"I just found out there's no such thing as the real world..."

“As I see it, technology has built the house in which we all live. The house is continually being extended and remodeled. More and more of human life takes place within its walls, so that today there is hardly any human activity that does not occur within this house. All are affected by the design of the house, by the division of its space, by the location of its doors and walls” (Franklin 1).

The second I sit in my chair ready to start my homework for the evening the first thing I do is open my laptop and check my facebook, my hotmail account, my Guelph-Humber e-mail, my blog, and my MSN—in that exact order. By the time that’s done, it’s been an hour our two and most of my night’s been wasted typing on Facebook walls and commenting on pictures. On the occasion, I will answer an e-mail or two and talk to a few close friends on MSN as well. And there goes more of my evening. By the time I finally start my homework I am obsessed with checking my Facebook and my MSN making sure I haven’t missed anything. You know, because there is no such thing as calling someone any more…well that’s another story. It’s not even as if I don’t get my homework done, because if anything, I am always on top of my busy schedule but the internet is just an added distraction that I’m sure I’d be fine without…well maybe not.

The Internet has consumed my life. There can’t be a moment where I am focused directly on an essay or a textbook unless I have shut my laptop down. It is almost like my home, or my dorm room, is not my home anymore. It is a four-walled composition with a laptop sitting on my desk, glowing. It’s like Safari, my Internet program, is yelling, “Click me!” Well, each time I turn on my laptop I am tricked. My home has been remodeled into a technology greenhouse. Without the touch of gentle fingers on my off-white keyboard, my laptop cannot heat up or serve any purpose. Is this even ordinarily human? I mean, back in the day when there was no such thing as a computer, never mind the Internet, what did people do? Bang rocks on the ground to make music? Grind corn for survival? It’s like we have everything given to us with a golden spoon.

As Ursula Franklin said, everyone is affected by the composition of the house because in every corner there is a form of technology present in its real form.

Franklin, Ursula M. The Real World of Technology. Rev. ed. Toronto, ON:
House of Anansi Press Ltd., 1999.