Topic: Cultural Change
Source: In class we had to embark on a “scavenger hunt” to
find certain anthropological signs and cultural texts around campus.
Relation: A friend and I set out to locate signs of wealth.
While she focused on wealth being expressed through clothing, I focused on it
being expressed through the technology people around campus used. I was surprised at the number of iPhones and
apple products in general. While much of this technology is used to communicate
over distances, its now mostly used more than actual humans speaking face to
face.
Description: Before telephones and telegrams, the way people
would communicate within a community is by walking up to someone and speaking.
Even after these inventions, people only resorted to phones when it was either
too late or too far to talk to someone else. This technology has been a major
factor in shaping or culture. It has gone from people walking to the store to
calling in orders; from walking to a friends house to calling them on the
phone; and even in some cases, calling the person in the next room instead of
walking. While movies like “Wal-E” have a comical sense about it, the movie
makes some serious points.
Our culture is constantly finding uses for
technology to support their lazy habits. Inventions like text messaging have
also forced people away from traditional human interactions. Instead of
striking up conversations, people can find “friends” on websites things of that
nature. These websites also lead to people creating personalities rather than them
being themselves.
Analysis: If our culture continues to use technology in a
manner which influences laziness instead of efficient behaviors, then our
culture will continue down this spiral of lazy people who cannot communicate efficiently
face to face.
