Anne Jacobs Transcript
Introduction
And I am 20, soon to be 21 next week, and I attend the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and I’m a psychology major with a concentration in French Studies.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in New Brunswick NJ and the first half of my life I grew up in Somerset NJ and then when I was 11 I moved over to Bowling Brook, IL.
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What were your parents' attitudes toward literacy and/or education?
I would say education has always been forefront in the house that I was growing up. My mom has achieved every level of education I could imagine except for the PhD which she’s attempted and she’s gonna go back and hopefully finish that up very soon. My mom always showed a value for education. She wanted a lot for herself to show she wanted a lot for children. My dad he went straight into work; my parents are both from a generation where going to college after high school wasn’t very common. It wasn’t very feasible, especially for the African-American community. I’m very proud to say that my mom did beat the odds and went out for herself. Whereas my dad being the provider of the family went straight to work. He’s a specialist in his area. He was an engineer for 25—20—25 years and now he’s in a different field but he’s still always would give us positive reinforcements for doing well in school. He always wanted us to do well in school. He always wanted to see us he always comes to our graduations and he always encourages us as we go from degree to degree or from school to school. I’ve always had a lot of encouragement and a lot of reinforcement in my homes growing up that education came first. My mom always said I don’t expect you to get straight A’s but I don’t accept C’s so you have to figure out where you fall in, in that range.
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What was your parents' socioeconomic status when you were a child? What is your socioeconomic status now?
Um. I would say when I was younger I was in a two parent home. My parents divorced when I was 11 and I kind of saw two completely different extremes because when we were in a two income household my parents you know were pretty well off and we would take vacations all the time, we had a really big house, and we kind of lived a luxurious life if you will. And then when my parents divorced, and I saw my mom had to do it all herself she actually had to declare bankruptcy shortly after divorce because a lot of the debts and bills that of course I didn’t know about being 9, 10, 11 kind of accumulated to the point where my mom couldn’t handle it any more. Things got very difficult living. My mom trying to do mom and dad and kind of getting with the transition of losing one parent and doing the weekend visitations. I noticed that my life was a lot different and I couldn’t understand why because me being the baby of the family my parents didn’t explain to me why they were divorcing or why my dad was gone away but I guess I had to learn on my own and take a little bit more responsibility as we were growing up and my sisters had to take care of me through that experience.
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How would your life be different if you didn't know how to read and write?
I feel that I would be miserable. I feel that I would not being doing anything that I am doing now. I feel like literacy is the first step and probably the most forgotten step but the reality of it is if I didn’t have the literacy level I have today I would not be where I am and I’m very happy to be where I am and I’m very excited to look at where I will go and it’s such a blessing to not have to worry about something like that because it’s so... I feel like you get one shot and if you don’t learn when you’re younger you can learn it when you’re older but it’s so much harder. It’s just, it’s a gift, and I’m very thankful I was able to obtain it.
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When you were growing up, what did your family think about computers and its value?
Um, When I was growing up we always had a computer in the house. My mom was one of the first ones to have the laptop we always had a desktop and I think my mom got it for us just really you know to have games and once internet came out and it was really big we would um start working more on the internet and also more for papers and things like that but it’s kind of always been something that has been there so I think my parents had a very positive view. My dad is a little more old school so he just got a computer in his life in maybe within the past 8-10 no I would say 5-8 years but um it’s, it’s always been there so as a result I’m used to just going downstairs or going to my room or going to my laptop and linking up. It’s very commonplace.
Do you currently own a computer?
Yes.
What kind?
I own a laptop, a uh a Compaq Presario notebook I think it is.
How frequently do you use your computer and what purposes do you use it for?
I use it everyday. Um, Being that one we don’t have a television in our rooms so we’re always watching internet tv and it’s a beautiful thing. And um also I’m using it when I research. I’d say of my research today 90% of it is online and there’s the occasional pick up the hard copy of a book or two but I’d say yeah 90% of it is all my research and also when I’m writing for my research when I’m writing and conducting my studies I am on the computer looking up information I need for contacts or um reporting information that I’ve come across so.
What stories do you have about using communication technologies such as cell phones, IM , email, texting?
Well being that I am in communication studies that’s a very interesting question to ask. I would say that we have so much technology. Almost too much for our own good. I find that um that especially the younger generation, our generation and younger generations it’s we’re very connected. We’re constantly connected to the internet, we’re constantly connected to each other and things like IM and our cell phones and text and it’s great but it’s also I find the focus is a little off. Because, um, perfect example, when I was in high school I was a aid and I had to send a fax to somebody and I had to ask somebody in the office how to send a fax because I didn’t know and it was shocking to me because I knew how to program a phone, I knew how to download stuff on the internet and get all these different hardwares and softwares on your, on and off your computer and even your cell phone but I did not know how to work something as simple like a fax machine. I was a little embarrassed and they made that comment like you know what you’re right, because people in the older generations know how to do simple things like that or even simple things like adding and subtracting. A lot of us are so quick to go to these scientific calculators and before calculators my parents had to do that all long hand. So I feel like they have fundamentals that I kind of wish I had because I’m so dependent upon technology that um there are certain simple things I should be able to know how to do that I don’t always know how to do. And also for one of my undergraduate colleges I wrote an essay I guess the prompt was to write about an issue that concerns you and I talked about this in my essay and I was saying that I was fearful for future generations because I’m scared that we’re going to be so dependent on technology that we won’t know what to do outside of it. And um I think that we’re becoming too attached to worldly things and I’m hoping that we don’t because they don’t last forever and they’re not the most important thing.
Do you have your own website? If so what’s it called or?
Yes, I do have my own website. It’s um a blog actually and it’s called myfrance.blogspot.com and I created it because I wanted to share my study abroad experience with my family and friends and I got, I knew that keeping up with everybody and writing the long what I’m doing messages and what my life is like messages would just be very redundant and probably take more time than allowed so initially I kept a, just a blog so that people could see pictures and people could see my experience and share it with me.
Are you currently using computer technologies to aid you in your research?
Yes. Um, as I said um, I’m using a lot of OSU online libraries for the research that I do here. And also if I need to track a document or if I need to track a book I’m using research efforts there to help me get those in hand as well.