X Seconds Till Ipmact

    Remember when hand written thank you notes were received, eye contact was maintained, and the good places to grab a cup of joe as well as where the best eats were heard of through the newspaper or by voice? Technology has impacted society greatly. Thank you notes and acknowledgements are expressed through email, twitter, facebook, and even instagram.
Today you hear all types of great places to try like coffee, Italian, Asian, Mexican, study spots, just about anything with the aid of technology. Places are reviewed and shared through yelp, google, (thought I hate to admit it, due to my hatred) bing, and many more.

    Just last week I was looking for a close coffee shop with a study environment and coffee, hopefully ranging from decent to outstanding. How did I go about doing this? I simply opened my Yelp app, and typed in coffee. My phone then aided me into it's warm atmosphere. Symposium Coffee has now been made into my second home, I'm even writing this post from it. I have incorporated it into my weekly schedule as well as my budget. I now plan on eating, having coffee, and doing homework here a minimum of twice a week, usually three times if possible.

    As I've sat here for several hours, completing homework, multiple people, including myself, have pulled out laptops and completed work. Not so far away, lies their phone face-down, if they do not wish to be disturbed and distracted from the task at hand, or face-up if they aren't doing too serious work. Not so long ago that would not have been possible. Now navigation, printing, books, and much more are accessible through a number of resources. Many of these include internet available on tablets, laptops, phones, and even cars.

The First Computer

    Work used to be done at work, with dinosaur computers and monitors, and nearby lied a corded work phone with no Bluetooth headset insight. Not so long before that computers used to take up a whole room with cords spread all over the place. Before that was type-writers and it's parent, the manual version. The manual version aided by machine consisted of stamps for each individual letter that was then used on paper. Well before everything was a quill ad parchment later replaced by a pen or pencil and paper.

    Ever wonder what this is doing to society? Ever think about how the social norms have changed? From my experience I have noticed a  large difference in eye contact. This may be because I took ASL, and now I get adequately irritated when someone is looking at their phone and not at me. However, I can't help but assume that if technology was not so advanced eye contact would be much more valued and popular among my generation. Personally I view eye contact (for the most part, take a look at the picture) as an act of respect towards anyone you're talking to, or listening to.

Comments welcome. Disagree? Tell me why. Have any stories? Don't hesitate to share them.  Do the same things(or others) bother you too?