CPE Rough Draft

Hello All:

My Critical Photo Essay will be entirely video based, in the form of interviews.  Although I am not filming until Thursday (Nov. 18th), I have included my list of questions that I will be asking each interviewee.  My project will explore the perspectives of the older generation (65+) regarding technology, and whether or not it helps our hinders our progress as a society.  So far, I have 5 subjects to interview, but I suspect that I may not use all of the footage I shoot because for a 10 minute video, it only gives each person ~20 seconds to answer per question.  My intention is to interview each person alone, so that 'group think' is less likely to occur.

To My Group Members:
If there are parts of my rough draft that are confusing, or you can think of another question that I should be asking, I'm all ears.

Interviewees (All over the age of 65):

Dorwin Schreuder: Career - Retired FBI

Patricia Schreuder: Career - Retired Dental Assistant

Joe Mahurin: Career - Retired Crane Services/Excavation

Lyle Beaker: Career - Retired Civil Engineer

Peggy Beaker: Career - Retired Chief Accountant

Overarching Question: Has our overall dependence on technology helped or hindered our industrial and personal progress as a society? 

Question Concerning the Individual vs. Networking

When we look back at our major accomplishments before the internet came along, we see the emergence of strong individual people like the Wright Brothers (airplane), Henry Ford (automobile), and John Holland (submarine) making huge strides toward revolutionizing America.  Although these individuals may have had teams of people working beneath them to help bring their industrial visions to fruition, they are essentially credited with both the innovation and culmination of their own original ideas—and rightly so.  These days, there seems to be fewer individuals making solitary efforts to revolutionize America.  Instead, we live in a generation of constant networking, which results in a higher number of collaborations for new ideas.  Do you think that this new era of collaboration diminishes the quality of individual innovation?        

Question Concerning Relationships

Within this new era of constant networking, face-to-face interaction is becoming a burden for the younger generation.  Instead, the preference is communicating through writing, generally in the form of a text message, a Facebook status, or an email.  Eye contact is quickly becoming etiquette of the past, and cell phone screens are becoming the new face-to-face interaction.  Although this is often perceived as rude, the argument can be made that kids are writing now more than they ever have in the past.  Do you think that human relationships will become less personal/intimate in the future due to dwindling face-to-face interactions?  Is this a fair trade if kids are becoming more fluent writers, and more articulate when it comes to self-expression?  (Pros/cons type question)  Do you consider texting to be writing?  If not, how would you classify texting?

Question Concerning Memory

Do you feel that your education was more beneficial than the current generation since you were required to memorize information, instead having every answer available to you at the push of a button?  Do you think the new generation’s memory recall abilities will be less sufficient than previous generations due to our dependence on technology?