Proud to Be a Member of the Lazy Generation

According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an average child age 8 to 18 spends more than 7 hours a day engaged in some form of media. Even scarier is that only 3 out of 10 children studied had parents that set limits on this activity. That means that almost one third of each day of their childhood will be spent wasting time in this manner, and their parents aren't doing a thing about it. That time could be spent exercising, working, or doing the homework kids claim takes so much time. All I have to say to these kids is, "Put your phone away, get off your butt, stop playing WOW, and go do something worthwhile with your life. I'll think of you the next time I'm feeling lazy."

http://www.sltrib.com/popculturetech/ci_14255768

cs404

Women in Math and Science

I must be a special case when it comes to dealing with bias in academics. My mother has a masters degree in mathematics and as a result I really don't have a stigma against women being in math and science. Further, the majority of my math and science teachers have been women so I haven't seen the mentality that women don't belong in these fields. I completely support the idea that women should be able to choose any career. If there are biases and stigmas, I think they should be dealt with as long as that effort doesn't go to the extremes- extremes similar to Title IX and affirmative action, that, though intended well, have been implemented in a way that allows reverse discrimination.
cs404

Slave to Technology

http://www.sltrib.com/technology/ci_14193158

Thanks to Microsoft, Americans can now be even lazier. There was a day and age when you actually had to stand up and walk over to the TV and change the channel, then came the TV remote. But who wants to carry around a big old clunky remote that always gets lost in the couch when you can have a TV that will recognize your hand gestures? The technology seems very intriguing, but is it really necessary? If we continue to make technology that makes life so easy that we become dependent on it, one day we won't be able to do anything without the help of a computer or whatever new thing comes around. That's not a place I or anyone should want to end up.

Life is full of decisions, and with every decision there is a consequence. Whether that consequence is desired or not, it is unavoidably attached to that choice. The problem with today's technologies is that those consequences are much less apparent. Being so connected to the world and being able to do everything so quickly can leave us with exaggerated consequences, with even less time to think about them. For instance, it used to be that a spiteful comment ,in most cases, would die out after reaching the person towards whom it was directed. Today, if you leave a comment on someone's wall on Facebook, it is available to the world, and if you send someone a text you didn't mean, there is no way to get that information back. We have all heard the various stories of sexting that evidence this same problem.

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