New Technology for the Young at Heart

Wii Bowling

Just because your grandparents may not have a Facebook or Twitter account, doesn't mean they're not just as hip and accepting to technology as you are. Lately there have been several advances in technology for the aging population.

My first recollection of technology being introduced and targeted for would be the LifeCall commercials, but they made advancements in a short period of time. For example, a few years ago I remembered seeing commercials for the "Jitterbug"(now known as GreatCall) cell phone. It was targeted toward the elderly population. They purposefully made the phone highly specialized with big buttons and few functions (other than making phone calls) to ensure simplicity and being a user friendly device. But they certainly haven't stopped at that, now this phone offers a service called "Live Nurse". The phone's owner has access to medical resources is able to call 24 hours a day 7 days a week to and have their medical questions answered. A handy service especially if the owner is living alone. There is also a function on the mobile phone that allows them to set reminders for their medications.

Now grandpa and grandma can get cell phones that help them send text messages. This article from Wired.com is about a cell phone that has all sorts of hand things for elderly people whom need a cell phone. But doesn't hide the applications in hard to navigate menus. Instead they use big easy to find buttons to make phone calls that also repeat the number back to you when you press it, a flashlight, and an FM radio that can be turned on by the push of a single button. There is also a big orange button the back of the phone; this is an emergency button that allows the owner to program the number to a friend or family's number.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, elderly persons are quite open to adding technology to their care plans. This not only allows them to stay in their homes longer, it allows them to live with limited assistance from caregivers. A report by the AARP asked both caregivers and people aged 65+, about home safety, monitoring, communications and their willingness to use it. The response was postive in that it showed a growing level of awareness and level of willingness to use safety devices.

"Home safety, monitoring, and communications technology are coming of age at a key time for a new generation caring for their loved ones," said Jody Holtzman, AARP Senior Vice President for Thought Leadership. "This could be the first generation of caregivers for whom technology could provide seamless access to communications and real time information about how well their loved ones are doing as they continue to live on their own. The data from "Healthy@Home 2.0" demonstrate that the needs, awareness, interest and ability to pay are substantial."


So although grandma and grandpa may not understand what the hashtag is for in Twitter posts, or why on earth you need to text so much, they are, albeit slowly, jumping on the technology bandwagon. 

Racial Divisons

Facebook vs. MySpace

Our last classroom discussion about homophily and racial divides in the online world was what prompted me to write this week's blog post. I once had an account on MySpace. I created my account in 2006 when I was a counselor at North Dakota Girls State. I worked with girls from around the state and throughout the week had become friends with many of them. At the end of the week they insisted that everyone get a MySpace account to keep in touch.

Soon after, Facebook accounts became available to high school students who didn't have an .edu e-mail address, and thus began an exodus from MySpace to Facebook. Not all my friends made with switch at the same time. Many just recently started using Facebook instead of Myspace stating that they enjoyed the ability to personalize their page with a background and music and more information about who they where.  It was these exact reasons that I preferred Facebook. I found all the different backgrounds and glitter texts to be nauseating as well as a sensory overload. I felt Facebook was more streamlined and simple and required less upkeep than a Facebook page.

Minorities on Facebook

This article from switched.com features quotes from Boyd’s article and offers an example of the racial divide that Boyd was addressing in her theory. In 2009 the New York Times ran an article called “Do You Know Anyone Still On MySpace?” However at the time that the article was published, statistically, Myspace and Facebook had the same number of members. But because most of the staff at the New York Times was on Facebook they assumed that the rest of their readers were too.  

However I can’t help but think that maybe the switch had something to do with the fact that Facebook was a concept first introduced at Harvard. Harvard is a historically and predominantly white school, next it was introduced to Ivy Leauge schools then top tier schools, could the fact that many of the people that were first using Facebook were white have something to do with the major move of white people from MySpace to Facebook.  

