The topic that we’ve discussed in class that I find most interesting is how technology affects us. While we’ve had so many discussions about it that most of us are probably sick of it, but when my friend sent me this picture that she found at http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=16731, I couldn’t resist sparking the discussion once more.
The image shows the beginning of a suicide note—something that is a very serious matter and is typically very personal. It then shows something that used to be on Microsoft Word. Every time you would start to write something, a paper clip with a talking bubble like the one in the picture would pop up, offering to help write the document, by guessing what type of document you intended to write.
This image gives a perfect example of just how much technology influences us. Because of technology, we have to do less and less. This makes things less personal. A suicide note is not something that should just be fill-in-the-blank, like Mad-Libs. But with technology, so many things are like that. People think it’s such a great thing that things like this save time. But these time-savers take away from the meaning. People love using these time-savers because in our society people need all the time they can get. For most people, there is always something more to do. Everyone is always in a rush, and therefore, not a second can be wasted.
When looking closer at different parts of the image, one notices more parts that are startling. First, the use of the exclamation point in the phrase “Looks like you’re committing suicide!” Exclamation points are typically used to express excitement in good situations. Obviously, this is not a good situation, and therefore the use of the exclamation point is very wrong. Another example of this is the expression on the “face” of the paperclip. The paperclip has this glare to it, as if it is happy. This shows how often times, with the use of technology, both the tone and idea are distorted.
Is distorting the meaning a reasonable price to pay to save a few minutes and rush onto the next thing going on in our life? Today, people don’t sit down and give one task their undivided attention. Instead, they work on many things at once, and rush through each one. If people really concentrate and take their time on tasks, they would get a lot more out of each task, and therefore, they would be more meaningful.
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ReplyDeleteThis truly is an eye-opening image and analysis. To think that something as serious as suicide would be shortened and quickened in order to simply save time is not as absurd as it used to be. The personal touch of certain aspects of our lives are being cut away as they give way to whatever is more efficient. But what is perplexing is the willingness of people to use these time savers instead of adding their personal touch. Most people would willingly use a technological helping hand in writing their school papers or for their job applications. If we are so easily swayed towards giving up our humanity, are we able to say that it should be preserved or can be? Your post was immensely helpful and helped me to form new opinions on the dehumanizing effects of technological advancement. Something that struck me even more as outrageous was the exclamation point that you pointed out and the smile on the paper clip. It depicts how help for a research paper is the same as help for a suicide note to Microsoft's helping paperclip. That is what this type of technology has done to our lives. It has blended together totally different parts of our lives that are incompatible with each other.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteSince we've been talking so much about technology, I have taken a closer look into its effects on our society. It has really opened my eyes to both the good and bad perspectives. Your post caught my eye. It reiterated the idea that we have been using technology in the wrong way. We have created it to take away the personal touch of life. The fact that suicide, such a serious subject, can we taken so lightly as this is unfathomable. This representation of what technology has become makes us see that the true meaning of life is slowly being drained. Microsoft Word's help to write a suicide note erases the emotion and emphasizes encouragement for this terrible act. Even the fact that people are always needing to multi-task and get more done echos this idea. Our lives have become computerized and generated. Sadly, many people have become used to the bluetooths stuck to their ears and phone holders on their belts. (I wouldn't be surprised if we evolved to be born with bluetooths and holders.) Our use of technology has turned life itself into a job. If life is a job, what point is there to live? So could technology be an indirect cause of suicide?
I viewed this post as a warning as to where technology is headed. This mockery of Microsoft Word shows how impersonal the internet has made our lives. Thinking is no longer required on any tasks we undertake, because there are options for us to chose from. Suicide is not something to be taken lightly, and the fact that something like this post could ever happen is frightening. People don't think twice when they see something on the internet, but if they had seen it in print they would question themselves. If someone handed you a fill in the blank suicide note you would most likely think it to be outrageous, yet the idea of an online suicide note does not seem that far fetched. For now this is just a warning of what the web can bring; hopefully a year from now it won't be a reality.
ReplyDeleteThis is really frightening. Obviously this picture is fake but it truly does capture the inhumanity of computers and society today. Currently, it is all about making our lives easier and happier without any worries for the consequences. If someone is suicidal, you should try to help them want to live again. But, in this picture, the computer is helping this depressed person end their lives in a more organized, efficient manner with a template. Computers aren't used anymore to help people; they help enough. Now they are just a marketing ploy which just tries to suck more people in. Society is slowly changing their view of the consumer. It used to be that society worked for the general public's well being. Now they work for your money and participation.
ReplyDeleteIs distorting the meaning a reasonable price to pay to save a few minutes and rush onto the next thing going on in our life?
