Winners and losers of
technology: Making the Distinction
With each
technological advancement made, we all become a little bit smarter. It’s a must
for anyone growing up in the 21st century. While you have those to
soak up every new thing under the sun, you also have those that turn a deaf ear
to any mention of something doing more than calling and showing what’s on the
news at 5:00. This would be the difference between a winner and a loser. One is
easily receptacle because it is right to know all techno lingo, while to the
other, computers and cell phones are overcoming the world. Its is all a matter
of their viewpoint and how much they know that decide into which category they
should go.
When making
the classification between the winners and the losers, it is very important to
pay attention to the characteristics. First and foremost, the winners are
typically the people born into or after the rise of the technological age.
These people can be noted as people who learned to use emails a few years after
learning how to formulate sentences. For these people, technology is second
hand knowledge; for these people, they hold the title of digital natives. As
said by Marc Prensky (2001), digital natives are “native speakers” of the
digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (p. 1). This
relates the people winning the technological race because it is second nature.
They do not have to think about it, it comes naturally.
Another view
of winners could be the literal sense of actually winning and that is prominent
in business. Companies compete constantly in order to stay relevant and make
their number. Noted by Hess, Calio, and Frohlich (2014), businesses such as
Samsung, Apple, and Microsoft are retail champions, as they find themselves
locked at the top of the technology division (p. 1). These are the companies
that expand their areas of concentration and dominate many different markets at
once. Each of the top three companies listed above all service more than two
fields outside their known niche.
Looking at
the other side of the spectrum, we focus on losers. Because technology is constantly
advancing, they would be classified as those who cant keep up with the
advancements, those born before the peak, and those who are not able to keep up
in terms of competition. From the readings, Prensky would label those after the
advancements digital immigrants. Prensky (20012) defined them as:
Those of us
who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our
lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new
technology… (p. 1)
This definition is palpable
for the fact that it can relate to your older family member. Fro example, a
grandmother is not going to be a go-to computer girl like her granddaughter,
but she will understand that her granddaughter does have access to many things
on the computer. There will be a divide in terms of what they both know as
normal.
Aside
from the label of being a digital immigrant, one could also be unaware of the
world of technology due to more serious circumstances. Pew Research Center
(2012) shows that there is a noticeable difference of the usage of internet
between those educated past high school and those not (p. 5). It gives a
glimpse into the struggle of actually staying adept in the digital sector of
the world when your situation places a limit on you.
Lastly, we can look at those “losers” of the
technological race in terms of profit. The same way there are thriving businesses;
there are also those that struggle to keep their name afloat. Companies such as
Blackberry, Dell, and even HTC are examples. Pointed out by Sean Gallagher (2013),
“The company has had to work to shake off the stink
of bad computers past…And Dell's failure in the smartphone business has only
hastened its decline in the mobile market against Android and Apple devices”
(p.1). The electronically competition is very high and for those who cant seem
to meet the advancements seem to fall behind.
In
conclusion, pointing out the winners and the losers of technology can be said
to be biased. While there is research to back up most points, labeling someone
a loser is pretty much up to the person doing the labeling. While they can hold
the title of being a loser, it is also possible for the winner to become a loser
as advances continue to be made. Within the year of 2040, the advances of today
will be child’s play compared to what will come. Aside from the business aspect
where the numbers speak for themselves, the winners and losers are all based on
paradigms.