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94 Days of Summer, Day 68: Cayden on Blogospheres and Jintershobs

We’re checking in again with Communication Studies major and guest blogger (and philosopher?) Cayden Berkmoyer. Here we go…

“Makes Sense to Me: A Communication Studies student’s observations over a summer in San Francisco

Volume 2: You can feel the electricity in the air… No, that’s just my Kindle

I was going to write about the end of summer and, ‘My how the days just fly by!’ Instead, in the midst of my typing, I wrote the world ‘blogosphere’ and something most curious occurred that I would like to share with you. Microsoft Word did not correct me, which is terrifying. No red squiggle alerting me to my error, as it so loves to do when I spell my own name. Rather, it would appear, that ‘blogosphere’ is now in the Microsoft dictionary. More and more, technology is an increasingly large part of our lives. Whether a Kindle or a cell phone or a shiny new tablet doohickey, technological advances unequivocally affect how we communicate.

Call me old school, but I like having a nice face-to-face interaction. I already feel left in the dust as it is as I search for jobs, internships, and jintershobs (a term I’m attempting to coin for paid internships—they’re not quite jobs and not quite internships. A term Microsoft Word refuses to recognize, despite my numerous emails to Mr. Gates. I’m still waiting for your response, sir.). One internship I came across required applicants to have Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit accounts as well as and a Twitter following of at least 10,000 people. Is it a bad sign that I just downloaded the new Silverlight plugin for my Hotmail account? That’s right. I still have a Hotmail account. What of it?

Wordsmith and hotmail user Cayden B.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I love technology and all—don’t get me wrong, I don’t know where I would be without Facebook updating me on the new people my acquaintances from middle school have befriended (or e-friended?) and whatever goofy new applications my friends have on their iPhones. But at some point we have to say, ‘This is enough.’ Enough in the sense of, ‘I’ve had enough and I’m putting my foot down. Onto my Kindle.’ Also enough in the sense of, ‘I can check my email and text while talking on the phone, video chatting with my cousin in Ecuador, and downloading the newest episode of Teen Wolf for that excruciating fifteen-minute bus ride. I think this is enough.’ But will it ever be enough?

It seems that humanity has an irrepressible tendency for progress, unceasing in its quest for advancement. Every new generation believes that it has reached the pinnacle of development and laughs at their predecessors who hold on to their outdated beliefs and practices. Soon enough, much to the chagrin of the once new generation, they are surpassed by the developments of the newest generation, they now the ones who tenaciously grip on to the ‘old ways.’

I vividly recall my parents noting how I would ‘tune out’ when I would listen to my CD player. ‘Surely, they can’t be serious,’ I thought, ‘I can manage to have a conversation and listen to Blink-182. They just don’t understand.’ However, I now find my blood pressure rising at every Kindle commercial I see (If you haven’t gathered from the numerous Kindle references thus far, I am not its biggest fan) and feel a sinking in my heart when I see parents and children walking together, each sporting their own respective pair of ear-buds—present, but not ‘there’ with one another. I recently attended my friend’s sister’s wedding where there was a child, around ten or eleven-years-old, who had his earphones in the entire night. Although I was thoroughly impressed with the battery life, I found it infuriating that he would or could do this. Where were the parents in this situation? Surely they shouldn’t be allowing this to happen!

It was around this time that I realized that I might just be feeling the initial shock of a generational gap. Even in my early twenties, I am lagging and resisting new forms of technology and, consequently, communication. Technology is an increasingly integral part of communication nowadays and although I love me a good book and an in-person conversation, are we headed the way of WALL-E? Though I dread the thought of my child hovering along beside me on an evening stroll, I have to wonder if this is the wave of the future. As those involved in Communication Studies, do we support these new forms and means of communication or warn society of the potential handicaps they may create?

Whatever you believe, I hope these ramblings have got you thinking.”

They did, indeed, Cayden!

And I myself pledge to start using your term “jintershob.”

campus

One Comment

  1. I found your thoughts very interesting, especially as I think of it from my place in life as a middle aged woman who thought typewriters were a novel idea. I find that I am willing to use some of the “new” technology because I have too and some that I enjoy. I also find others that I refuse to fall for, no one is going to pry a real book out of my hands for any Kindle or other device. Maybe I will change my mind down the road but I don’t see any changes in the near future.
    Thanks for getting me thinking, your writings always are interesting, timely and fun.

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