This article published February 14, 2011 at PsychCentral.com found that not only was there a racial divide in social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace but also in online dating sites. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley looked at more than a million profiles from a variety of online dating sites. On their profiles members were able to choose if they wanted to be matched with people of their same race, a different race or if they would date a member of any race.

"They learned that whites overwhelmingly prefer to date members of their own race, while blacks, especially men are far more likely to cross the race barrier."

With further exploration of their data they found 

Interracial Marriage

that whites more than blacks, women more than men and old more than young participants stated a preference for a partner of the same race. 

But according to the most recent census and this CNN article, interracial marriages are at an all time high. Apparently, race is mattering less and less these days. Pew researchers are reporting that one in eight marriages are interracial or inter-ethnic. Studies have shown that support for interracial marriages is also increasing significantly. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, about 85% accept interracial marriages, according to a Pew study published in February. 

So although we, as a country, may not have reached complete acceptance of dating and friendship (consciously or subconsciously) the trend seems to be we are certainly on the way. 

Taking Facebook At Face Value

Facebook Depression

It seemed like parents had enough on their plate when it came to raising children, but with another advance in technology comes one more thing parents need to be aware of. "Facebook depression" has become a real illness, and those most at risk are young adolescents.  The teen years can be a crucial time in the development of who they are, and social networking sites like Facebook can both help, but more often, hinder this development. 


The older articles I researched, like this 2009 post on ReadWriteWeb, seemed to think Facebook depression was limited to teenage girls.

Teens and Facebook

 "The Journal of Adolescence, showed that the girls who excessively talked with their friends about their issues had significantly higher levels of depression...they [social networking sites] allowed the girls to discuss the same problems over and over again. This caused them to get stuck obsessing over a particular emotional setback, unable to move forward."


In my opinion, girls' talking to their friends about their problems is just a part of growing up. Who hasn't sat on the phone for an hour to talk about what happened that day and what the latest scandal in the middle school was. But the point of this study is that social networking sites allow them to dwell on hurtful topics longer than is healthy. Later, the author of the study clarified that Facebook was not the focus of the study but rather social networking in general. 


Now the discussion has moved passed teenage girls being at risk for Facebook depression and has expanded to all adolescents. When teenagers spend too much time on Facebook, they tend to show classic signs of depression. Teenagers can spend lots of time viewing hurtful wall posts, finding out people have defriended them (which to a teenager can be devastating), and feeling that everyone's lives seem to be somehow of better quality on Facebook. Because they have access to Facebook all the time, this can lead to anxiety and not getting enough sleep which pediatrician Rana Pascoe says, in this article in the Baltimore Sun, can lead to depression. 


"Sometimes just even their status, if they are involved with someone or not involved with someone or I'm unfriending people, you know I'm mad at you so I'm going to unfriend you so that can lead to hurt feelings," Dr. Pascoe said. "Especially for younger kids."

Facebook Depression

If adolescents are exposed to such negative experiences with social media they may never be able to see its benefits. Moderation, as it is with many things is key. Parents need to monitor how much time their child is spending on Facebook and determine a healthy amount of time to be online. Also, parents need to watch for changes in moods, sleeping and eating habits and also a change in friends to detect any possible signs of Facebook depression. 

Education Gets Technical

iPad, iLearn?

How many times have you found yourself in the middle of a lecture that just won't end? So you drift off into a daydream about the spring break vacation you’re planning or the next topic for your blog, only to snap back to class just in time to hear those eight paralyzing words, “You’ll need to know that for the test.”

Thankfully education is changing, it is adapting to the new force that media plays in our lives and reinventing itself to be more beneficial to our changing brains. Things like the Khan Academy and the Worldwide Center for Mathematics are lending themselves to the classroom of the future. Even here at North Dakota State University we are already seeing some of the small changes being implemented; we are using blogs and Facebook accounts to complete classroom assignments. We have many distance education courses, classes that are only offered in an online format.

