Part 5

Part 5

    I have discovered a lot about my questions: What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves? I have discovered a lot of new information on these topics through research and exploration. I learned the most through studying my philosopher, John Stuart Mill. However, I also discovered a lot through the dialogue with a peer and through exploring and connecting the novel, The Stranger, to my questions. I have discovered that communication, technology, relationships, and our morals that guide what we say to one another have a lot to do with happiness and our pleasure affects us. I learned that through studying Mill’s novel, Utilitarianism. I have learned that communication is one of the most important tools in our lives because we use it every second of the day every day. Technology shapes our lives in a numerous of positive ways: it provides us with easy access to information (Internet, media, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc), upgrades in the medicine field, warfare, it has helped us communicate with one another a lot easier (Facebook, Twitter, etc), and many other things as well. I learned this through exploring and researching Mill’s novel, Utilitarianism  and the novel, The Stranger. Technology has shaped the future in so many positive ways, and it will keep on improving as the years come. We have relationships with one another because we love having companions by our side, talking to one another, feeling loved/comforted/happy, we love laughing and having fun with one another, and many other reasons. We need relationships in our lives because if we didn’t have them, then we couldn’t succeed and go on with our lives because we would feel lonely and depressed. The people you hang around tells a lot about a person. It tells what kind of personality you have, what interests you have, and just the kind of person you are (athlete, goth, nerd, etc). Our morals have a lot to deal with what we say to one another. We choose what we say to one another based off of what role that person has in our lives. We wouldn’t tell the same story/thing to a teacher that we would would tell our best friend or girlfriend. Most people care a lot about our others portray them because people want to be in the “in crowd” and want to be thought of as cool. If a person thinks that other people think they are cool, then that will boost their confidence and make them think that they are cool as well. It is very interesting how our society works.
    I have also learned that technology shapes our lives in many positive ways, however it has many implications. Technology has been growing at such a rapid pace, which has caused some negative repercussions along the way. I believe that the rapid increase in the role of technology with interpersonal communication does have negative impact as well as positive impact. Facebook gives people a false belief of who their true friends are. Facebook and Twitter also let people hide behind their technology and not show their face in interpersonal communication. It has really changed relationships. Will this new generation that has grown up with technology at their fingertips be able to communicate as effectively in person as previous generations. Technology could prevent us from being able to write a succinct business letter to an older executive at a company where we might work in the future. It is so easy to type out our feelings but can we effectively communicate to others face-to-face how we feel without the use of technology.  Another effect that technology has had on our communication is that everything keeps getting faster and faster, and people expect immediate results and immediate answers. Due dates are no longer dictated by the mail, but by an instant click of the button. Our society expects everything now, and that makes people mores stressed trying to keep up. There is never down time. Technology is always on. With the use of smart phones and computers, it is hard to get away. Smart phones with cameras also allow people to document things that never used to get photographed or video-taped instantaneously. This creates little privacy for anyone.  Technology has also caused many people to get in trouble through media (Facebook, Twitter, pictures, uploads on the internet/newspapers/magazines, etc). Technology is an extremely powerful thing that has caused many negatives to society, like less face-to-face interactions. This is a major problem in businesses because the younger generations are so used to just texting and Facebook/Twitter talk/language that they aren’t used to the real adult conversations with their bosses. They don’t use correct language and aren’t use to grammatically correct emails. People just try to use easy behind the scenes talk (cell phones, texting, email), instead of having real and stressful business-like conversations. This will cause some major problems in the upcoming future as technology keeps on advancing. As technology advances, I feel like texting, Facebook/Twitter, and email are going to become the number one way of communicating as well as Skype and Video Chat. There will be less face to face conversations because there is so advanced technology out there available to us at our fingertips that we don’t need to make that extra step/hassle. Technology is beneficial in many instances, like posting an assignment for school online, instead of having to physically turn it in and having all the information in the universe one click away on our computers. It is so reliable and easy. However, this generation is so used to having everything be so speedy that people have become impatient easier and aren’t used to waiting for things. This can cause stress and having a too up tight and fast pace world. When the power goes out in your house for only an hour or two, people in this generation don’t know what to do with themselves. People start freaking out and become impatient because they can’t go on their computer, watch TV, or play video games. Technology is a good thing for school work/finding information, for medicine, warfare, and for communicating with one another for the most part. However, it is a bad thing when it comes to posting things online that invade one another’s privacy and could get them in trouble or embarrassed. We have to keep this under control because sometimes it is just too much. We don’t need to know everything about everyone’s lives every moment because we also need to take a step back or two and just relax and enjoy our lives without knowing what everyone else is doing. We need our own privacy as well sometimes. How far can Facebook and Twitter go? Will they eventually run the world? Run the information centers of the universe? Will there be medicine in the future to cure cancer/cure everything? Will Facebook and Twitter be the leading business/multi-billion dollar business of the world? Will technology save us from everything, like sicknesses and will it create unstoppable weapons for warfare? Will technology save us from global warming? Only time will tell.
    I believe that technology will continue to grow, become faster and more efficient, and be used in even more areas of our world for interpersonal communication as well as other areas of society. In order for it to be an effective tool, the developers of technology and the leaders of the businesses that make the technology have a moral right to consider that it is used correctively. For instance, the founders of Facebook are always considering security and privacy as they develop more advanced versions and updates for Facebook. Our educators need to continue to teach the newer generations how to communicate effectively in written and oral communication so that we can communicate not just with our fingers, but with more traditional ways as well. Technology is here to stay, and it will help us solve problems we never imagined could be solved, but we need to all do our part to help technology do its job, and also allow humans to continue to communicate effectively with and without technology for the technology to succeed.

