Technology Could be Green **Entry #1

Many of the really simple technology presentations that have been going on in our class over the past few days have been online resources that offer a printable version, and this has got me thinking about the environmental impacts of technology.

Although I haven't always cared about the environment, I have changed my perspective on this issue in the last few years, and now I am quite concerned about environmental issues. My use of technology ultimately is connected to my views about the environment.

For me, technology has always been a way for individuals to create and share without causing excessive waste, but I feel like this isn't actually where technology is going.

Technology is incredibly wasteful! Think about how many working cell phones you have thrown away. At least four?

These are pieces of electronic waste that will likely pile up for decades before anything is done with them. If anything is done with them.

Think of all the online resources that we have access to that we simply print out. That's a waste of paper, if I ever saw one. Many university profs offer their course texts as electronic sources; however, many students pay the 20 cents/page to print it out anyways.

Technology could be green. Well, it could at least be greener.

Part of the problem is access to resources: not everyone can afford to have a computer but, if every student had their own, it would significantly reduce schools' paper waste.

The other part of the problem is that the technology market that is constantly striving to produce the latest and greatest technological gizmo to make all the old ones obsolete. If we could get rid of the perceived need to constantly upgrade, we wouldn't be throwing away electronic devices that are still useful.

I've just been thinking about how technology and electronics could have a better relationship with one another.

Hello, and welcome!

I've decided to start this blog off with a welcome and a little discussion about how much I have come to rely on my technology.
Welcome!
Over the past week I have been waking up at 5 o'clock each day in order to get working on assignments (I have a multi-page paper due next week and it has been giving me anxiety). My morning routine is as follows:
5:00 am - wake up to the sound of my cell phone alarm
5:01 am - turn on the coffee maker
5:05 am - start reading from my laptop OR writing on my laptop
5:05 - 7:25 am - continue reading/writing (until I have to leave for school)
I have never considered myself to be technologically savvy or my life to be inundated with electronics, but it's clear from my morning routine that my life is significantly shaped by my use of technology. Each step requires some form of technology! What would I do if I didn't have the cell phone alarm? Or the coffee maker? Or the laptop?
Just a thought to start us out here: Do we use technology, or are our lives run by technology? It's a McLuhan kind of question, but it's worthwhile for us all to ponder.