advancement. Oblivion focused on artificial intelligence improvements that interact dynamically with the game-world, proprietary radiant AI, implementation of Havok (physics) engine, and enhanced graphics. What was thought to be the amazing graphics was overshadowed by the latest release: Skyrim. Skyrim’s dynamic interface allowed players to interact with virtually everything and with its updated graphics engine it earned IGN’s Game of the Year award for 2011.

Here is a contrast of the first and fifth games:
 
 
 ---------The Elder Scrolls: Arena ------------------



------------ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim---------------

technology reliance present and future

People’s reliance on technology is one aspect of the future that I do not look forward to. Even at the moment we look around almost any public place and someone is on their phone or laptop. Society has began to love technology so much that it is taking away from our own abilities as humans. One example is communication with others; instead of meeting up with a person to hang out or do something outside, some people choose to just talk via an internet medium such as facebook or skype. This has made us lose a sense of interaction with our fellow human. 



Another loss of interaction with others is seen when people are out. People sitting with a bunch of people while in a social setting, but instead of interacting are buried in their phones looking at facebook or something. I personally think that this kind of behaviour should be banned in places like clubs and pubs, with a penalty of being thrown out for the worst offenders lol! 



The Disney movie Wall – E sums up exactly how humans could end up if this obsession with technology to make our lives easier takes over completely.