Part 3

Part 3
Introduction to Utilitarianism and Mill’s Ideas on Utilitarianism:
John Stuart Mill explains the theory of Utilitarianism in his novel, Utilitarianism, which states, “…actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill). His theory is about happiness and how it affects our lives. To him, happiness means feelings pleasure and not feeling pain. If your goal in life is to be happy, then you will be happy. The pleasure that you feel can vary in many different qualities and quantities, and it is different for every person. Some people try to obtain the highest level of happiness and some people just try to be generally happy. The people that try to obtain the highest level of happiness are often sad because they can’t reach that higher level of happiness. Except when they do they are extremely happy. Those people that just try to be generally happy are usually always happy, but don’t usually reach that higher level of happiness. Higher level happiness should be more vital to life than general happiness because it is happiness to the extreme level. The ultimate happiness is the happiness that most human beings want to obtain. These pleasures should be held with a higher standard than general pleasures because they are the ultimate type of happiness. These different types of happiness greatly affect our decision making process because we do things and will take consequences or pain just to obtain higher levels of happiness/the happiness that we want to obtain. People that obtain these higher levels of pleasure are generally less happy because they understand the limitations of the world better than those that don’t obtain higher levels of happiness. People also make sacrifices for others to make them content or people make sacrifices to make themselves happy. A key to his theory is that you can’t value your happiness over the happiness of others. It can make people angry and frustrated if they can’t be happy or can’t obtain the higher level of happiness. He also states that people’s achievements should count as happiness because people go through pain and suffering to achieve their goal, which turns into happiness. Another important idea in his theory is that if someone doesn’t see the point of a law or rule in society, then that person won’t think it’s important and won’t follow that rule. People’s morals also come greatly into play when it comes to obtaining happiness in life. Your morals guide your happiness and decisions in life based off of happiness. If you know you did something morally wrong, then you will feel guilty inside your mind. Most things that people want in life and things that people want to achieve are because they want happiness as the end result. Good actions made by someone result in happiness and bad actions by someone result in sadness. People do things to be happy.
How Utilitarianism Answers My Questions:
Mill agrees with my questions: What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves? Mill focuses the most on happiness in his novel, but it connects to all of my questions. We use technology, have relationships, communicate with others, and choose what we say to others, what we say to certain people, how others think of us, and how we think of others. All of those topics relate directly to happiness and how we live our lives.
Humans communicate and have relationships with one another in many different ways. People communicate with one another because humans enjoy having interactions with one another. It makes us feel happy. We love to tell jokes to one another, laugh with one another, etc. We also have relationships with one another because we enjoy interacting with different people. This why we hang out with friends and have girlfriends. We love to laugh and have fun with friends. Mill believes this to be the result of happiness which, “…is desirable, except that each person, so far as he believes it to be attainable, desires his own happiness” (Mill). Having a deep relationship with a girl or just having a great group of friends creates happiness within us. It might even activate that higher level of pleasure because we love hanging out with our friends and love hanging out with our girlfriend. It’s just human nature. Mill states that higher, “...nobler feelings is in most natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile influences, but my mere want of sustenance; and in the majority of young persons it speedily dies away if the occupations to which their position in life has devoted them, and the society into which it has thrown them, are not favorable to keeping the higher capacity in exercise” (Mill). Mill explains that obtaining higher level pleasures is hard to do and then keeping those higher pleasures within you for a period time is even harder. These higher levels of happiness can easily go away and change to sadness or just plain happiness, but not super levels of happiness. This directly relates to my questions about relationships. One day we might be really happy about our relationships in our lives (friends, girlfriend, etc.). We might obtain higher levels of happiness from our relationships, but then the next day we might lose those higher levels of pleasure and be mad and sad about our relationships. It changes extremely often due to nature, our mood/feelings, influences due to society, and other reasons as well. It also relates to my question about how our morals guide what we say to one another. Our morals affect what we say to one another because we choose what we say to difference people, depending on their role in society. For example, if someone gives you a compliment, it makes you feel good about yourself. If someone tells you a joke, it makes you laugh. Both of these examples could make you reach higher levels of happiness. However, if someone gives you an insult, it could ruin your happiness and make you lose those higher levels of pleasure.
