I am fascinated by apps.  My newest one:  the Dragon app–it lets you dictate your texts and emails to your iPhone.  Here are the feelings I experienced while dictating my first message to my iPhone: awkward, frustrated, amazed and embarrassed.  Why?  Because in order for the app to understand me, I had to annunciate my words more than I naturally would.  This affected my message…how can I joke around while also hoping that the Dragon will hear me?  The Dragon became my audience…yet he/she/it is but a stranger to me…and I didn’t quite feel comfortable talking to it.  This leads me to wonder how the mediums we use to communicate affect what we communicate and how.  Do I write differently when typing versus using a pen?  I’ve heard English professors argue that yes, that is the case.  Do I speak differently to a friend on video chat versus in person or on the phone?  How do these changes in turn change US, our relationships, or grades, our effectiveness….

After reading a few articles about the future of journalism, I’m really wondering why the struggles of this industry have ignited such a drawn-out debate.  What incentive does one have to BUY their news when they can access it for free, in real-time, online?? START CHARGING ME! Yes, I will, as people have for years and years and forever in the past, pay for my news!  So will my friends and anyone else who cares about being an informed citizen.  The internet is the new news-stand–so charge me while I’m there.  Please.

This morning, I was driving through the town of Middlebury, and a guy in a passing car yelled at me to get off my phone…while I was stopped at a stop sign.  I mean, I could understand if he was frustrated at me for cutting him off while I was on my phone, but I didn’t, so why does he care?  Or, I would understand if we were in New York and I was engaging in illegal activity.  Also not the case.
How did cell phones get such a bad rep?  More likely than not, I am using my iPhone to speak to a friend from home or to my parents, and since when did keeping in touch become such a bad thing?  My phone has helped me find my way through cities with its maps application, find new music on Pandora and Shazam, keep up with breaking news from my TweetDeck, check my bank account balance, buy movie tickets, and find museum exhibits and new restaurants.  I have access to more news in the palm of my hand than most newsrooms did ten years ago.  My phone keeps me connected to and aware of the world outside Middlebury…thank God!  I’m not ashamed to admit that I am quite attached to my phone, and not because it is a piece of frivolous technology, but because I, unlike the angry Vermonter I encountered this morning, am connected to important people and information all day long.