12 Hours Without Technology Essay

Those who send themselves as technological determinists believe we as humans form remarkably little control over technology and the effect it has on the creative activity. further two months ago, I passionately denied this point of view and identified myself as a social constructivist. Perhaps it is the idea of not being in complete control of my decisions that I did not want to accept. However, after complemental the challenge of going twelve hours without technology, I quickly learned that my thoughts on technological determinism were not in line with my experiences.The fact is technology has baffle an integral part of day-to-day support. Truly understanding the effects and hardihood I say, control, that technology has on life, twelve hours without it will sure enough sack up each peerless of us. In the following pages, I will get down to break the challenges of my day without technology. Furtherto a greater extent, I will attempt to interpret how my experiences refer to my relationship with technology and society. Ultimately, my purpose is to identify events which support or check the view of technological determinism and understand the driving factors behind them.See more thanFirst Poem for You EssayWith a career that heavily relies on technology, I reasonably challenged myself to refrain from development technology on a Sunday. What I learned was quite move and honestly, quite stressful. First, to appreciate the challenges I endured on this Sunday, it is crucial to know a little bit astir(predicate) my skipper background. As a licensed mortgage loan originator, I befool a fiduciary duty to all of my clients that are buy a home. While my career requires a large set of professional requirements, the most valu qualified aspect to being successful is to be operable nearly 24 hours a day every day of the week. deprivation into this project, I knew that refraining from using technology, specifically my mobilize and the computer, would pro ve to be challenging except at the same time I figured everyone deserves a day off every now and thenI briefly learned that this would come with a cost. My Sunday morning started off lots the same as any other. I woke up early to hightail it to my e-mails that had made their way to my inbox from potential homeowners throughout the evening. Responsibly, I made real to reply to every e-mail, voicemail and, text message prior to 900AM. exclusively disconnecting from the internet and shutting down my promise was just as inwardness racking as I had anticipated it to be. Knowing that this day would be a challenge for me, I had previously arranged a a couple of(prenominal) things to do to keep my mind and attention away from my business. Depending on how one would define technology, someone could argue that I instantly failed to avoid the custom of technology within just an hour of starting my project. My wife and I left the ho spend in the technological wonder of a rile Tahoe Hy brid around 930AM to attend regular church services.I recognized right away that avoiding technology entirely for twelve hours would be impossible for me to accomplish. Instead, I switched my focus to avoiding my send for, internet or computer use for the remainder of the day. My wife and I proceeded to attend church and then went to lunch. When we returned home, I decided to take each of the three dogs for a run. Normally, I favor to take one of them each day on a rotation, but it was a beautiful day and the small blinking light on my phone begging me to check my text messages, e-mails and voicemails were not within reach.This was my source insight into a day without technology. Almost immediately I was able to find more time to do things that are more precious to me. While I was enjoying the extra time with my beloved pets, I to a fault recognized that as the day progressed, I was growing more and more anxious from not being able to use my phone. Little did I know that by the time I had finished taking the exit four-legged child for a run, I was not the only anxious individual affected by vacation from technology.There was a storm brew that would hinder my goal. When I returned home, my wife frantically met me at the door with her phone in hand. My managing sales supervisor had called her because he had genuine a some phone calls from upset potential clients. Notably, this was just five hours into my twelve hour challenge on a Sunday afternoon. Reluctantly, I took the phone from my wife and proceeded to field the onslaught of exploratory questions as to my whereabouts and reasoning for not answering my phone or promptly replying to my e-mails.It is crucial to remember that Im essentially self-employed, so I had no obligation to answer to a supervisor for an issue such as this but the fact that I had chosen not to use an ordinary technology such as my phone, I found myself in an awkward and sort of challenging position. afterward taking some time to put out some proverbial fires with my sales manager and a few clients, I put my phone down and resumed my challenge of avoiding technology. Before doing so, I noticed that I had received several text messages throughout the day from friends and family.Reflecting upon the nature of the texts as I read through them, I noticed one general pass theme. Many of the initial text conversations had begun with an unassuming hello and how are you. respectable five or six hours after not receiving a reply from me, many of the one-sided conversations had progressed to worry about my safety. At this point, I push aside the idea that I had control when it came to technology. As I reflected on these events, I could not help but be reminded of Neil Postman.We need to proceed with our look wide open so that we may use technology rather than be used by it (Postman, 1998, p. 6). Suddenly, I realized that I have been interacting with technological development in a way where technology was using m e more than I was using it. By definition, social constructivism presumes that social and heathenish forces determine technical change (Johnson & Wetmore, 2009, p. 143). On the flip side, technological determinism is the require that the introduction of new technologies produces direct and unalterable social changes (Johnson & Wetmore, 2009, p. 93).I have it away that refraining from technological use for twelve hours was an extremely small scale projection in price of the technology available at hand. Despite that, it was surprising how disturbed my friends, family, co-workers and clients alike had become by my avoidance of a phone. technical change creates winners and losers (Harris, 2012). These disturbances certainly support this idea, and I would argue that this is at the ass of the technological determinism theory. The introduction of the smartphone into my in the flesh(predicate) and professional life has set an foresight which has had a direct and unalterable affect. While this reliance on the phone may put me on the loser side of this equation, my clients are certainly on the winning side. My choice of career has brought new technology into my life that may have not been necessary with different decisions on my part. In closing, I should repeat that the main point of this paper and this experiment was to describe the challenges of a day without technology while interpreting my experiences in terms of the relationship between technology and society at a personal level.My experience with this project may have been more extreme than others effrontery the expectations of my profession. However, by the end of my unsuccessful day without technology, it was clear that the technologies I have brought into my own life on a personal and professional level unmistakably dictates how I interact with the world and more importantly, how the outside world expects me to interact with it.