Mill explains the idea of aspirations and how they can be lost or affected by society. For example, “Men lose their high aspirations as they lose their intellectual tastes, because they have not time or opportunity for indulging them; and they addict themselves to inferior pleasures, not because they deliberately prefer them, but because they are either the only ones to which they have access or the only ones which they are any longer capable of enjoying” (Mill). If people have really high aspirations, they can lose them due to loss in interest to that aspiration to work hard. They might mot have time to work hard on that goal or they might not feel good anymore after they work hard to reach it, so it may be pointless to them now. If you don’t feel pleasure after working hard to obtain something, then there is no point anymore. This causes people to stop working hard towards that goal. They might not be able to obtain that goal anymore as well. This causes people to obtain lower goals, so people go towards these now even if it doesn’t create as much happiness as the higher level goal. This quote illustrates my questions on technology and relationships. It refers to technology because if people have access to Facebook, Twitter, TV, the Internet, or their cell phone, then they will use their technology to their advantage because it would help them achieve their goal/find what they are looking for. If they don’t have access to updated technology, then they will obtain lower levels or older versions of technology to obtain their information, like newspapers or magazines. It also refers to relationships because if someone has a crush on a really hot girl, then they will go for that girl. However, if that person can’t get with that girl/if the girl doesn’t like them back, then that person will go for not as hot of a girl because he will think that that girl will be easier to get with because she isn’t as cute and doesn’t have as high of an ego/reputation. This is because if a girl is super hot, then a lot of guys will go for her, but if a girl isn’t as hot, then she will be easier to get with.
People love hanging out with friends and people love participating in activities with friends because it gives people pleasure. This is because most people enjoy doing activities with friends, instead of doing them by themselves. Mill refers to this when he talks about, “The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure...” (Mill). This relates to my questions on relationships and interpersonal communication. People obtain higher levels of happiness when they participate in activities with friends because it makes them happier when they can have fun, joke around, and just talk with their friends while participating in an activity. People also enjoy communicating with friends while participating in an activity as to doing an activity alone because if you do it alone, then you don’t have anyone to talk to, joke around with, or have fun with.
Mill’s novel, Utilitarianism, explained how his theory of happiness relates to humans’ lives. He also explained how their are different levels of happiness, and he explained how their are different qualities and quantities of pleasure. His novel greatly related to my questions on technology, interpersonal communication, relationships, and how our morals guide what we say to one another because his novel answered all of my questions in some way, and his novel helped me discover the answers to my questions by interpreting his text.

Step 2

Step 2

Introduction to my ideas:

    The novel, The Stranger, relates to my question: What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves? Meursault in the novel, The Stanger, introduces new aspects to my question because the he doesn’t care about the rules of society and doesn’t care about how society perceives him because he doesn’t see a purpose in life, so he goes against the laws of society. He goes against my take on the question because he goes against what society thinks and does. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks and doesn’t care if he fits in or not, unlike the majority of society. The story communicates this by Meursault just not going along with what society asks for and with what society wants. He also goes against what people expect out of him. My interaction with the text shapes this theory because i interpreted from the text that Meursault just didn’t care at all what anyone thought of him. He didn’t care what his boss thought, what his mom thought, what the lawyer or police thought, what his girlfriend thought, what his neighbor thought, and so on. He did his own thing. He basically never regretted anything that he did, even if it was wrong or if he got in trouble from doing it. He didn’t care that he got executed by the guillotine. He just didn’t care. He had very different relationships and feelings for his boss, his girlfriend, for life, for death, and just for how society worked. My thinking of the book hasn’t really changed over time. After reading the book I always had similar thoughts, but I dug deeper into the ideas of how society and interrelationships work in this book and learned more about it.

