HW 7 - Interviews

I interviewed my mother briefly asking her how she feels about digital media and how does it make life easier for the deaf community, if it does. Just as i had assumed it did. She is always on her cellphone, which is a sidekick. She is on her aim practically all day, texts just as much as i do as a teenager. To have a modern television seems like a priority almost, because only certain ones provide certain features such as CC, closed captioning. For my mother being deaf, ive been around my share of deaf folks. So i know for a fact that every single one, when having a cellphone, will own a sidekick because of its features as well. It provides TTY-RELAY. Which is a texting operator based system that provides free phone calls to other people. ive used this feature over the phone trying to communicate with my mother plenty of times back in the 90's. A man has to come and install this in your home, its actually alot of work. so to see that system installed in a cellphone as small as a sidekeick, which is portable btw, is quite interesting. As you could imagine deaf people dont make phonecalls much so they text each other very often. Aim is basically the same thing. Just picture it as a phonebook instead of a buddy list. The internet is a huge thing too, because in order to own a VP, videophone, they have to have a web-modem installed. The VP is a phone that runs through your television that allows you to talk through the television by seeing each other. Deaf people have this and communicate with the VP through sign-language, obviously. I have these things in my home so im very familiar with them. If my mother could trade it all, id say definately not, it wouldnt even be an option probably. it has been embedded into her everyday life.

In Madison Square Park i interviewed several different groups of people asking them the same questions "how many hours a day are you on the computer, or your cellphone?" and "Do they and if they do have kids, how many hours a day do they allow them on the computer?" In the end i got all the same answers, but from different groups which was interesting. I asked an older gentlemen who was obviously a businessman, i asked a middle-aged woman with no kids, i asked two austrian women who were only here on vacation, and then three kids who were probably my age. the businessman was probably the most cooperative and least nervous, he said he only allowed his child on the computer for a 1/2 hour a day, thats it. The woman with no children was on her cellphone all day. The tourists said they wouldnt be able to picture themselves without theyre phones, but they also werent familiar with myspace and facebook, that or they just dont participate in those networking circles.

I asked my brother abt his take on digital media, he is only 2 years older then me so we're basically in the same generation. i asked him what he mostly does on the computer and he said mostly research up on upcoming new videogames because he likes to play games alot. He has an aim, and a myspace. His cellphone is always on and off (bills), and he loves videogames the most out of all digital electronic use. He says he isnt addicted but from an outsiders perspective, like my own, he is the perfect example of teenagers being swooped into this generation of technology. For amusement, not for purpose.