What is Progress?

Over the past couple of days, the question that my group (Jack, Charlie, and I) explored was, “What is progress?” Sure, it seems like a fairly obvious answer, but taking a closer look reveals that our technological advances have gone forward and brought other things backwards at the same time.  After reading a short article by Claire Porter, a Technology Editor, one of the most catching things I found was how technologies “forward progress” mainly connects to the efficiency.  The more we as humans can get done, the more we can progress individually and holistically.  But in her article, Five ways technology has failed us, she notes that we spend countless hours on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media.  Therefore, this extra time that we have, thanks to our technology, is being used for… well… more technology.  The quality and quantity of our human interaction is declining, although at the same time our interaction in general is exploding.  We can now communicate globally within a few seconds.  So, the question comes back around again, is this progress or are humans taking a step backwards?

                Another common argument is that technology already rules humans.  Some believe that we have contributed so much time and energy to the growth of technology that it now has past humans.  This statement isn’t even hard to understand because when you think about it, technology dominates us.  We drive cars nearly every day, we use our phones every day, majority of our homework we do on our computers… that’s right, every day.  It seems as if we don’t have the will power to put our technology away and enjoy the natural moments in our everyday life.  That goes for once in a life time events as well. As Porter states in her article, “If it isn’t Instagram it’s YouTube, if it isn’t Facebook it’s Twitter. We’re all blogging and posting and uploading, but how many of us are actually living?” In this day and age this question has become more prevalent than ever.  If I had to guess I’d say a majority of us spend much more times on our phones or computers than we do with nature, or even each other.  This is ultimately why it becomes difficult to define our technological progress as good so far.  Every step forward with phones and tablets seems to have a parallel step backwards, and in that sense there’s no progress at all.

                For our group project my title was, “The Middle Man.” To put it simply, Charlie was Pro Nature and Jack was Pro Technology and the goal for them was to persuade me into picking one over the other.  Throughout this process the ideas of progression and regression appear as Charlie and Jack try to counter each other and I try to figure out which side holds a better argument.  Overall I thought our idea was creative and we were able to explore the question quite well, but in order to make this project better, I think it would have helped to not do it during the time of finals.  Also if we had more time we might have been able to rap our lines to a beat which would make it more fun (and challenging).

Link to the article I foud: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/five-ways-technology-has-failed-us/story-fnda1lbo-1226652142627 

Chris McCandless

After watching a few videos on Chris McCandless, the main character from Into the Wild, I noticed that there are multiple views on Chris’ actions and intentions during his trip to Alaska.  In the first video I watched, “Things you may not know about Chris McCandless,” Will Forsberg speaks about the destruction of the cabin located not too far away from the bus that McCandless was staying in.  In the book it mentions that someone with knowledge on bear destruction claimed that it could have been a bear, but there were other things that led them to believing it was Chris.  Will Forsberg has a different opinion though.  He claims that it had to be Chris due to things such as the dissemblance of the stove which yielded no destruction.  Throughout the book, all of the mysteries of Chris are portrayed in a fashion that doesn’t make Chris seem like a bad person, but at the same time they allow you to have your own opinion which may be that he is.  The difference in this video comes easily because Forsberg claims that it had to be Chris’ that caused the destruction in the cabin.

                The next video that I looked into was called, “Chris McCandless’ youth and student years.”  This video provided much more detailed and accurate information considering Chris’ roommate from his freshman year in Emory was able to give lots of valuable insight as to who Chris was.  The information in this video completely avoids any blame on Chris’ actions unlike the first video, instead the viewer gets historical background on what might have led Chris to do what he did.  Along with Chris’ roommate, the person that made the video also had a chance to interview Chris’ track coach throughout high school.  He recalls Chris as a very good runner and athletic kid, but at the same time had signs of a “quirky” kid who had a mind of his own.  Personally, I believe that these background descriptions give people who are interested in the story a stronger opinion on the gray areas of Chris’ journey. 

                Finally, the third and final video I watched was an interview of Billie McCandless, mother of Chris, at the spot of his death.  I believe this final viewpoint gives the truest feedback considering Chris was raised by his mother, therefore inferring that she would have the most knowledge about him.  Billie explains an unusual part of Chris that we don’t see much of in the book.  Billie talks about a trip with herself and Chris and she states, “Chris learned how to appreciate being with people, happiness is best when shared.” This seems shocking to ones who may have just read this book because besides his few jobs throughout the west, Chris couldn’t stand being around people for too long, yet his mother knows that isn’t completely true.  A little while later in the interview she continues on the topic and says that a big part of Chris’ downfall was probably the fact that he had no one to share this happiness with.  Out in the wild you can see some absolutely amazing things, but with no one there to see it as well, your story becomes less interesting.  Overall, these three YouTube videos provided some new and different insight on Chris McCandless and his journey into the wild of Alaska, where he ultimately found his resting place.

Video Triptychs

 
In my three vines I explored the differences and advantages to nature and technology. My first vine brings up a contradiction because our vines were supposed to be based on nature in some way, yet in order to record this nature we use technology. Sure this allows for creativity and cool experiences for this class, but at the same time, nature can't be enjoyed to its fullest if technology is still in use. After shooting my next vine, I walked to my car, another source of technology. Realizing how cold it had gotten throughout the day, I saw this as a perfect example for my next vine. Inside my car I was surrounded by a comfortable 70 degree feel, but currently outside it was only 40 degrees. This vine proves that our current technology can provide comfort as well as convenience in times of need. Clearly if you're not dressed appropriately, technology can provide comfort considering cold weather isn't something we would consider comfortable. As for my last vine, I had a plan to go longboarding while recording the vine, but then it began to rain really hard so instead I figured this could be another example in which technology is convenient. Sitting in a car completely protects you from getting wet in the rain, once again providing more comfort.