Examples from Text:

    Meursault doesn’t follow the normal rules of society and doesn’t care what other people think of him. Meursault asks Marie if she wants to go to Celeste’s house for dinner, and Marie says that she can’t go, “…I told her we could have dinner together at Celeste’s. She would have liked to but she had something to do…I said goodbye to her. She looked at me. Don’t you want to know what I have to do” (42). Marie got very upset with Meursault because he didn’t care to ask why Marie couldn’t go out for dinner. This illustrates Meursault’s persona of not caring about society and how society perceives him. He didn’t think it mattered where Marie was going or why she couldn’t go; she just couldn’t go, and that was the end of it. Even though, Marie was upset that Meursault didn’t ask her where she was going because it illustrates that he doesn’t care about her. Most people in society care about what others think of them because people want to be thought of as cool. People like having that “cool persona” because they think it makes them popular. Meursault, however, disagreed with my stance because he doesn’t care about what anyone thought of him. He also disagrees with my stance about relationships. This is because he doesn’t really need a close relationship, like others in society do. He doesn’t act in relationships or feel the same way that others feel about relationships. This shows in his relationship with Marie. During the trial, the director stated that, “Meursault hadn’t wanted to see Maman, that he hadn’t cried once, and that he had left right after the funeral without paying my last respects at her grave. And...he didn’t know how old Maman was” (89). Meursault didn’t have the same intentions that everyone else in society had when it came to death. He acted in a way that his mom would have wanted him to act after she died. He didn’t feel that it was necessary to cry because she wouldn’t have wanted him to, and she had lived such a wonderful life that no one needed to cry for her. Meursault’s relationship with his mom was extremely important to him. It is just different than the average mother-son relationship. Therefore, he goes against my interpretation of why people have relationships. Meursault is very different from the average citizen because he didn’t even know how old his mom was, and he didn’t care. It wasn’t important to him. However, he still had a very close relationship with his mom, but in a different way than the average person. He knew how his mom was such a wonderful woman. He didn’t care how others perceived him at his mother’s funeral. He didn’t care if others saw him not paying his respects to her at her grave and didn’t care if others saw him not crying at her funeral. He didn’t care what society thought of him in the way he acted at the funeral. He paid his respects to his mom the way she would have wanted him to. He didn’t want to see his mom in pain in her coffin, so he decided not to see her and everyone else thought he was ridiculous and inhumane.

