Week of August 15th

 One Simple Question

What struck me the most about this video was the reactions the parents had to watch their children’s answers. It appeared that most of them didn’t know how much time their kids were spending with technology. I think that there should be a balance between the time spent outside and with technology. I think another interesting question to ask the adults would be what they do for fun now. I think most of their answers might include technology as well.

 In my childhood, I lived out in the middle of nowhere and my parents worked all day, so I didn’t get to go outside and play with friends during the summer like everybody else did. However, I didn’t spend all day on the computer as my little brother did. I read so many books and would beg my father when he got home from work to take me to go get more books. When I spent time with my cousins, we were told to go play whether it was outside on the ranch or in their playroom. My littlest cousins have been begging and begging for cell phones. What is interesting to me is that one of them her mom doesn’t even allow her to have a tablet or to use the computer for more than homework or to watch tv for longer than an hour. She just wants a cell phone because she sees that everybody else has one.

Family Dinner

            I will be the first to admit that when I eat by myself that I like to watch TV or videos. My mom has always had a strict rule that devices were not allowed at dinner time, and most of the time none of us wanted to bring devices. In high school, when devices became a big thing, my family was always so spread apart from work and school activities that every dinner we could have as a family where all five of us were there was a miracle, and we just wanted to spend that time catching up with each other.  I will say that the reaction to when the power gets shut off was amusing. Whenever we lose power or the Wi-Fi signal at our house my dad is the one that gets frustrated and pacy. While my mom and I just pick up a book and read.

Gene-Edited Baby

            I have very conflicting feelings about creating gene-edited embryos. On one hand, I can see the desire to get rid of certain diseases, but so much is unknown about if you change one gene what it might do to others. In the AP article, it said “people without normal CCR5 genes  face higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu.” The flu is more easily transmissible than HIV so the child with the successful gene-edit could end up dying from the simple flu. I also think that in the hands of the wrong people gene-editing could be used as another form of eugenics. I believe that in the end, the potential harm that it could cause outweighs the good.

HIV Vaccine

I think vaccines could be one of the most important inventions of our modern world. I am so excited every time a disease gets closer to being preventable. In fact, I read an article earlier last month that Moderna and Oxford University are starting trials for an mRNA vaccine for HIV.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-07-05-hiv-vaccine-trial-starts-oxford

25 Inventions of 2016

            There are so many interesting inventions on this list. Ranging from the unattainable for average people to inclusive barbie dolls. The invention I remember the most from 2016 is the inclusive barbie doll. I remember being at work shelving magazines when I saw Time magazine with a short and wide barbie on the front cover. I was blown away. I immediately took my break to read that article. I played with barbies almost daily when I was growing up and they still hold a special place in my heart, and seeing barbies that represented all sizes and shapes and were diverse means so much to me. After work that day I went out immediately to look at the stores and see if they were there.

Millennials and Technology

First off, THIS ARTICLE SAYS I’M A MILLENNIAL! My age group is so often right on the edge of the generations that which gen I am changes from source to source. I think an interesting point in this article is that more and more of the older generations are getting smartphones. I believe those rising numbers are because it is so hard to get any other type of phone. My grandpa refuses to get a smartphone, but it is so difficult for him to get a flip phone that works. He recently got a new non-smartphone and it does not work the way that his older phone did.