Assignment 3

Common Themes

After taking a brief blast to the past and visiting the websites of students from 2004 using the Wayback Machine, I was intrigued to see what students in a time where technology was becoming more and more prevalent, regarded as the motivations for taking this course. Like some students today, Sarah Davis and Shreyas Kumar wanted to take this course to learn more about using media to improve education, using computers to augment the learning experience. Matt Fisher, like myself, wanted to take this course because it seems different than other courses offered in the department. Overall, students from 2004 had similar motivations for taking this course as students today. Whether it be to learn how technology has impacted our society, how to use it to benefit the future, or to take a class that seems different than others.

Common Media

In terms of media, students from 2004 consume media a little bit differently than we do nowadays. Though students back then consumed email, just like we do, social media is practically non-existent in any of the students’ lists. This is definitely due to the lack of platforms during that time. Twitter hadn’t been invented for another two years. Most students used MSN or AIM, some form of messenger, which is a different medium, but same concept as students today who use Skype, GroupMe, Slack, Discord, iMessage, etc… A true feeling of nostalgia came to me when I saw what TV shows and video games these students liked. Shows like Futurama, The Simpsons, Home Improvement, and Friends were on a few different lists. Also, for some reason, everyone liked to play Solitaire back then. The game itself was invented in the 18th century, and it had already been featured on computers for about 10 years, so I couldn’t figure out why it was such a prevalent medium for a lot of students. While some students played console games on PS2 and Xbox, others just played Yahoo games and other basic online games. Unlike most students today, students in 2004 consumed the news on a weekly basis, reading newspapers, watching the local news, and the occasional website. All in all, media weekly-consumed was the biggest difference in 15 years.

Reasoning for Similarities/Differences

Overall, I think the biggest difference in the media used 15 years ago and now goes back to just how fast technology is innovated nowadays. Back then, students were learning about the direction in which technology was heading. Nowadays, us students are seeing it. Games are much easier to build and game engines and powerful hardware allow for much more complex worlds to be created, which is why we don’t play games like Solitaire anymore. Students these days don’t usually list News as media used commonly because they consume it in non-traditional forms, through social media, public forums, and YouTube videos. Developers have the power to create flexible technology to fit many different needs and features, which is why we have so much variety in the mediums in which we communicate, learn, etc… All in all, technology has just come such a long way in 15 years that we aren’t restricted to using the same 5-10 things every week, even if some mediums are more common and popular than others.