College Then and Now
The person I chose to interview for this paper was my mom, Fran O’Leary. She was the only one in my family that had graduated from college besides my 22 year old brother Ryan who graduated last year from UW Madison. My mom graduated from UW-Whitewater with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Any way things have changed dramatically since my mom has last been in a college classroom. Not only have things changed from college itself, but the culture and society around her as well. President John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” This quote is very true today society as a whole is always changing and is sometimes difficult to keep up with.
Things are very different in society today then how they were 30 years ago. The internet has become a universal tool for almost anyone to have access to. The internet has made things such as doing a research paper a lot less time consuming because all the information is literally at one’s fingertips. When I asked my mom about how she had to do research for homework or a paper she said she had to check out a book from the campus library and bring it back home. She drove to school every day since it was cheaper than living in the housing they had on campus. My mom said it took hours to do research for papers and it was always a hassle to check out books at the school library. Now I can simply type in a word or phrase on Google and thousands of articles or websites pop up that have something to do with the specific word or phrase I searched for. A six to seven page paper would take weeks my mom said with all of the research from books, magazines, and articles. Let’s face it, now there probably aren’t that many college students out there taking two or three weeks to complete a seven page research paper. I usually take two just to make sure I did everything correctly and have it reviewed by a peer. However, it is probably true with the majority of students that will only take a week to do a research paper. Technology has obviously changed from the time that my mom attended UW Whitewater to now where everyone has access to a computer or lab-top.
Another thing that has changed since my mom went to school is the way assignments are turned in and how they are assigned. D2L and websites like it did not exist 30 years ago when my mom went to school. Everything had to be turned in on a hard copy. My mom said that she always had a planner with her so she could write down due dates for papers and write out her schedule for the week. Now, I don’t use a planner. I somehow manage to keep all the meetings that I have for that specific week in my head like when they are. However, for due dates on papers and assignments, I am not as good on for remembering. For those I rely heavily on the calendar provided on D2L and the syllabus. Whenever my mom wants to see when an assignment of mine is due she is surprised and happy to see that it is either on D2L or the syllabus where I can see it easily and get it done in a timely manner. Things like the internet and D2L are taken for granted by my generation. These advancements in technology have made our lives as college students much easier compared to college 30 years ago.
The next thing that has changed since my mom went to college is the newspapers. Newspapers now are all available online, but 30 years ago this was how people got their news. Both my mom and her parents read the newspaper and my mom still does read the newspaper both as a hard copy and online. My mom is currently editor of the state farm magazine Wisconsin Agriculturist a job she has held since 2003. Before that, she worked for 16 years as a reporter and later managing editor at The Reporter daily newspaper in Fond du Lac. Newspapers everywhere were all print and hard copy. They employed thousands of workers even 10 years ago. Today everything is online from Time magazine to The Reporter. As a result a lot of people that worked for the newspaper were laid off.
The big news events that happened when my mom was growing up were in 1977-1978, Jimmy Carter was president of the United States, the Susan B. Anthony dollar which was a coin the size of a quarter was first minted. The introduction of bottled water was a big story as very few thought there was much chance of people buying in large quantities. David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) admitted he was guilty in 6 Son of Sam killings in court in New York City and Elvis Presley died at Graceland. The big news items that have happened since I have been growing up have been 9/11, the Iraq War, and the financial crisis that we are still in today.
All in all, many things have changed in society in just one generation. Whether it is on a technological level, or cultural level we have been able to adapt to it. There has been a great deal of change in the years that my mom has grown up in technologically. So we have only to expect that there will be even more advancement and greater change in my lifetime with pop culture as a whole. What will matter is can we adapt to those changes as quickly or as well?
The person I chose to interview for this paper was my mom, Fran O’Leary. She was the only one in my family that had graduated from college besides my 22 year old brother Ryan who graduated last year from UW Madison. My mom graduated from UW-Whitewater with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Any way things have changed dramatically since my mom has last been in a college classroom. Not only have things changed from college itself, but the culture and society around her as well. President John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” This quote is very true today society as a whole is always changing and is sometimes difficult to keep up with.
Things are very different in society today then how they were 30 years ago. The internet has become a universal tool for almost anyone to have access to. The internet has made things such as doing a research paper a lot less time consuming because all the information is literally at one’s fingertips. When I asked my mom about how she had to do research for homework or a paper she said she had to check out a book from the campus library and bring it back home. She drove to school every day since it was cheaper than living in the housing they had on campus. My mom said it took hours to do research for papers and it was always a hassle to check out books at the school library. Now I can simply type in a word or phrase on Google and thousands of articles or websites pop up that have something to do with the specific word or phrase I searched for. A six to seven page paper would take weeks my mom said with all of the research from books, magazines, and articles. Let’s face it, now there probably aren’t that many college students out there taking two or three weeks to complete a seven page research paper. I usually take two just to make sure I did everything correctly and have it reviewed by a peer. However, it is probably true with the majority of students that will only take a week to do a research paper. Technology has obviously changed from the time that my mom attended UW Whitewater to now where everyone has access to a computer or lab-top.
Another thing that has changed since my mom went to school is the way assignments are turned in and how they are assigned. D2L and websites like it did not exist 30 years ago when my mom went to school. Everything had to be turned in on a hard copy. My mom said that she always had a planner with her so she could write down due dates for papers and write out her schedule for the week. Now, I don’t use a planner. I somehow manage to keep all the meetings that I have for that specific week in my head like when they are. However, for due dates on papers and assignments, I am not as good on for remembering. For those I rely heavily on the calendar provided on D2L and the syllabus. Whenever my mom wants to see when an assignment of mine is due she is surprised and happy to see that it is either on D2L or the syllabus where I can see it easily and get it done in a timely manner. Things like the internet and D2L are taken for granted by my generation. These advancements in technology have made our lives as college students much easier compared to college 30 years ago.
The next thing that has changed since my mom went to college is the newspapers. Newspapers now are all available online, but 30 years ago this was how people got their news. Both my mom and her parents read the newspaper and my mom still does read the newspaper both as a hard copy and online. My mom is currently editor of the state farm magazine Wisconsin Agriculturist a job she has held since 2003. Before that, she worked for 16 years as a reporter and later managing editor at The Reporter daily newspaper in Fond du Lac. Newspapers everywhere were all print and hard copy. They employed thousands of workers even 10 years ago. Today everything is online from Time magazine to The Reporter. As a result a lot of people that worked for the newspaper were laid off.
The big news events that happened when my mom was growing up were in 1977-1978, Jimmy Carter was president of the United States, the Susan B. Anthony dollar which was a coin the size of a quarter was first minted. The introduction of bottled water was a big story as very few thought there was much chance of people buying in large quantities. David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) admitted he was guilty in 6 Son of Sam killings in court in New York City and Elvis Presley died at Graceland. The big news items that have happened since I have been growing up have been 9/11, the Iraq War, and the financial crisis that we are still in today.
All in all, many things have changed in society in just one generation. Whether it is on a technological level, or cultural level we have been able to adapt to it. There has been a great deal of change in the years that my mom has grown up in technologically. So we have only to expect that there will be even more advancement and greater change in my lifetime with pop culture as a whole. What will matter is can we adapt to those changes as quickly or as well?