Salman Khan, was tutoring his cousins who lived out of state, started the Khan Academy. He began by posting the videos he made for them on Youtube to reference for supplemental information or to watch as a refresher to a subject not fully grasped.  Pretty soon, many others were watching his videos and were able to understand topics they didn’t comprehend. These lectures have been highly successful and teachers in California are starting to use them as part of the curriculum. The classroom has experienced a “flip”, the teachers are now using the tutorials as homework and what used to be homework is being done in the classroom. This allows the students to have a self-paced lecture at home, and it allows more time for the teacher to interact personally with the student instead of giving a “one-size-fits-all lecture”.

The Worldwide Center for Mathematics is taking education down the same path, they have changed their textbook from a physical book to an online PDF format, and the best part is, it’s free! There are two versions of the textbook the one with the PDF files and a 45-minute video lecture at the beginning of each section and the upgraded model, which includes video solutions to the problems in the book.

This innovation in education is changing who is and isn’t considered a student. Through access to tutorials like the ones at the Khan Academy, we are able to be students of any discipline at any time. They say education is a lifelong process, and now it truly can be. On the Khan Academy you can learn everything from basic math to advanced calculus to history and economics. Instead of resisting the change in our daily lifestyle, some companies have instead chosen to harness that energy and make a change in the way education is administered. Finally, I would like to finish with an a little Youtube video I found entitled "A Vision of Students Today" created by a class at Kansas State studying similar topics. 

Magicians, advertisers or both?

In this video Dr. Johanna Blakley argues that the typical demographics used by media companies to track our likes and dislikes are slowly ceasing to matter. Advertising and media companies like to categorize, or compartmentalize you. This helps them assume what your likes and dislikes are going to be. For example if you are a 10-year-old girl, in a middle class family, in the US it is likely that you are going to be a fan of Justin Bieber (this could also hold true for their mothers).  But, the Internet and social media sites have made it easier for people to branch out and take an interest in new hobbies or ideas. Our tastes are can no longer be presumed by advertising companies, so they have started to monitor which sites we visit to try to figure out our interests. While this can be more difficult because they can’t know your age or gender for sure, they can get to know what interests you.

So, advertisers have turned to “taste communities” to find out more information on where the people’s interests lie. Through these communities they are able to acquire information on what interests have linked these seemingly random people together and also what other interests they have. As Hank Wasiak explains in his blog about a second “disruption” in advertising (the first being television) it becomes less about “we the people” and has transformed into “me the people”. Meaning that advertising needs to be individualized. Bob MacDonald, CEO of Procter and Gamble, explains the reach of this new era of advertizing.

“What I would like to have is a one-on-one relationship with seven billion people in the world and be able to customize offerings for those seven million people. Digital [advertising] allows that relationship.”

This change in advertising will force them to master the art of listening, or as Hank puts it, “grow bigger ears”.  Advertisers will also have to immerse themselves in these social circles in order to get a clear picture of whom they are working with and to completely understand their culture.

Instead of looking at this change in advertising as a loss of demographics and the way it used to be done, it is more important to embrace the change accept the challenge and meet it head on. Hank ends his blog with this quote:

“An idea can turn to dust or magic depending upon the talent that rubs against it. Now is the time to be magicians.”

Deception Online and in Dating

Deception on the Internet, to me, seems to be a concern that is fading away. Growing up alongside the Internet, I've seen it change from a place where parents would warn of all the fraud that was sure to be be found, to a place where many serious relationships have not only formed but thrived. As we discussed in class, it is difficult to lie online because much of your online life is rooted in your offline life. 

So, what kind of threat is online deception? A bill has recently been introduced to the state senate in Washington that would make it easier for someone to sue another for impersonating them online. If someone creates a false Facebook account in your name, and that account causes you physical or financial injury, or injury to your reputation, you would be well within your rights to sue them. This bill was introduced after a fake ad was put up on Craigslist and a Tacoma woman's home was ransacked because the ad welcomed anyone to come and take the things in her home for free. 

