Emily St. John Mandel's 'Station Eleven'

“America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”, written by Niall Ferguson, a historian who teaches at Harvard University, in 2011, explores why civilizations collapse, and how America can avoid this. He does not focus only on America, but many civilizations in the past that have collapsed. Niall Ferguson is the author of Civilization: The West and The Rest. The article is creatively and cleverly written using the metaphor of modern technology to describe the way in which the societal collapse occurs. This shows that the article was written for adults who are highly educated and understand and relate to technology. The article discusses the possibilities of what complete collapse would look like in American society. I believe the author successfully

Technology grows everyday. We see technological advancements everywhere throughout the world, whether it is a new phone being released, a new computer being invented, or a new scientific experiment used in the medical field. Technology is constantly expanding, and with this expansion, we must ask ourselves one question: do we rely too heavily on technology? When discussing technology, there are limits and fine lines between using and abusing these technologies that are at hand, but as we discover these limits and ask ourselves this question, we look at the generation of fresh adults in our local area who are entering college and the growth of social media within this generation. Undoubtedly, young Americans utilize social media everyday whether

The most important lesson for Rachel that comes out of this situation is that after wearing the disgusted sweater she has become even older, and it was tied to the experience instead of the birthday itself. She understands that it is the challenge she needs to grow up faster as she will receive additional benefits of behaving the way she wants and resisting to the outside irritators. As for the literature techniques, the author applies language, diction and symbolism to reveal the issues of experience, aging, knowledge, power, authority and freedom. The discovering is gaining age are conveyed with the help of the memories of eleven-year-old girl on her birthday. Rachel resists her humiliation from Mrs. Pierce, and that is the exact moment when her “smart eleven” comes as well[2].

As technology is advancing, it is ruining our reputations and everyday lives because we use it too much. “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury is a story of parents who use too much technology to spoil their two kids which rely on technology and use it to kill their own parents. The Atlantic is an article on how technology has changed the concept of the community and how it affects people’s daily lives in mostly negative ways. In both sources, humans rely on technology too much, having a negative effect.

Ever since the integration of technology and social media, we have changed as a society in how we interact, make conversation, and go about our daily lives. In the novel Feed, by M.T Anderson, the possible consequences of our dependence on technology and social media are highlighted through experiences between several teenagers in the future. They all live in a world that is the equivalent of a hyped up social media, which has taken over the way we interact with people. It becomes evident that M.T Anderson does not view our generation with applause, rather with disdain and pessimism for what we are doing to affect our future generations socially, politically, and economically. From the beginning of the novel, the reader

In Keller's article, "The Twitter Trap," he discusses the positive and negative issues of social media and technology on today's youth. In his examples, he elaborates on the loss of humanity in how the necessity of real-life situations and conversations that make people alive in their souls is disappearing as social media continues to grow more addictive. With the overwhelming growth of social media, even the deemed "smart students" are losing their ability to pinpoint pattern in situations that to the earlier generation would consider obvious. Overall, Keller's main concern and point of the article states that," … my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity."

The use of technology has catalyzed society into an era that is increasingly interconnected yet impersonal at the same time. Despite technology’s endless list of assets, many fail to acknowledge its shortcomings when mentioning what is lost as a result of using it. Although in “Great to Watch” by Maggie Nelson, she is not afraid to share her skepticism of technology, as well as the role it plays in desensitizing individuals on a day-to-day basis. The internet is an invaluable resource to many because it is a public domain for sharing ideas, opinions, and knowledge that any and everyone can have access to. In a sense, it does not restrict what someone may see or do, and this can either be a good thing or a bad thing. The booming use of new media

“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how we do it” (Qualman, n.d). According to Merrain Webster 1828, “social media is form of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messaging, and other online (such as video). Technology has involved into something that everyone can utilize effectively just by the swipe of finger or by pressing a single button. We don’t have to go the post office for hand written letter from families and friends abroad, but we can get them through simply opening a chat box online. However, social media has become the addiction to many young people today and even adults alike. We eat with your phones. We study and communicate with others on your various devices. We even go into the bathroom with our devices to ensure that we don’t miss a tweet, recent Instagram post or a WhatsApp message.