Meursault doesn’t see a purpose in life. Marie asks Meursault if he wanted to marry her and Meursault said, “...it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her...I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married” (41). Meursault made it clear to Marie that he didn’t really care about marriage and didn’t really care about anything; it was all the same to him. Therefore, Meursault again goes against my stance on why people have relationships with one another and why do we care how people perceive us. He also goes against my stance on relationships and why we need relationships in our lives. He just didn’t have anything to do with those things. He just cared about how he felt, and doesn’t care how society acted or how society wanted him to act. He didn’t need a close relationship and didn’t need to act in a certain way in that relationship. Marriage is a very serious thing in society, and Marie took it very seriously. She loved Meursault, and she wanted to make sure that he loved her back, so they could get married. Even with Meursault’s lame response, she still decided that they were going to get married. Marriage is not a serious thing to Meursault because it is all the same to him; if a different girl asked him to marry him, he would say yes. Meursault’s boss wants Meursault to move to the office in Paris to work there because his boss thinks that it will be a wonderful fit for him. This is because his boss thinks that he will love Paris’s beauty and its excellent nightlife. However, Meursault tells his girlfriend that, “I’d lived there once...It’s dirty. Lots of pigeons and dark courtyards. Everybody’s pale” (42). The boss thought one thing and Meursault thought another thing. His boss thought of a positive reason why Meursault would love it and should take the opportunity. Meaursault’s stance proves my position on how people say different things to different people depending on what their role in society is. However, Meursault looked at the negative reasons why he hated Paris and didn’t want to go there, but he told his boss he would take the job opportunity in Paris because it is all the same to thing. He doesn’t see a purpose in life. His boss expected him to respond one way, but he responds a different way. It illustrates that people have different and selective perceptions for different people. He tells his boss one thing (his superior), and he tells his girlfriend (Marie) the real reason because he is more truthful to his girlfriend because he is closer with her. He doesn’t want to be rude to his boss. When the Magistrate asked Meursault if he believed in God, Meursault said, “...No. The Magistrate sat down ignorantly. He said it was impossible; all men believed in God, even those who turn their backs on him” (69). The Magistrate was confused and was angry that Meursault didn’t believe in God. This goes against my stance on how people act in society. He doesn’t care that everyone else believes in god and follows god. He cares about his own beliefs. He doesn’t want to follow god because he isn’t interested in god and doesn’t believe in his beliefs. No one really understood Meursault’s personality because he was so peculiar. He was very different than most people. He didn’t care about anything. He didn’t see the point in believing in God because God didn’t affect him and it was all the same to him. After the trial, Meursault realized that, “...Marie meant nothing to me. I wasn’t interested in her dead. That seemed perfectly normal to me, since I understood very well that people would forget me when I was dead. They wouldn’t have anything more to do with me” (115). Meursault realized that ever since he and Marie have gotten separated, she meant nothing to him anymore because there wasn’t anything to keep us together or even remind us of each other. Meursault didn’t care if she died because he knew that no one would remember him if he died. This also goes against my stance on my stance on relationships and why we have them and need them. He didn’t care that Marie was out of his life. All of the stuff that they went through didn’t mean anything to him. It shows that he didn’t need a relationship in his life, and it didn’t mean anything to him. He thought that there was nothing important about him to remember. He didn’t see in purpose in life and thought death was an okay thing. His thoughts were completely different than the average person because most people would cry for days about someone that died that they cared about, most people would think about the wonderful things that that person did during his/her lifetime before they died, and most people are extremely fearful of death. It just illustrates that Meursault is very peculiar in his ways and doesn’t see any purpose in life.

Meursault doesn’t care about society and doesn’t care about how people in society perceive him because he doesn’t see a purpose in life, so he went against society in different ways. Meursault does not care about the rules of society and doesn’t care how people perceive him in society because he doesn’t see any purpose in life. He also doesn’t care about relationships in society because he doesn’t really feel the need to have them. Relationships aren’t the same for him as they are for the majority of society. It shows that he doesn’t follow society, and does what he wants to do. As a citizen, however, it is extremely important to follow the laws of society because if you don’t, then bad things happen to you and people that are close to you get upset because of your wrongful actions, even if it isn’t your fault.

Philosophy Dialogue

Philosophy Dialogue

What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves?

Writer:
    I believe that communication is one of the most important tools in our lives that we use every second of the day every day. Technology shapes our lives in a numerous of positive ways: it provides us with easy access to information (Internet, media, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc), upgrades in the medicine field, warfare, it has helped us communicate with one another a lot easier (Facebook, Twitter, etc), and many other things as well. Technology has shaped the future in so many positive ways, and it will keep on improving as the years come. We have relationships with one another because we love having companions by our side, talking to one another, feeling loved/comforted/happy, we love laughing and having fun with one another, and many other reasons. We need relationships in our lives because if we didn’t have them, then we couldn’t succeed and go on with our lives because we would feel lonely and depressed. The people you hang around tells a lot about a person. It tells what kind of personality you have, what interests you have, and just the kind of person you are (athlete, goth, nerd, etc). Our morals have a lot to deal with what we say to one another. We choose what we say to one another based off of what role that person has in our lives. We wouldn’t tell the same story/thing to a teacher that we would would tell our best friend or girlfriend. Most people care a lot about our others portray them because people want to be in the “in crowd” and want to be thought of as cool. If a person thinks that other people think they are cool, then that will boost their confidence and make them think that they are cool as well. It is very interesting how our society works.


Responder:
    Technology does shape our lives in many positive ways, however what are its implications? Has technology, growing at such a rapid pace, caused any negative repercussions along the way? I believe that the rapid increase in the role of technology with interpersonal communication does have negative impact as well as positive impact. Facebook gives people a false belief of who their true friends are. Facebook and Twitter also let people hide behind their technology and not show their face in interpersonal communication. It has really changed relationships. Will this new generation that has grown up with technology at their fingertips be able to communicate as effectively in person as previous generations. Will technology prevent us from being able to write a succinct business letter to an older executive at a company where we might work in the future? It is so easy to type out our feelings but can we effectively communicate to others face-to-face how we feel without the use of technology.  Another effect that technology has had on our communication is that everything keeps getting faster and faster, and people expect immediate results and immediate answers. Due dates are no longer dictated by the mail, but by an instant click of the button. Our society expects everything now, and that makes people mores stressed trying to keep up. There is never down time. Technology is always on. With the use of smart phones and computers, it is hard to get away. Smart phones with cameras also allow people to document things that never used to get photographed or video-taped instantaneously. This creates little privacy for anyone.  So a good question to ask is when does technology work? But when does it not work? When is it too much of a good thing? When do we decide we need to slow it down?