There is definitely a case to be made for deception in Internet dating. It is easy to make up a fake account and pretend to be someone else, even to completely swap genders. Dr. Jeffery Hancock said that lying happens more often than we think, but its not about how big the lies are but how many. About 8 out of 10 people lie on online dating sites, for example when asked about their height it is common to post 5'11'' instead of 5'10''. But even in the real world we use these "white lie deceptions". Women wear high heels and makeup, men wear shoulder pads under their coat jackets; isn't dressing taller than you are the same as saying it? However, online users are careful to make their lies small so if they ever do meet offline, it won't be noticeable enough on the first date to ruin their chances of a second. 

Dr. Hancock touches on "evolutionary psychology" (how each gender behaves in ways consistent with evolution) where men and women lie about different things. In a study he found that men tend to make their lies more about themselves, for example, how much money they make, and their height.  Where women tend to lie about their body weight and lying to make other people feel better about themselves. Dr. Hancock speaks about some women lying about their weight online but thinking of it more as a promise or a goal. So when they say they weigh less than they do, they will have a promise to keep and be that weight by the time they first meet face to face.

Although we spoke about many of the social norms in class that prevent us from completely making up an identity it seems smaller lies are much more prevalent than we think. Although the lies may not be big deal breakers, they could start a relationship on the unsteady foundation of a deception. 

(I would encourage you to watch the video hyperlinked to Dr. Hancock's name, its very interesting!)

Save us from ourselves - Teen texting

I'll be the first person to admit I'm easily..... sorry, distracted. Put me behind the wheel of a car and you better have all your business in order because its always a thrill to see if we make it from point A to point B; add a cell phone to this already potent mix, and boy do we have a path straight to disaster. 

According to a report by Amanda Lenhart, texting by adults has increased from 65% receiving texts in September 2009 to 72% in May 2010. But adults are still dwarfed by 12 - 17 year olds who send five times more text messages than adults. Adults receive about 10 text messages per day where as teens receive about 50. There are only so many hours in a day so this leads me to wonder, how many of those 50 text messages come while those old enough to operate a vehicle are driving? 

Many teens think texting and driving is OK because nothing really bad has ever happened to them, so they crossed the middle line (it was only a little) or ran up on a curb (there was no one there anyway). But just like gambling, your luck will surely run out. At some point it is going to happen and close calls are going to turn into calls to an insurance agency. Teens have a feeling of invincibility and I'll admit I sometimes think that way too. Bad things happen to other people because they aren't careful like I am, right? For your viewing pleasure I have found a little snippet that makes ideas like the one I just presented seem sheepish.

But there are people trying to find ways to discourage texting while driving and other distracted driving habits. There is an app that disables your cell phone when you drive so it can only take voice commands, gadgets that can detect when your car is straying from the lane markers and good old-fashioned laws. In fact, a bill just passed in the North Dakota House of Representatives on Tuesday banning texting and driving and handing out a $100 fine and a 2-point penalty on their license for anyone caught. A news station in Vermont followed up it's states ban on using electronic devices while driving by interviewing students at a local high school and the students felt that the law went a little too far. 

"I wouldn't be a fan of that because I know I use, well, I try not to text and drive but I have my iPod on." said senior Jessica Cota. "I don't know if that would work for me. No one will obey it. It's not going to happen, just like no cell phones in school, that didn't happen either."

Teen sentiments on texting bans are strong but I think it is because technology, such as cell phones, have become so engrained in their lives that when lawmakers take something as constant and something as attached as a cell phone away from them, its like cutting of an arm. But other states, as well as many other countries have rules in place that keep their constituents from even holding a cell phone while driving and they have managed. I think we need to set some ground rules for cell phone use and although it may be hated in the beginning I believe teens will eventually come to accept it. But it is obvious that because cells phones are starting to become so inseparable from our lives it is clear we need to find another way to keep us from hurting ourselves.