Technology & Culture

     Technology is everywhere and used for so many different purposes. Business, Education, Careers, Science, Community, Social Media, etc...
     For me personally, I have always used technology to connect me to the rest of the world. I was homeschooled growing up, so I wasn't always up to date with the trends or what movie everyone was into. Like most people, they would know this because they went to school with thousands of other children everyday and learning from others was commonplace.
     As a graphic design student, culture is key. Without knowing what's going on in culture, your work is irrelevant and useless. Graphic design is about getting a message across, afterall, and if your message is out of date, then no one will listen.
     So, I've taken advantage of the internet, phones, and computers since I was in middleschool. I kept up on forums, gaming sites, and blogs.

     I knew what music was popular and what actors everyone was in love with. When "memes" started to become popular,  I knew what the memes were actually referring to.

     Maybe I wasn't in a highschool with peers, but I sure knew what was going, and more. The internet began to develop it's own culture- a sort of "underground" scene. I had gone beyond staying in touch with my peers and their interests. I found out about different types of cultures through more personal formats, like Tumblr and reddit.

     Today, I still use technology to connect me to culture. Blogging is a huge part of the design community, as well as networks like Behance, Dribbble, Linkedin, Flickr, etc...
     I try my hardest to keep tabs on things going on at Youtube, Mashable, online magazines, and other news sources.
     Technology provides you with so many ways to connect with the world and people you would never see or places you would never otherwise experience. That's how it becomes a part of my daily life.

I wrote this article for an application to a scholarship sponsored by Direct2TV.com
Illustrations by me.