Writer:
    Technology definitely has false implications as well. The false implications you stated above are completely true. Technology has caused many people to get in trouble through media (Facebook, Twitter, pictures, uploads on the internet/newspapers/magazines, etc). Technology is an extremely powerful thing that has caused many negatives to society, like less face-to-face interactions. This is a major problem in businesses because the younger generations are so used to just texting and Facebook/Twitter talk/language that they aren’t used to the real adult conversations with their bosses. They don’t use correct language and aren’t use to grammatically
correct emails. People just try to use easy behind the scenes talk (cell phones, texting, email), instead of having real and stressful business-like conversations. This will cause some major problems in the upcoming future as technology keeps on advancing. As technology advances, I feel like texting, Facebook/Twitter, and email are going to become the number one way of communicating as well as Skype and Video Chat. There will be less face to face conversations because there is so advanced technology out there available to us at our fingertips that we don’t need to make that extra step/hassle. Technology is beneficial in many instances, like posting an assignment for school online, instead of having to physically turn it in and having all the information in the universe one click away on our computers. It is so reliable and easy. However, this generation is so used to having everything be so speedy that people have become impatient easier and aren’t used to waiting for things. This can cause stress and having a too up tight and fast pace world. When the power goes out in your house for only an hour or two, people in this generation don’t know what to do with themselves. People start freaking out and become impatient because they can’t go on their computer, watch TV, or play video games. Technology is a good thing for school work/finding information, for medicine, warfare, and for communicating with one another for the most part. However, it is a bad thing when it comes to posting things online that invade one another’s privacy and could get them in trouble or embarrassed. We have to keep this under control because sometimes it is just too much. We don’t need to know everything about everyone’s lives every moment because we also need to take a step back or two and just relax and enjoy our lives without knowing what everyone else is doing. We need our own privacy as well sometimes. How far can Facebook and Twitter go? Will they eventually run the world? Run the information centers of the universe? Will there be medicine in the future to cure cancer/cure everything? Will Facebook and Twitter be the leading business/multi-billion dollar business of the world? Will technology save us from everything, like sicknesses and will it create unstoppable weapons for warfare? Will technology save us from global warming? Only time will tell.

Responder:
I believe that technology will continue to grow, become faster and more efficient, and be used in even more areas of our world for interpersonal communication as well as other areas of society. In order for it to be an effective tool, the developers of technology and the leaders of the businesses that make the technology have a moral right to consider that it is used correctively. For instance, the founders of Facebook are always considering security and privacy as they develop more advanced versions and updates for Facebook. Our educators need to continue to teach the newer generations how to communicate effectively in written and oral communication so that we can communicate not just with our fingers, but with more traditional ways as well. Technology is here to stay, and it will help us solve problems we never imagined could be solved, but we need to all do our part to help technology do its job, and also allow humans to continue to communicate effectively with and without technology for the technology to succeed.

Updated Part 1

What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves?