ReplyDeleteThis is a question that people battle with every day. Is is worth it to do a mediocre job on something the easy way, or should I spend the time and effort on doing something the meaningful way. A good example of this is translating a spanish passage using a spanish-english translator. The translator will give you the general idea but will mistranslate many words because it cannot use context clues. In this mistranslation a lot of the meaning will be lost. Similarly, sparknotes gives you an idea of what the book is about but the tone, diction and devices that the author uses are lost. The bubble that popped up on the Microsoft word picture giving possible ways to commit suicide gives an example of how technology limits our possibilities. Microsoft word traps you into picking one of its options, limiting creativity.
This is a frightening and yet somewhat humorous post on how impersonal our world has become because of technology. Clearly, we know this is a play on the help of microsoft word's paperclip office assistant, but the fact that it intrudes on such a personal level leaves me pondering. We have abused technology so much that everything has become easier and simpler. Tasks that would require time and a personal touch is a dying breed. With the invention of the type writer and computer, composing an idea and then printing it has become a tedious and trivial task, whereas before time was needed to mull over our thoughts in order to produce our final piece of work by hand writing. There was no delete key when we wrote the Constitution. Everything was thought out. Now with the google search bar suggesting highly searched terms, we might as well let the computers think for us.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually really scary. Its a clear warning sign on how technology is basically controling our lives. I agree with Mike that technology has caused us to be more rushed and completely dependent. I remember talking to one of my mom's old high school friends and he was talking about how before there was a cell phone that you had to memorize everyone's number. While in our generation we can barely tell someone our family members phone number because we have become so reliant on the contact list on our phones. I think that society just needs to take a step back, put the gadets aways, and just relax.
ReplyDeleteI agree with tat - the degree of how much technology can influence our lives is incredible. Its not like technology is alive and has a mind of its own but this offered help by Microsoft makes us think otherwise. This offered help is potentially extremely dangerous. What if we eventually use this help so much that we thoughtlessly rely on technology so much that someday we would not be able to function without it?
ReplyDeleteIn our society, the need to complete tasks seems to have become mandatory. Ever since the creation of the clock, which we discussed in class, we as the individuals in society, have had our lives turned into schedules and deadlines. In addition to this, we've also been multitasking with all of these assignments and jobs that have been given to us. This is the motivation for developers to create this technology that allows us to quickly complete all of these arduous tasks assigned to us. So, it seems to me that mankind stopped doing anything "meaningful" when our our lives suddenly turned into schedules.
ReplyDeleteEven though this picture isn't real, the fact that someone made this to satirize the media is scary. Suicide is not something to joke aoround with. This image represents how the media is helping us kill our minds. If there is an easy way out with every assignment, we won't be thinking for ourselves. Each time we think, we are developing our minds to grow in intelligence. We need to make decisions for ourselves and not have to rely on media to make it for us. Not all decisions are this life threatning but they do affect our lives, and if we don't start deciding for ourselves, our minds will eventually be destroyed.
ReplyDelete-Nicole Talbi
This image does show a degree of impersonality behind technology, however it does show us that we still are the same person whether we say things through a phone, computer, our hands, or face to face conversation. This person is still a suicidal person, whether or not they wrote the note by hand or filled it in through a mad lib, or left no note at all they still intended to commit suicide. The same goes for the actions behind our interactions on social media sites, just because we post a status for many people to see which is not the typical mode for sharing your thoughts with the world, doesn't mean they aren't our thoughts it just means we are sharing them in a different way.
ReplyDeleteOuch. You can almost feel the sarcasm oozing from this image. We have machines to help us with *everything* now, from the cradle to (apparently) an early grave. First of all, the paper clip is a cheap shot. Everyone hates it, it was the worst thing about Word, they got rid of it, move on. Nitpicking aside, I find the concept of a technological suicide assistant intriguing. Would it encourage you to go out with a bang? Discourage you from harming the computer in the process of killing yourself? Alert the authorities for proper removal?
ReplyDeleteI would actually like to state my support for this invention. One, hopefully through the black humor and dry irony of a suicide assistant, it would persuade the prospective murderer/victim that there is some merit in life, and thus dispose of the matter in the best way possible. Two, it would make clean-up easier. Three, my patent application is in the works as we speak.
A brief note on the topic of suicide: I was talking today with someone I know who goes to Cornell, and she said that they actually have a suicide rate below the national average, despite Cornell's reputation as a "suicide school". She said that merely because of the dramatic nature of throwing yourself off a bridge into a large gorge, Cornell's suicides were much more publicized and thus the school was associated with the stigma of being cold and unwelcoming.
My first reaction when viewing this image was to laugh, and my second was to think: is this really what our society has come to? The annoying paperclip on microsoft word knows that someone is about to kill thmeselves, and is writing a suicide note? And he wants to help?! This image does bring up a very good point, however. Someone is always watching. This reminds me of how (supposedly, I haven't seen this confirmed) saying certain words on your phone trigger a signal to the government that leads to tapping your phone.
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