The Use of Technology in Other Countries

Because I grew up in a middle class family from a different country, the Philippines, we did not use any of this luxurious equipment. To begin with, these gadgets were very expensive and only the upper class families were able to afford them. Furthermore, these electronics are considered wants and not considered necessities. Lastly, some of this equipment is restricted in certain places like in schools calculators are prohibited. I believe that there are benefits from limiting ourselves from using these things. The school system in the Philippines and other countries in Asia constrain the use of calculators in school so, we are required to solve equations and do arithmetic by hand. In my opinion, we would benefit from this when we go into the real world because we can figure out how much consumer products will cost, or how much change we should be receiving without having a calculator with us all the time. According to an article, Wayne King states, "Computers in the classrooms are no longer considered a luxury in educating students. They are necessities" (Technology in Education School Needs: Basic? or Mega-Giga-Cool?) This illustrates that computers and gadgets were luxurious items at one point and were not needed to write paper essays, to compute arithmetic functions, or to project subject matter materials to show to the class. As digital technologies keep improving they are being more dependent and more influenced towards the school system. Computers and internet are very expensive in the Philippines, so we rarely use them to write our essays. Therefore, we write mostly with pen and paper and if our teacher can not read our handwriting we receive a zero so we made sure handwriting is legible. This is one reason why my peers say I have a girly handwriting because I was forced to write neatly when I was young. In addition, I notice in the American culture, people are usually in the computer all the time surfing the internet, playing games, or shopping online just as the statistic diagram below stated (Time Spent Social Networking Up To 82%). The table represents the average time a person would spent on the internet, the United States is ranked second highest in this study. This just shows how much time Americans spend on the internet, an average of 6 hours per day! I think this would make them lazy which leads to lack of exercise which is detrimental to their health in the long run. In the Philippines, everyone is constantly moving around, people walking to houses to send a message, children going out to play with one another, or going to the mall to shop because we do not have the luxurious entertainment system such as computers and internet so we look for other sources for entertainment outside our houses. Moreover, getting around from one place to another, we do not use any navigation device to direct us rather we use our sense of direction to get around places. By doing this, I get to explore and know my surrounding environment; overtime this would enable me to read and analyze a map, have a feel of where places are, and know how to approximate the time by knowing the direction of north, east, west, and south and by looking at the position of the sun. I think this benefits me in a way that I can still get around places without the use of a navigation device. Thus, all these reasons show that we really do not need fancy technology in our lives to live and we would still benefit from it.

 "Time Spent Social Networking Up To 82%." Digital Media. N.p., 2011. Web. 17
     Nov. 2011. <http://www.digital-media.net.au/article/
     time-spent-social-networking-up-82/509915.aspx>.

King, Wayne. "TECHNOLOGY IN Education School Needs: Basic? Or Mega-Giga-Cool?" The Christian Science Monitor: 11. National Newspapers Core. Oct 27 1998. Web. 10 Nov. 2011