Traditionality is Out the Door

Apparently there are people who research on how technology is accepted in society and who accepts them first. These researches categorize how people react to new technology by placing them into these groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and the laggards. The largest of all this group consist of 39% of the population have an age range of 18-24years of age. These people could be called the early adopters. In the chapter that we read, we also learn about how technology is accepted by people and then passed on to a chain of networks. First of all YouTube for example (although not so popular at first) sky rocketed as people learned about its feature. The first video of the zoo didn’t seem all the exciting but after SNL came up, more people wanted to benefit from being able to access videos that they’ve missed or enjoy watching several times. It’s good that our nation is staring to participate online and not afraid to jump into the unknown. But in the other hand, I also feel that the statistic of the percentage of visits to these websites seem to detract from one on one interactions. If everyone sits in front of the computer all the time what will happen to this world? Will the amount of e-waste just keep on increasing because of this trend??

Trash or Cash

Since I’ve lived in a third world country I experienced the firsthand impact of e-waste’s toxin. Back in Indonesia, my homeland, we had a big designated area in which we threw away all the trash. All the waste products that have been collected were then burned to the ground. The ashes were then buried in a big ditch. Furthermore, the lifeless wasteland looked even more depressing because of the fact that the toxins produced by the burning cycle made it impossible for plants to grow. There were no plants that lived around 4 meters radius of this area. Moreover, it is really frustrating to know that that the “developed” part of the world is making the “developing” countries deal with this mess. I think that the whole world should practice the EU way of solving the problem. The factories that make these products should be the ones to deal with how to dispose of it neatly (but I also think that the country who buys these products should also take part in the disposing). These big boss countries should have enough money to deal with these sorts of things and not pick on the smaller, less dominant countries just to save a few pennies.