HW 7- Interviews and Surveys

Family Interview

For my family interview regarding electronic media, I interviewed my father. In my point of view my father is very insightful. During the interview he was able to provide me with new profound ideas I did not consider before. It all came from his own experience.
(The interview was in Spanish so I will not be specifically quoting his answers, but I will translate all his general thoughts)

When he was a child there was no electronic media surrounding him. His definition of fun was going outside and playing with his friends. Now that he has experienced what is to live surrounded by electronic media he has come to the conclusion that there is a very thin line between the world in the Internet and the real world. (This is idea is similar to the one i posted on my blog. Although I did not obtain it from him before, I can tell that we think similarly because we both experienced a similar situation regarding the Internet.)
My father thinks that the Internet is a breakthrough. Back when he was a child, the idea of talking to someone in Spain through a computer program was absurd. The Internet is the only way to be connected to other people worldwide. The irony of this is that this connection is not actually a HUMAN connection, but a connection to a screen and a keyboard. Through time we lost the ability to be "in touch" with someone else during a conversation. For example, during a romantic dinner both of them occasionally send a message to someone else. The feeling of being with that person is gone.
Using the Internet to obtain information is an "excuse" to simply use it. There are still other ways of getting information or learning. Such as learning from books. For example, people today research more about their own interests, like movies or songs, and end up downloading Beyonce's newest single. Then they a conversation with someone else about it. It would be something like:
-"Hey, do you like Beyonce's new song"
-"Yeah, its cool"
-"Yeah I know right"
This is not really a conversation. However, discussing a book makes people have much deeper conversations and become smarter. We are become dumber as we grow dependent of the Internet. Even though we can get any type of information.
The truth is that we cannot become less human or more human. We just grow colder. (I agree with my father on this. I think that our nature does not change, but our ability to communicate or to relate to someone else changes as we use electronic devices or the Internet to express our feelings or thoughts)
The Internet has become a bad necessity, and the price we pay for it is too high. Notice us, when we lose the Internet for one hour we go crazy for having nothing to do, even though we are all in the house. Together. Children today do not know how wonderful it is to go outside and be active. They haven't had the chance to really experience it.
In the future, there will be a time when human nature itself stops us from using the Internet. We are not "design" to be alone. And eventually when we realize that we truly ARE alone, then we are going to react. "What the hell am I doing?" then we will look for another human being naturally. We are slowly isolating ourselves more and more everyday from other people. There will be a very large number of people using the Internet when we realize this truth. I highly doubt that the Internet will be over even if most people stop themselves at some point.

I think my dad has really spend some of his time thinking about the current situation, specially with the Internet. He is aware that me and my sister have lost many hours, days, and months of our lives in front of the computer, but he did nothing to stop us. Although he knows that there is nothing beneficial out of my actions/choices he knows that it is futile to tell me to stop when the only one who can realize that it is truly wrong is myself. I'm very interested in learning more about my father's childhood without all this electronic media, but I cannot imagine myself living his childhood. It would be boring at some point. I think that because I know what is it to live surrounded by all this technology I cannot imagine myself without it. I have mistakenly grown dependant of it, and I have also distance myself from others as a consequence.
My father also uses the Internet, to work, to chat, etc. He also has a facebook account and watched videos on the Internet. But even still I do not think my dad would be able to truly understand what I feel when I use the Internet. Or it is part of my entire generation for that matter. Maybe the future generations will feel the same about us.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Responses of Strangers.

During this activity I only interviewed five different people, and none of them provide me a nonstandard answer. This might have been because maybe there were not very interested in the interview. Or because they did not feel comfortable discussing something that is part of their lives as something negative.
Overall I got that most people consider the Internet as something "good" in their lives. Mostly because the Internet provides them with any kind of information they want. And although this statement was said by the five people I interviewed, I personally do not think that those five people actually use the Internet to research, or expand their knowledge. Everyone seemed to be more focused on the Internet when I asked them about Electronic media. This might be because it is the one that has the greatest impact on their lives.

A man around his 20's did say a rather interesting thing however. He said, "Young people do not know ho to use it. It is a great source and people just fill it up with craps. I am not really against because i don't think is a way of avoiding reality. It is like a movie, a short time to scape."
Although his answer was somewhat standard I think that this man was trying to make a unusual point. In other words he blames this generation for "messing up" this media, instead of of it messing up us. I partially agree with him because I think that it is our choice to make use of all these electronic devices and not face reality. I can also assume that this man does not really spend many hours a day using the Internet. He said it was "like a movie, a short time to scape" the reality that he is aware of. This suggests that this is his perspective on the Internet, therefore he is not really against it.

