How to Beat the Computers

I can still remember the day I opened the package to my Madden NFL 2001 game and I was so excited that I played the game for hours. As I started off I decided to play the game on the All-Madden level just to see how hard it would be. I quickly found out that I was no match for the computer and would have to work my way up the levels in order to become good enough to make a run at winning on the infamous All-Madden level.

Computers now run the world with iPods, iPads, Kindles and tons of other technology advances ruling today’s society. While it is definitely a good thing that we have all of this technology, the way we use this technology has become a detriment to not only us, but more importantly future generations that are coming along.

I first acknowledged this problem as I was simply sitting in the Student Computing Center (SCC) working on a paper. Whether I was easily irritable because it was late and I was on a time crunch to get my paper done or because my sister was sitting right next to me, I was immediately frustrated and upset when people used vulgar language for no reason at all. It was at this point I decided to start listening to others conversations, whether it was in class, at the rec or standing in line somewhere on campus, to see just how many “intelligent” conversations people have on a regular basis. I understand that I was on a college campus, but I was hard pressed to find one decent and professional conversation.

Conversations are one of the easiest and fastest ways (whether right or not) that we judge how intelligent people are in today’s society (i.e. interviews for jobs). If we can’t even talk decently on a campus of an institution of higher learning, where else are we supposed to learn how to be intelligent human beings?

How does this relate to technology?

If I were to ask you when the last time you picked up a newspaper was, what would you say? Oh yes, I’m not forgetting about the online articles. What if I were to ask the last time you actually read a NEWS article? I’d have to say those who have not would be closer to 0 than to 100 percent. Instead, we spend our time on Facebook, we spend time tweeting or pinning things on Pinterest, we spend time judging the latest fashion or on Instagram or designing pointless memes! I’m not saying that all of these things are bad, because I know these things are necessary from time to time during a study break or so, but I’m saying that these technology mediums run our lives instead of enhancing them.

Instead of using intelligent words like discompose and dishevel we use words like f***.We no longer think for ourselves. In one of my classes a student told a story of how elementary kids in a class did not even know how to long divide or multiply high numbers because they were using calculators.

What has technology come to, when we would rather go in through handicap exit doors than open a door with a simple handle? When instead of having good and well thought out debates we look on Google for answers to moral questions?

For fear of “offending” someone, I’m not going to tell you how to live your life. I just want more for us as a country.

I played Madden 2001 over and over again trying to figure out ways to beat the computer, but as I got older I discovered that there was a system you could use, a combination of a set of plays (3-5) in which you could use those set plays the whole game in order to beat the computer. At that point, I was no longer learning more about the game or how to play against other users. I was simply going through the motions in order to “get by” and beat the computer. America has been only getting by for too long! It’s time to move on and learn how to play the game against other users like China instead of beating the computer, or our own system, on our daily routine.