close reading of laptop

I use my laptop every day, multiple times. Normally the first thing I do in the morning is turn my laptop on and check my email, facebook, and read about the daily news. Throughout the rest of day I use my laptop for many things. First I use it for academics. During class I use my laptop to take notes and to look up assignments. I also check my grades online using my laptop and to actually do my assignments such as writing papers or reading articles. My laptop is used for almost all of my social functions as well. I create events and respond to invitations via Facebook and email, I email and message friends using my laptop, and I video chat on skype with my laptop. For materialistic things, I use my laptop. I online shop for clothes and order products off of websites; I look up ideas for Christmas presents for friends and family with my laptop. I browse various stores websites to find the best deals on clothing, electronics, etc before I actually do go shopping. Often I can find coupons online for stores I wish to use. Other miscellaneous things I use my laptop for are finding directions to places, using the iCalender to plan my week, and organizing pictures. The list of things I need my laptop for are endless. Laptops have also become an important statement of how trendy or sophisticated an individual is. Having the latest model or a laptop with the newest capabilities gives someone a sophisticated vibe. (I remember talking in class one day about how the MacBook Pro is this year's "it" object because of its sleek appearance and user ease). Laptops are pretty much essential for an average college student to function academically, socially, as a consumer, and for much more.

That being said, in the McLuhan reading, McLuhan states that technology and the media have created "a totally new environment." Laptops have definitely done this. They place nearly the entire world at the tip of our fingers. All we have to do is enter something into google and right then and there we can research the entire object, location, place. Also our laptops transport us outside of our daily lives. For example, while sitting in class I can be looking at pictures from my last vacation, thus turning reality upside down. Also in McLuhan's readings, he talks about an experiment done in Chicago where small changes were made to how workers accomplish a task. Each time a change was made, they became more productive because they were more motivated to work with a change in their conditions. This reminds me of doing classwork on my laptop. Sometimes I find taking notes in a notebook to be a lot less effective than typing on a laptop. Perhaps this is due to the fact that taking notes on a laptop seems different and better to me because of the "sophisticated" and "cool" stigmas associated with laptops.