Comments to other's posts in week 4:

Theresa: I agree that this class is helping us to become more critical in our thinking about technology and look forward to the rest of the term.

Preet: I like your comment about us needing to be aware that technology controls us in a way before we can experience the freedom of technology. I guess then we can pick and choose more critically the technology that we use to be more beneficial to us.

Liz: I agree that we expect things to be faster, better, etc. I find that my patience has decreased over the years. I get frustrated when a webpage takes more than 1 second to load. I was thinking about this the other day, and remember when we first got internet at home. I remember it took about 5 minutes for each page to load, as we were on dial up. Crazy to think that I had the patience for that (and thought it was awesome!) and now often have 4-5 tabs open on my computer at any given time to maximize my time.

Stephanie: I do agree that humans drive technology, however I also think that the technology itself drives further development. We see the inadequacies in the products available, and that drives us to produce new products. We also use technology to create these new products, so in a way technology drives that development as much as we do.

Louise: I was struck by your line " We are living in a world much different from Heidegger, McLuhan and Ellul and we need to do what is right for us." It is so true! If they could only see how technology has advanced since their time, I wonder if their theories would still stay the same?

Maha: Wow - thanks for the links to the great articles. Very interesting! It is incredible seeing the change in how young people interact... the huge increase in technology use and the sharp decrease in face-to-face social interactions. I wonder if one day we will consider Skype to be face-to-face. We are seeing the person as we talk, but are missing out on the actual personal interaction.