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February 20, 2006 Vol. 77,
no. 6S
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| DRAWN
OUT:
EECS freshman Jennifer Wang poses with her class assignment, illustrations
of time, love, and money in various contexts. “I think
the seminar is very interesting,” she says. “I
like that it’s a philosophic discussion about three valuable
concepts we all take for granted.” (Rachel Shafer photo)
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Time, money,
and love in the age of technology
New freshman seminar plumbs the philosophical depths of digital living
“If I get up at five, I’m a little ahead of everybody,
and it gives me a sense of well-being. Is that the same for you?” asks
the E 24 instructor at the start of class. “If you’re always
early, it creates a feeling of being ahead of things.” He gets
up, opens the door for a latecomer, and returns to the circle of desks.
Though most students here can’t relate to waking up at 5 a.m.,
time (or lack thereof) remains the topic du jour for the rest of the
discussion. Appropriately so. This is “Time, Money, and Love
in the Age of Technology,” a new freshman seminar led by Engineering
Interdisciplinary Studies lecturer Americ Azevedo.
“How come we don’t have more time if processing power
doubles every 18 to 24 months?” Azevedo asks the class.
“We can do more stuff now,” replies a student. “We
can play games for hours and hours.” “Expectations keep rising for doing more,” adds a student
named Sophie.
“Technology extends our time,” observes another student
named Nicole. “We can work on the Internet all night. We don’t
need light because the computer has its own light.”
Soon the discussion veers towards the differences between working
habits in Europe and America, the elite status assigned to a full
calendar,
and the phenomenon of multitasking.
“Computing is a technology which has changed our social world,” Azevedo
explains after class. “For example, we date online now because
we don’t have time otherwise. At the beginning of the semester,
I asked students about their instant messaging (IM) conversations.
One student said he has held six IM sessions at once. I’m asking
students to think deeply about technology in their lives and to challenge
certain things about the blind use of technology.”
Azevedo, who worked in the computing industry before coming to Berkeley,
got the idea for this seminar during another class he teaches, IDS
110, Introduction to Computers. Students kept wondering about computing
and its impact on time and human behavior, he says. So Azevedo approached
the College with an idea for a discussion-based seminar to explore
the topic. Last fall, he offered it for the first time to a full roster
and great response.
Back in the classroom, time was running out, but not before one
student had articulated a strange trend: “When I’m busier, I want
to do more,” she observed, blithely. Heads nodded all around.
A portion of the official course description reads: “Many
people in technological societies complain of ‘time poverty.’ What
are the real relationships between time, money, and love in our lives?
Is there a balance to be found? Does technology make us happy?” For
more information, go to http://courseweb.berkeley.edu/courseweb/pub/courses/2006/SP/ENGIN/24/001.
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