Today’s young adults have a lack of communication with friends and family because of technology such as social media, video games or television. In our society, parlor walls can be seen as those commodities. The large flat screen tv’s or IPads are today’s enthusiast. “Social media in our country and the globalizing world has become the voice, eye, ear, heart, and memory of the individuals. It has aspects which strengthen, weaken and include communication between the individuals and also it provides convenience for time and place.” This, according to TNS Digital Life Research that carried out a study in 2011 and held 1.938.059.098 people that were online. Researchers were able to test how many people prefer to communicate through social media or rather be involved in some sort of social media instead of actually going out and interacting. These studies show and give a glimpse of how many people are more interested to spend time on social media instead of building new relationships. Bradbury’s society and our society and similar because of the lack of communication we have because of some aspects of technology that are similar, which are the parlor walls and social media, television and video games.

Since the invention of the Internet, people have become indulged with its copious functions, from making advanced programs to learning how to do new projects to social media. Social media has evolved over the years, from Friendster to Myspace to Facebook, since the late 1990s, and people have incorporated it into their lives. It is the modern way for people to connect and communicate with anyone and everyone across the globe. Plus, social media is everywhere; people utilize it when they are on the bus, at the checkout line, and even when they are using the restroom. In Peggy Orenstein’s “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” she propounds that social media has altered society. Social media has changed society’s priorities, characteristics, and mentality.

However, like genetics, it also has many negatives. Technology does improve the world’s ability to communicate quickly and easily, but it also separates people socially. Social media and smartphones for example, have dramatically reduced human interaction. Everyone would rather communicate online than in the real world. According to Pew Research Center, “Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis” (Smith and Anderson 1). This a huge portion the the American population that is using Facebook alone. There are many other social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest that attract even more users. The more people use these services, the less they interact with others in person. Aldous Huxley once said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Huxley 1). Before the technology that exists today, people were unable to communicate with others that weren’t in their area. Now, people tend to communicate with those around them less. As technology continues to improve, this situation will only become worse. Preventative action must be taken to prevent this from destroying human

This article response paper is a reflection of Susan Tardanico’s article, “Is Social Media Sabotaging Communication?” Consequently, technology expansion is causing families to forfeit quality intervals together for the indulgence of their electronic contraptions. Additionally, social media, advanced technology, and the need to fit in seem to be consuming people’s lives. Communication is such an important means of transmitting information, however has become “foreign” to this new generation of young adults. Furthermore, verbal communication plays varied roles in each community, without it; relationships would fail, co-workers would have more frequent miss-understandings, and confusion is more likely to occur between companions who only have electronic interactions. “As

The written word,now a weapon, is now digitized and feed through media. “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” (Bradbury 58). Not only have books become a media revolution so has social interaction. Social media allows for connections formerly unheard. “The problem, they say, is that we spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online that we aren’t dedicating enough time or effort to cultivating deeper real-life relationships.”(WSJ). This avenue of socialization allows for discretion of the true life and person of the poster. “And even worse, the human condition is beginning to devolve. We have become addicted to the vanity of social media unable to expose our lives to the world.”(Green). This media based socialization can overtake the lives of many. “When you add it all up, the average American spends more than 10 hours a day plugged into some form of media.”(Synder). Making the human race even more technology

Most of us use social media to communicate with our family, friends and our loved once. Since almost all of my friends live 8000 mile away, I use Facebook, Instagram, and viber to keep in touch with them. Bur recently I started noticing it has become more than a means of communication. I start posting a picture and obsesses about how many likes I get, checking other peoples Facebook just to see if they have more friends than me, believing every post without questioning if it’s a fact and funny enough I start sending friend request for people I don’t even know. Christine Rosen, a senior editor of the New Atlantis and resident fellow at the Ethics and Public policy Center in Wessington, D.C. on “In the Beginning Was the World”, she wrote how technology is affecting the society’s critical reading ability. Peggy Orenstein, an author and a contributing writer for the New York Times, on “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” she talks about how social media is distracting as from fully live in the moment. Even though the development of technology have increased the quality of life, it also brought undeniable challenges to our society. The constant use of social media and internet has increase society attention-seeking, Distracted, and decries critical reading. The use of social media has increased dramatically throughout the years.

Digital communication through today’s technology is empowering our society and strengthening human relationships through connecting us in ways that are impossible through organic human to human interaction. This exceptionally innovative technology was once only imaginable in science fiction literature, and is now a reality for most of humanity. We use this form of communication on a daily basis throughout the planet. We rarely stop to think about how wondrous and seemingly magical this advanced technology is, and we seldom ponder on how this new form of communication impacts us as a culture. Advanced digital communication not only enables and emboldens us, but could be potentially harming and hindering us as a culture as well as socially