The technology that has made your life better...

[Team Jetfire]

Seeing as we are all somewhat tech savvy (Ok, we can use a computer...) I'm wondering what item of technology that has changed your life for the better and one piece that has changed your life for the worse.

Also, just wondering if you feel that Technology has made you life, in general, better or worse...

[Mumps]

Smart phones would be my perfect example of both better and worse.

One one hand, these devices make things SO much easier! For instance, I was walking down the street sometime in the late summer and this old lady needed help getting somewhere. Well, I had NO idea where this was, however I had a smart phone, and Google knew where it was! Being able to look up information on the go, at any time you want is just fantastic.

On the other hand, these devices make our lives much worse. They have become a crutch. Who needs basic math when you have a calculator in your pocket? And a dictionary, and encyclopedia, and everything. How did we LIVE before these devices? Oh yeah.. we looked forward when we walked, instead of walking into everybody while texting (I never do this BTW!). Not to mention driving and calling/texting. Almost got hit at a crosswalk the other day by a texting driver.

[Sokar]

netbooks have made academic classes much much easier for me. I don't have much to worry about ever having to dig through tons and tons of papers to find my notes, and I can always search/combine my notes to make things easier to study. Plus, I broke my middle finger on my writing hand a few years ago, and because of the placement of the break, it makes it difficult to write for extended periods of time every day, so it's a lot nicer to be able to just type.

One other great thing is that my parents got a netbook and aren't afraid of it, so it's sort of got them introduced into actually using a computer without having to call me every 5 minutes because they were afraid they broke it.

[Incepticon]

My answer for this question is always the same: the internet. For better and worse. One of the biggest upsides to it beyond the obvious things like ease of communication, low & no cost presence & promotion, making jobs easier, etc. is that its mere existence has given a lot of us careers that either would not exist otherwise or would remain virtually impossible to do and expand upon. But as with anything, all those reasons are also some of the biggest downsides to it. Thanks to the internet, every nobody can now be a somebody.

On a more specific level, some technology that has definitely made my life better would be design and music software & hardware, digital media ala music, movies, etc., and the iPhone. Not smart phones in general - THE iPhone And the technology that I think has made the entire world worse are "social" sites like MySpace & Facebook... which all ties into what I consider to be the bad side of the internet.

[Deemar]

Better - Google
Worse - short texting. I just don't reply to people that do this.

[Aernaroth]

Easy access to as much clean water and electricity as I want has made my life pretty good.

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Originally Posted by Incepticon

My answer for this question is always the same: the internet. For better and worse. One of the biggest upsides to it beyond the obvious things like ease of communication, low & no cost presence & promotion, making jobs easier, etc. is that its mere existence has given a lot of us careers that either would not exist otherwise or would remain virtually impossible to do and expand upon. But as with anything, all those reasons are also some of the biggest downsides to it. Thanks to the internet, every nobody can now be a somebody.

This.

Then... The ease of access it's made to information. I had a chance to experience school before the internet and after, and doing things like research and orgainizing team projects, is a gazillion times easier.

[pud333]

Better: The Internet. High speed porn changes a dude's life.

Worse: The Internet. People now walk around saying, "WTF" instead of "What the fuck?"

[Nocturn]

Cell phones - girls always within arms reach

[ConvoyGTR]

Originally Posted by Incepticon

My answer for this question is always the same: the internet. For better and worse. One of the biggest upsides to it beyond the obvious things like ease of communication, low & no cost presence & promotion, making jobs easier, etc. is that its mere existence has given a lot of us careers that either would not exist otherwise or would remain virtually impossible to do and expand upon. But as with anything, all those reasons are also some of the biggest downsides to it. Thanks to the internet, every nobody can now be a somebody.

On a more specific level, some technology that has definitely made my life better would be design and music software & hardware, digital media ala music, movies, etc., and the iPhone. Not smart phones in general - THE iPhone And the technology that I think has made the entire world worse are "social" sites like MySpace & Facebook... which all ties into what I consider to be the bad side of the internet.

Same. Ah the internetz, what a double edge sword you are.....