Interviews

{ February 24, 2009 @ 7:02 pm } · { Uncategorized }

Interviews

The first person I interviewed was my sister. She is 19 years old and just got her own personal computer about a year ago. I now know why my parents always held out from buying her, her own computer because she is addicted! She uses the internet to do everything, and I mean everything. She takes classes at PCC so she will use the internet to do research and class work online. She also uses facebook about 24 hours a day 7 days a week to chat with friends and blog about her boring life. She also emails occasionally and plays games on yahoo. I would say she is 100% comfortable with using the internet for communication purposes and more. She loves the internet and it has changed her life for both better and worse. Considering she has grown up with a computer literally her whole life, she knows no other way. But the change came when she got her own computer. For the better she told me it’s a great way to keep in contact with her best friend and cousin who lives in Montana. But for the worse, her social life has dwindled, for a number of reasons but being online 24/7 doesn’t help. Instead of going out to join a soccer club she is content sitting on her couch having little to no contact with friends except on facebook.

The second person I interviewed was one of my managers at Nike and he is 36 years old. His primary use with the internet is using email. He is constantly emailing employees and Nike headquarters about sales numbers and just generally how the Employee Store is doing. He also occasionally goes onto facebook to catch up with friends as well. For him it has slightly changed the way he lives his life, but more for the better not the worse. Having the internet makes his job easier, because he is able to relay information faster and more efficiently. Similarly to my sister he also said having the internet was a great way to keep in touch with old friends and family living out of state. He didn’t have any negative consequences to using the internet, so this must mean he uses it in moderation. And overall he thinks the internet is a positive resource as long as you are capable of going without it if need be.

For my final interview I chose to speak with my Grandpa who is 82 years old. He has no primary use of the internet; in fact he has never even sent an email. This is not surprising at all considering he has never owned a computer. I believe the only interaction he has had with the internet is when my dad or I show him something on the screen. And even then I don’t think he actually understands where the images come from and how they got there. My Grandpa is not stupid by any means; he graduated from college at University of Portland and served in WWII. But clearly his generation was not exposed to the type of technology we all have been exposed to our whole lives. What he does understand is that the technology has affected his life indirectly. He may not personally use the internet or a computer but he knows that when he takes his car in to the shop, a computer is what will find the problem if any. So to him, all in all, the internet has not affected him either way, but the technology of it all has affected him positively.

I believe the moral of this assignment is to use the internet, not abuse the internet. I feel we all need human interaction to build up normal social skills and we should not let the internet or other technologies override such an important skill to know. Like in my sisters case she has let the technology take over her life, because that is all she knows. But finding a balance is key, don’t be naive to our growing world but don’t be overtaken by it either!

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