In my three interviews, I chose my parents and my wife (they covered all the age ranges). The first two, my mother and my wife, were uninteresting interviews and somewhat predictable in there outcome. I am not going to spend any time discussing them based on the fact that they did not have anything interesting to say about their internet usage that surprised me or inspired any thoughts related to our studies.
My father, on the other hand, who was at the top end of the age range, was somewhat of an anomaly. I found his responses interesting and it inspired thoughts and ideas taken from our studies. I say this because his responses to the various questions that I asked him about his internet usage and how it effects his life were different than I would have expected from someone his age. Most people his age that I have spoken with are retired and don’t use the internet for anything but recreation, shopping, and mildly communicative purposes. My father is about 64 years old. He did not grow up with the internet and he conducted a large part of his career without it. He has always worked in a corporate office setting and has done so for about forty years. He is currently employed and an executive level in his corporation and he and his company depends on the internet greatly to conduct business internationally.
During my interview, he described to me that a great deal of the technologies they use are internet based. He has a Blackberry phone which uses internet to send emails and other CMC. He also mentioned that all of the phones at the office are internet based as well. He conducts many conference calls online as well as other activities where he communicates with several people at once. He must do this as part of his job as an executive running an international corporation. Postman describes the management technique employed in today’s corporate world and he takes the model set out by Slyvanus Thayer:
Thayer rejected the traditional leaders role of direct, visible command. He ruled indirectly through the medium of written reports, charts, memos, personnel files, etc. not unlike the way a modern CEO functions (Postman pg. 140).In viewing this model and its components its easy to see on how technologies such as the Blackberry, computers, and the internet help promote this model. They seem to go hand in hand. I believe a great deal of the technologies used today were created with the managerial business model in mind. My father told me that these technologies makes his job easier (although he is now always at work and glued to the Blackberry) because he can deal with problems as they come up. The issues are instantly relayed to him through the “immediacy” of the medium of the internet. He described that before the internet and Blackberry, he had to deal with problems or issues as they “crossed his desk” which meant the problem was transferred and transcribed onto paper, sent through the channels, then arrived on his desk. So by the time he was made aware of any issues or things that needed attention, a great deal of time had already passed and the problem still existed to be dealt with. This was opposed to having instant notification via email, documents sent online, or by cell phone. He is now able to deal with it right then and there without any lag time. All of today’s technologies made this possible.
In Wood and Smith on page 161 they discuss the concept of the “panopticon” and “electronic panopticon” to help with corporate “discipline”. I would take this idea of the “panopticon” a step further and say that the corporate management structure as Postman describes demands this “electronic panopticon” to exist. It helps people at the top level of the management structure get feedback from employees more quickly and as my father described helps them deal with problems instantly as they arise. It improves efficiency. Of course it helps with employee discipline because the visibility is some much greater about what they are doing to promote business. As a society I don’t see the managerial model going anywhere and the companies that invent tools such as the Blackberry are banking on that. I discussed with my father various concepts brought up by Postman on how technology controls us and about “information overload”. My father was firm in his belief that we still have much control over these technologies and they have made a good impact on his life.
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February 26, 2009 at 8:14 pm
brittany
I find your interview with your father to be similar to the interview I had with my dad. The main difference was that your dad is in the older generation and my dad is in the middle generation. It sounds like both of our parents use the internet extensively to communicate with co-workers, employees and employers. Notably, the fact that your dad is still actively working on a daily basis and being above the retirement age is impressive. For my older generation I interviewed my grandmother, age 70, who admitted to using the internet for email as well. Yet, she finds the computer to be too complicating and frustrating to use. Thereby, discovering your father avidly uses his blackberry and computer when they are so close in age was intriguing. Wood and Smith claim, “The diffusion of innovations is a process of communication” (156). Such innovations like technology and the internet have allowed people to communicate at a much faster rate. People like your father are now able to as he said; address information when it arises rather than when it appears in note form on his desk. Completing this assignment and uncovering how technology and the changes within learning environments and the business world has changed over time has made me eager to discover what advances are yet to come.
February 27, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Stacey Nichols
Justin,
My dad is also at an executive position at a big time corporation and he tells me all the time how much they use technology in their work environment. As you said about your father, my dad is always using technology for the conference call. Just recently he got a Bluetooth set up in his car and can talk through the speakers, and there will be times I am in the car with him and he is on a conference call with 4 or 5 different people from work. Talk about multi-tasking!