A major stepping stone in my life that greatly transformed and expanded interpersonal communication was the creation of Facebook.  This creation greatly affected my life in numerous ways. I quickly became addicted to the website because I was so intrigued by it. I always wanted to see what my friends were doing at all times when I was at home. I also always wanted to see what pictures and statuses my friends posted to see what they were doing. I also liked posting pictures and posting my own statuses. Facebook became a website that people used to show off and show what they were doing at all times. People tried to have as many friends as possible even if they didn’t really know who they were. People tried to post cool statuses and cool pictures to try to be cool. This is because people in society care a lot about how others perceive them. People care a lot about their social status. Most people want to have that “cool” person persona, so they try to post pictures to try to be cool. I also loved talking to my friends online on Facebook chat. Everyone always went online after school or at night to talk. I have used Facebook as a source for school projects as well because almost everyone has it, so it is an easy source to communicate about the project. I also got in the habit of doing my homework by my laptop. I always had Facebook up while I was doing my homework. Every couple minutes I would check Facebook to see who was online, what new statuses were posted, or what new pictures were uploaded. I loved being so interconnected to my friends at all time. I thought it was a wonderful thing. However, the negative of all this is multi-tasking/doing so many things all at once (Facebook, music, and homework all at the same time), which made it hard to do as well on my homework because I was distracted by Facebook and other things. However, I got accustomed to it quickly. I also put off my homework sometimes just to go on Facebook and see the homepage. I got addicted to it very quickly, which was good in some sense and bad in some ways as well. Another negative was wasting so many hours on Facebook daily, when I could be using my time more wisely. Some positives of Facebook and the update of technology was that I always had a wonderful source of information that I could use on my schoolwork. Also, I could talk to my friends in a more efficient way, instead of always calling or texting them on the phone. Technology was expanding so quickly, and Facebook was changing and expanding (becoming better) every day. Facebook has greatly expanded communication and technology in so many wonderful ways for our society. However, it has caused some problems as well. It has shaped society in positive ways by giving people an easy way to communicate, post pictures, talk to friends, post what you are doing at all times, and way more. Some negatives, however, are having such a complex technological source at your fingertips at all times. Nothing is private anymore.  Anything on the internet is there forever. You can post inappropriate pictures of other people, and that person in the picture would get in trouble. Past generations would never have to worry about any of this because they never had so complex technology. Also, humans have access to communication at all times, which may not be a good thing. This is because you are always active doing something and always feel the need to use technology. You don’t get alone time or privacy anymore. People always feel the need to use technology and can’t go any days or hours without it because people have gotten so used to it and accustomed to it. The overall message that I have learned from the invention of Facebook is just how amazing technology has become in the past few decades. The improvements of technology have greatly helped society because people are able to look up anything on the Internet, talk to their friends/family at any point in time, and just be able to connect with the world and see what is new with society whenever they want. Technology has given people a chance to always stay connected with the world whenever you want. Technology has improved the functioning of businesses, daily life, and has helped catch more criminals. Technology has done so many wonderful things to this world. However, the updated technology has changed everyones’ privacy. Nothing is private anymore; you can’t keep secrets from anyone. Everything is uploaded and posted on the Internet. For example, celebrities can’t keep secrets from anyone. If Adam Sandler bought a new car, then that would be posted on the Internet a second later from a Facebook post or a Tweet on Twitter. It is kind of scary how technology has done that to society, but for the most part, the updated technology has done wonders to society.
    Our morals guide what we say to other people. For example, I would tell my girlfriend everything that was on my mind, my beliefs, thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc., and I wouldn’t tell my parents most of this stuff. I would just be really brief to my parents. This is because human beings don’t tell everyone the same thing. We pick and choose what we tell to certain people. This is because I don’t want my parents knowing everything about me because they are my parents. Even though we are extremely close, I wouldn’t tell them some things about my personal life or what I was thinking inside my head all the time because I could get in trouble. However, I would tell my girlfriend everything because we are extremely close and are going out. We would tell each other everything because we really liked each other, and we knew we wouldn’t get in trouble if we told each other certain things, like who we didn’t like at the school, what teachers we didn’t like, or jokes about certain people. I wouldn’t go tell my parents what teachers I didn’t like, what students I didn’t like, or jokes about my friends because that would be inappropriate to tell my parents. There are just certain things you can and can’t tell certain people depending on who they are and what their status in society is. For example, I wouldn’t tell my soccer or track coach what events or what position I should be playing because they decide that, but I could tell my friends what position I should be playing or what events I should be doing. I also wouldn’t tell my teacher an inside joke about a student, but I could tell that joke to a friend. There are so many examples and instances where you can’t tell someone something because you could get in trouble or hurt their feelings. Nature is designed so that you can tell certain people certain things and there are certain places that you can do certain things that you can’t do at other places. I would use better manners with my family and act a certain way because they expect that out of me and that is proper. If I didn’t act in that way I would get in trouble. For example. I would put my napkin in my lap and I wouldn’t swear because I would get in trouble if I was with my parents at a family dinner. However, if I was with my friends at a laid back dinner, I probably wouldn’t put my napkin in my lap if girls weren’t around and I would swear every now and then because that is how my friends and I talk with one another. Every environment is different and you have to act in different ways in different surroundings. We have relationships with different people and act in different ways with different people because that is the way society works and is the way nature is designed. We need this different relationships because if we didn’t have these different relationships with different people, then society would be extremely boring and the structure of society wouldn’t work. We need our parents because they are our family, they brought us up/raised us, they love us and we love them very much, they provide us with shelter, food/water, and we need each other to survive. We need our friends (guys, girls, relationships, etc.) because we have a lot of fun with each other, tell each other really important things, joke around, hang out, make us laugh, we can tell them anything, etc. We need teachers because they educate us. Our different relationships tell a lot about who we are because the types of people you hang around describe your personality. People usually hang around people that have similar interests/personalities that they do. The jocks hang around one another for the most part and the nerds hang around one another; it is just how society works. It makes you feel happy if you hang around people that are similar to you because usually that makes you have fun, laugh, etc. because their jokes are probably similar to your sense of humor. People should feel happy with the people they hang out with because you love who they are, and you aren’t just hanging out with them to be cool/popular. However, a lot of people care about how others see/perceive them, so they hang out with the “cool” crowd to be cool. If you do that, you may feel accomplished within yourself, but you really aren’t happy. If they aren’t similar to you and you don’t have fun with them, then you shouldn’t be hanging out with them because you won’t be happy otherwise.  We have relationships with others because we love socializing and being around other people (it makes us laugh, have fun, and be ourselves/be happy). We need relationships with other people because if you didn’t have relationships, then you would be sad and lonely. Relationships guide happiness and bring out the good in people.

