Homework #7, Interviews

Interviewing My Dad:
Me, Hannah: How has technology affected you both emotionally and physically?
Stuart: I think it keeps me on most of the day. It keeps me aware that people can contact me at any time of the day and night. It keeps me anxious unless I am able to actually switch off my phone.
Hannah: What about computers?
Stuart: It keeps me working. I am able to work all the time. It’s very useful, but it enables me to work most places. Also, people expect immediate response to their supposed urgencies. I think it increases our stress level and dumbs us down a bit. It becomes our work, and our form of entertainment. You know, our entertainment becomes our work in some ways. It’s hard to take a break without being interrupted. You have to actively take a stance to switch of technology around you. I think people sort of mindlessly point their way as well. They are able to direct through their texts and emails expecting immediate gratification.
Hannah: Could you live in a world without digital technology?
Stuart: Could I? Yeah I could probably live upstate I could (upstate country house). It would certainly be very different. But it’s really nice to slow down, I down it at the weekends. Even though I like to be able to look things up on the web. You could look up trees, birds, and nature. I wouldn’t really want to. I like to be able to watch a DVD when I want to. I like the flash-drives. But I do think it’s really important to get away from it and take private time. I thought it was a wonderful, wonderful day during the black out. When everybody took a breather. All the motors stopped humming, and the fans stopped warring. It was very peaceful. And it was a national day of not expecting anything from anybody. I just hope it doesn’t get to expect us to perform any faster than we all ready have to perform.
___________________________________________________

"Especially People, Who Care About Strangers.."
Jace And I Interviewing Strangers:
This is all choppy because I was jotting down notes.

A group of kids that turned out to be SOF students:
Use of digital technology: "Around ten hours"
Hours of it being productive: "About two hours."
"We're more dependent on them." "Need the computer [for things like] Google. Uses Facebook, in their spare time. FB is a good thing, for keeping in touch with family (one girl talked about keeping in touch with her aunts and cousins etc on facebook.)"
What about the things you watch on tv?
"Some are bad, and some are good." Two of the kids watch the national geographic and the news. The same little girl said she: "knows the difference between something that has a story-line, and something that is complete trash."

Stranger #2 (If counting the group of kids as a whole):
Hows many hours of digital technology? (Cell phones, computers, watching tv)
"About three hours. I'm looking for a job right now, so I'm on the computer a lot."
How much of that time is productive? "About a third of the time. Like an hour."
Good or bad? "There are both sides to it. You feel disconnected. Like now you can do things like interviews online, and you never know who you're talking to. Don't have any sense at all. It's making us more disconnected, yet making society faster. Facebook is useful for keeping in touch with people. Social intelligence is dropping. Everything in moderation is okay."
*note* the three hour estimate he wasn't even thinking of text messaging, even though we listed it as one of the digital devices. So his estimate may have been off a bit.

"Stranger" #3, Scott Chesler:
Spends about three hours using digital technology. About a third of the time is productive. "Increasing knowledge, working more efficiently. There is more knowledge, and more to access."
___________________________________________________
Interview with my best friend Alice, who is not in Andy’s class:

I was upstate this weekend at my country house, so first question:
Hannah: “Okay so, do you want to do the interview through texts or IM?”
Alice: “Text”
Hannah: “Okay. First question: About how many hours do you spend using digital technology? For example: texting, watching tv, going on the computer. In all?”
Alice: “In a day? I would say an hour and thirty minutes.”
Hannah: “Yeah in a day. Including texting?”
Alice: “Oh. Make that two.”
Hannah: "Okay. Next question. About how many hours of that are productive? For example having to use the computer for homework?”
Alice: “Forty minutes?”
Hannah: “Kay perfect. Next question. Do you feel like we’re getting ‘dumber’ with our dependence on technology, or ‘smarter’ because technology is getting better?”
Alice: “Dumber, Like when you watch tv and start to get numb. Its like its hard for real life to excite me after watching a soap.”
Hannah: “You mean like when you’re stuck in fantasy world after watching a soap then you’re back in the real world you’re not as excited?”
Alice: “Yes. You’re so exposed to action and drama that real action and drama doesn’t affect you.”
Hannah: “Kay perfect. When I asked to interview you, you wanted to do the interview in person. Do you prefer hanging out with flesh and blood humans, or digital technology like texting?”
Alice: “REAL PEOPLE. I don’t even like talking on the phone that much.”
Hannah: “Haha. Same. Okay not sure how to make this into a question. In my posts and in class I discussed how we talked about people in the past having to pick a time and place to hang out because they didn’t have cell phones, and that if a person was over an hour late they were allowed to leave. Do you feel like technology in a way of having a cell phone handy is a good thing sometimes?”
Alice: “Well that’s the one thing I love about phones. I like to be a gypsy. It would be a huge problem for me to go home to the Bronx and call every time I wanted to see someone. I really enjoy living with the spontaneity of randomly seeing people.”
Hannah: “But it’s not that random because you can plan it through cell phones right? Cell phones are one of the main things that I think are a plus side of digitalization.”
Alice: “Sure. I meant random as in last minute. Like I wake up at someone’s house, make a call and am set for the day.”
Hannah: “Okay, out of curiosity. Were you here during the black out, and what did you do differently from a normal day?”
Alice: “Well, we had to sleep in the living room because the other floors of the house were too hot without ac.”
Hannah: “Okay this was perfect. Are there any more thoughts before we end this interview? Also can I put this all on my blog or is there anything I should leave out?”
Alice: “Put it all, by all means. I think that was all I had to say unless you have more questions?”
Hannah: “Okay cool. Thank you Alice for this perfect interview.”
___________________________________________________