Digital Artifact
There are so many digital devices we use everyday it’s pretty hard to focus on just one..between computers, cell phones, television etc and the added technologies that come with them all. I think that the cell phone is one digital artifact that not only is important to society today but can be involved in what is considered powerful or authoratative. It seems that now a days everyone has a cell phone (my 87 year old grandma has one, I’m pretyy sure she has no clue how to use it though!) But maybe ten years ago having a cell phone was a big deal, and people that had one were generally people who had money. They were the big chunky phones that were a little bit smaller than a houehold cordless phone, but if you knew someone who owned a call phone, they were seen as important enough to be getting calls and needed to be contacted outside of the home, also they must have the money to own since they were pretty expensive and somewhat rare back in the mid-nineties. I got my first cell phone when for Christmas 2001, my sophomore year of high school since in January i was turning 16 and would be able to drive my mom wanted to be able to contact me, afor me to contact her whenever necessary. I think that a 16 year old about to get their license is a reasonable candidate for getting a cell phone, especially since my mom worries about everything it was good (for her) to be able to know what i was up to whenever she felt the need. Today I think it’s a bit ridiculous some of the people who own cell phones. I’ve seen children as young at 7 or 8 years old witha cell phone..what do they need that for!? I would hope their parents don’t let them wander off by themselves and that’s the reason they need the phone to contact them, and really, how many 7 or 8 year olds have friends that they need to talk to or that need to get a hold of them at all times, home or not. Although i think its silly, it is something that isn’t that out of the ordinary anymore. When i was in high school I don’t think texting was developed yet on cell phones, actually I don’t think it really was popular until end of my freshman, beginning of my sophomore year here. I often wonder how teachers regulate that in high school these days. I know here at BG and probably most other colleges it really isn’t a huge deal. Most teachers just ignore it when their students are texting, however i have had quite a few that would get really upset about it. My point that I’m trying to make about cell phones is, that about ten years ago cell phones were pretty much a big deal and so were the people that owned them, and now a days its not even a big deal for a kid in elementary school to be texting on their blackberry at recess. I’m sure with the constant developement and progressing technologies things are only going to get more crazy when it comes to the use of, and who uses cell phones. And now I feel old realizing texting wasn’t even developed when i was in high school.