Philosopher

John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/mill/john_stuart/m645u/

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5q.htm#util

Philosopher and essay

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105053615

Andrew Feenberg

TRANSFORMING TECHNOLOGY A Critical Theory Revisited ANDREW FEENBERG OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2002

Ideas on Step 1: Personal Experience

What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves?

A major stepping stone in my life that greatly transformed and expanded interpersonal communication was the creation of Facebook.  This creation greatly affected my life in numerous ways. I quickly became addicted to the website because I was so intrigued by it. I always wanted to see what my friends were doing at all times when I was at home. I also always wanted to see what pictures and statuses my friends posted to see what they were doing. I also liked posting pictures and posting my own statuses. Facebook became a website that people used to show off and show what they were doing at all times. People tried to have as many friends as possible even if they didn’t really know who they were. People tried to post cool statuses and cool pictures to try to be cool. I also loved talking to my friends online on Facebook chat. Everyone always went online after school or at night to talk. I have used Facebook as a source for school projects as well because almost everyone has it, so it is an easy source to communicate about the project. I also got in the habit of doing my homework by my laptop. I always had Facebook up while I was doing my homework. Every couple minutes I would check Facebook to see who was online, what new statuses were posted, or what new pictures were uploaded. I loved being so interconnected to my friends at all time. I thought it was a wonderful thing. However, the negative of all this is multi-tasking/doing so many things all at once (Facebook, music, and homework all at the same time), which made it hard to do as well on my homework because I was distracted by Facebook and other things. However, I got accustomed to it quickly. I also put off my homework sometimes just to go on Facebook and see the homepage. I got addicted to it very quickly, which was good in some sense and bad in some ways as well. Another negative was wasting so many hours on Facebook daily, when I could be using my time more wisely. Some positives of Facebook and the update of technology was that I always had a wonderful source of information that I could use on my schoolwork. Also, I could talk to my friends in a more efficient way, instead of always calling or texting them on the phone. Technology was expanding so quickly, and Facebook was changing and expanding (becoming better) every day. Facebook has greatly expanded communication and technology in so many wonderful ways for our society. However, it has caused some problems as well. It has shaped society in positive ways by giving people an easy way to communicate, post pictures, talk to friends, post what you are doing at all times, and way more. Some negatives, however, are having such a complex technological source at your fingertips at all times. Nothing is private anymore.  Anything on the internet is there forever. You can post inappropriate pictures of other people, and that person in the picture would get in trouble. Past generations would never have to worry about any of this because they never had so complex technology. Also, humans have access to communication at all times, which may not be a good thing. This is because you are always active doing something and always feel the need to use technology. You don’t get alone time or privacy anymore. People always feel the need to use technology and can’t go any days or hours without it because people have gotten so used to it and accustomed to it.

Updated Philosophical Question

What is the role of interpersonal communication in our lives? How does technology shape society and transform the future (good or bad)? Why do we have relationships with others? To what extent do we need them? What do our relationships with others say about who we are? What rules or morals guide what we say to other people? How important is it to think about how others see and think of us? How does that shape how we think of ourselves?