Another woman around her 50's also said something interesting. She said "It is so confusing to me. I think it is twisted how there are kids who are addicted to the Internet. I would not use it to chat with strangers. It is not safe. The Internet is tricky, and it is tricky to know what will happen to those children who are obsessed" In my opinion this lady said what she said because of her age. She is not able to understand how my generation considers the Internet. Or how much we need it. However, I am not saying she is wrong for not doing so. Her point of view is completely valid, and If I was her I might have given a very similar response. Similar to the younger man, I assume that this woman has not being using the Internet for long periods of time. She uses it to talk to her family and friends, but as she said, "I would not use it to chat with strangers. It is not safe." she is demonstrating that she does not see the Internet as a wall which will disguise her and protect her from the outside world.

The rest of the responses were very standard. Ideas such as "Younger generations will not be able to interact with reality in the future", or "It is great to talk to other people around the world" were the most stated. Everyone seemed aware that if the Internet is used for a long period of time it would cause a negative impact on the user. It would cause him/her difficulties to interact with others in reality. But if it isn't, then the Internet turns out to be a wonderful thing in our lives (I agree).

I conclusion electronic media is not really considered as something negative by most people. I do not think it is because they are ignorant, but because they find more positive aspects than negative ones when they experience it. As it was discussed in History class, most people do not think, therefore these people do not ask themselves how their current actions are affecting their surroundings. In other words their perspective on life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best Friends Interview

I Interviewed two very dear friends of mine and because they are foreigner I was very interested to know what was their idea on electronic media.
Because the conversation was more comfortable compared to interviewing strangers, I was able to obtain more specific answers. However I did have to translate to English, so this is not exactly what they said. I asked several questions as the interview went but I will not mention these on the post with the purpose of not disturbing the flow.
*Some of their answers were very standard but other answers were rather interesting.*

One of them said: "In America the Internet is very convenient. Because of it, Japan is closer and I don't feel lonely or miss my family. I think it is great that your generation uses the Internet. I would do the same if I was part of it. Maybe if you help each other you might be able to stop using the Internet if you think is bad for you. Now that I think about it, Sometimes I spend the entire day on the Internet watching T.V. series, and I know this is not healthy. I would be surprised if my child uses the Internet everyday. I would ask him "Why the Internet? Aren't you interested in something else? You can go outside, or play any instruments."
Regardless I am sure he will want to do something else at some point.
Also it is scary how people in America negatively express themselves on the Internet. Like if that were their real personality. People in Japan do not really bad mouth each other not even on the Internet. We are afraid of the consequences."

What I found most interesting about her answer is how she plans to deal with her children using the Internet. We often know that parents have the authority to restrain their children from using the Internet, because they "know" it is bad for them. However the way she sees it is by allowing her child to realize on his own the damage he is causing to himself. As a parent she will suggest that there is a world out there and he has the change to experience it. I also think that that will help the child to feel more attracted on going outside and being active than using the Internet.

The other one responded:
"The Internet is very helpful to obtain information. Before it was very difficult to get learn about something i wanted to know. Now thanks to it it is so easy! The world is so wide but we are able to keep it small through it. It is very good that I can keep in touch with my friends and family. If I was a college student and I had to use the Internet to do my work it would be very easy to cheat! I would not be able to think or come up with ideas on my own. Overall I consider the Internet as a very important part o my life. In my list of having to pay for services for my house I would pay for water, electricity, Internet, gas. In that order.
Also because my husband's job depends on the Internet. It is very important to have it around the house. It would be like the end of the world if we were to lose the Internet for us.
I also think that If I lived inside the Internet my life would be much different. For example living in something like the matrix, I wouldn't be afraid of getting hurt. So I think that expressing yourself on the Internet is cowardly."

Out of this interview I understood that there are people who are also aware that children from our generation are not thinking by themselves. Because the Internet provides all types of information there is no need to spend time and ponder about something we can just google it. I have experienced that myself. I do not think this is matter of being smart, wise or ignorant. It just has to do with our interest of learning through thinking or theorizing. If this century is compared to the one before, the thinking and dedication difference is considerably huge. and if that one is compared to the one before is the same result. We are becoming less interested in creating and more used to updating.

Overall, it seems that in other parts of the world they are taught to be Thankful to the Internet for being a great source of information. That alone covers up any other negative impact it might have on us.