About Me
My name is Julie Lavalliere and I am a senior at Stony Brook University. My major is biochemistry with a minor in chemistry. I like to keep myself busy so I am involved with many organizations on campus. I'm an active member of Sigma Iota Sigma and hold multiple positions including public relations chair, risk management, alumni chair, and formal chair. I like to plan and coordinate events which explains some of my positions. Since I am so involved with my sorority, I was honored to become a member of Order of Omega which is a Greek honor society that only accepts the top three percent of all Greeks who show exemplary qualities and scholastic achievement. I'm also the treasurer for this chapter. I enjoy helping others and I'm a part of the honor society Sigma Beta which is a community service based organization. School spirit means a lot to me mostly because I was in the Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band and Color Guard. As a freshman, I joined the band and met some of my closest friends. Red Fridays are no joke to band students; we take our school pride seriously. I feel like getting involved on campus has made me more of a well-rounded person. I'm from New Hampshire and coming to Stony Brook was hard for me because I didn't know anyone. I'm happy I came here because I feel like I have found my niche and I'm excited to see what the future brings.
Views on Technology
I believe that technology has benefitted society in a number of ways. Information is literally at your fingertips because your phone is like a minicomputer in which you can Google any question you may have. This can also come in handy for homework and research. With research papers and other sources available online, writing a research paper doesn’t seem as difficult as it used to be when you had to go to the library to find sources. Also, technology has improved communication tremendously. I would have never thought it would be possible to FaceTime someone ten years ago. A technological trend that is up and coming is the personal cloud. With your personal cloud, all your information and software will be virtual. Therefore, electronic devices will become less and less important because all you will have to do is sign into your personal cloud and all your personal information will be there. I’m excited to see what is yet to come.
Although technology has become very useful in everyday life, these benefits also present many obstacles for our modern society. For example, cyber bullying has become an issue due to advancing technology and social media. There have been several cases in which people committed suicide due to the harmful emotional effects of cyber bullying. It doesn’t seem like there is a way to control this internet issue except for having the ability to report and delete negative comments. Also, there seems to be a lack of privacy when it comes to the internet. An example of this would be the recently leaked scandalous celebrity photos from their personal iClouds. A more personal example would be that my mom was receiving my iMessages because we share the same iCloud. This happened becuase when she updated her phone, it automatically changed the settings so that our phones were synced together without our approval. Another nationwide obstacle that has arrisen with the addition of technology is texting and driving. There have been many serious accidents due to drivers not paying attention to the road and texting instead. People are so connected to their phones that they cannot even wait a few minutes until they finish driving to respond to a message. Due to the severity of this troublesome occurrence, laws have now been created prohibiting this action.
Overall, technology has many advantaes and disadvantages. It can both help and harm people depending on the way they use it. Hopefully, we can steer technology use in the right direction to improve the overall standard of living.
Source: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014. (2014, January 1). Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2014-07.html