If Zach Morris could text… (response paper #2)
Do you remember when you got in trouble for passing a note to your friend who sat in front of you during science class about a certain special someone who looked unbelievably adorable eating his tator tots during fifth period lunch, and how embarrassing it was when your teacher had you read to the whole class the note that no one was supposed to see, except of course your best friend, who didn’t even know you were trying to pass a note to her, because she was busy writing you a note. If you had never experienced a similar situation, I’m sure you can imagine the embarrassment. You then sat down, wanting to hide under a rock, and I bet you wished at that point that you had never written the note in the first place, or maybe it would have been a good idea to have waited until after class to chat. Now, if she was thinking in the same wavelength as the pioneers of wireless communication, or if she was among the students of a high school class of 2003, a simple “buzzing” sound that she either felt or heard in her pocket could have saved her the embarrassment, that is of course if she was able to conceal the little machine that sends and receives these messages. Hand written notes seem to be as archaic as using a rotary phone: Why dial when you can press (buttons)? Why talk when you can text? Isn’t it really about making life easier? The emergence and the resulting popularity of text messaging and the communities it created worldwide is driven by the best consumers out there. Just as the soda companies, movie companies, and all the junk food makers out there realized earlier, cellular phones and all its wonders are marketable to young people and the driving forces that made this business a success include its accessibility and affordability.
I was a senior in high school when I got my first cellular phone. I was one of the first to have a cell phone within my circle of friends, but none of us are unaware of the gadget. Our parents had it and as a high school graduate of 2001, many if not all of the people around my age group are aware that the coolest guy in Bayside High carries a cell phone. The cell phone we know of is about a twelve inches long, gray, and carried by Zach Morris. The popular television show, Saved By The Bell, stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zach Morris, a mischievous high-schooler, who totes a gadget not smaller than a payphone’s receiver. How times have changed. My first cell phone was about 3 inches in length and it had a small digital screen and I was able to change its casing. A month or so later, all of my friends carried cell phones but Reingold’s work tells of people in Japan and Europe who have taken cell phones into the realm of text messaging. In the two years I’ve had my phone, I’ve made and received calls and beat my highest score on the Snake game numerous times, but I’ve overlooked the text messaging option I had on the phone. I was surprised to find that the first text I ever received was from my “technology-challenged” mother who messaged me during her vacation in Manila, Philippines. I’ve spent time teaching my mother the basics of using a computer and it was both stressful and challenging. For some reason, using the mouse and the clicking it twice did not agree with her. However, she became a pro at text messaging and was using “gentxt” lingo within a couple of hours after being taught by a relative in the Philippines. I figured I was a horrible teacher for easily giving up on a student who can easily learn from another instructor. However, as H. Reingold’s article suggest, the accessibility and cultural influence of this communication medium is the cause of my mother’s newfound hobby. Apparently, by the time my parents last visited the country, it has entered the “Generation Txt” era. She had a hard time learning the computer and will not even attempt to use the internet but text messaging came so easily to her, which impressed me and further instills my belief in a bright and successful future in wireless communication and how basically anyone can learn and master it ( Don’t get my wrong my Mother is very smart, computers–not her friends).
Affordability is another feature that opens this form of communication to a mass of people. My last visit to the Philippines was in 2003, ten years after I moved to the United States permanently. I went during my spring break of my sophomore year in college. I was amazed at the changes a decade had made. I was surprised to find out that America was in fact behind on the cell phone technology and wanted to upgrade. My grandmother brought me to a superstore where all they sold was cell phones and accessories. It was a surreal view. It was a two story building and all the stores just sold everything for your wireless device, nothing else. The very rich and the very poor were all collected in the same building, and all were buying cell phone accessories. There was not an individual who did not carry a cell phone. I remember seeing a homeless man in line to buy a phone card to load up his cell phone with minutes. In the end, I did not end up getting a phone because the phones sold there ran under the GSM network and at that time Cingular was under TDMA.
At age 23, I believe I’m among the youths buying into all the cell phone, text messaging, ringtone downloading, craze. I very much enjoy this technology made available to our generation. I usually have an unsettling feeling if I left the house without my cell phone and many people know this about me. I have 2 just incase one isn’t charged. Communication just gets better each year, sometimes even each month and I’m just glad that I never had to use a Zach Morris phone, although it probably would be cool to own one for nostalgic reasons.
Back to the future, in the future (response paper #1)
When the second installment of the trilogy, Back the Future, was released in 1989, the world was introduced to the year 2015. As the film suggests, by the year 2015 the skies are no longer open to just the birds and airplanes, skateboards need no wheels, watching multiple television channels at one time and voice recognition provides great convenience, and receiving a fax in every room in an American household is not just convenient and also quite the norm. The movie conveyed that the twenty first century promises technology that will improve the way our lives are lived, and most people at that time, including myself, enjoyed the film as a fictional tale. “As We May Think,” an article published in 1945, by Vannevar Bush advocates the logic that the technological advancements is not a work of fiction but as a science.
According to Bush, “Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than of an individual (2). The replication, experimentation, and improvement of one method to a better one is expected. I remember getting my first cell phone in 2001 and I was amazed at the fact it stored contact information and five years later, I carry a phone that has instant messaging capabilities, E-mail, web browsing, video and picture-taking capabilities, that is also a calculator, address book, notepad, and games. My car does not fly and my brother’s skateboard still has wheels but I can now watch multiple channels, provided by DirecTV and when I need to call my friend, I only say his name into the phone and my phone connects me without pressing any buttons. Bush delves into examples of how technology is continually modified to enhance its ease. I’m mostly impressed by the fact that much of what he described is now being used and modified to be more efficient, reliable, and stored utilizing the smallest space possible. In addition, the ease of the information to be bounced back and forth from one individual or group to another makes the improvements worthwhile.
The connection I found between Bush’s article and the technology found in the film is the fact that through science and Man’s ability to implement tools and his continual improvements on technology makes everything possible. The most impressive aspect of the article that I found is its timeless logic. I can be reading this article in 2015 and though I have not converted my Corolla to drive in the air, I can still relate to his theory of storage of information because maybe by that time, the best selling gadget is the 950 GB Powerbook the size of iPods that projects the keyboard and screen on any surface for convenience.
A few of my favorite things:
I graduated from Quinnipiac in 2005 with a B.A. in Mass Communications with a concentration in Media Production. I’m 23, working full time as an Administrative Assistant not in the field I want to be in, but I could use the post college experience. I also worked at Nielsen Media Research as a commercial analyst at night but I decided to take a long term hiatus for grad school. My decision to pursue a Masters is mostly influenced by my desire to build a strong portfolio and to see where interactive communications may lead me.
Right after graduation I achieved my dream of living in a roach infested apartment on the Upper West Side, (I lived on the same street as Jerry Seinfeld’s fake address in the City) with my Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Banjo. Though I did not really dream of living with roaches, I just expected to because I know I wouldn’t be able to afford a posh pad in the City working as a freelancer. I freelanced for MTV and then NBC and also worked at the Loew’s Movie Theatre a couple of blocks away from my subleased apartment. I was able to afford the rent because it was unbelievably cheap and also very illegal– I was not aware of the illegal dealings . My summer ended with losing my sublease and having to move back home to good ol’ Connecticut and my parents happily welcomed me back.
So on to a list of a few of my favorite things: The Simpsons, Greek mythology, my dogs, Mexico, reading, movies, and lately reading screenplays online during some downtime at work.
