My interview

Jakub Gaweda

Personal interview

Interviewees

 Jane Benardete-60+ English professor

 Joyce Albert-60+ Librarian

            Being 16 years old I can’t really look to past experience when it comes to energy use, for some obvious reasons (i.e. Me not existing yet) What I can do is interview those who do have experience and for my interviews, I chose Jane Benardete and Joyce Albert one an English professor and the other a librarian. But before getting to their responses I think it’s important to set up a modern view of how energy is looked at today. Compared to 20 years ago energy has become a main focus not only in America but everywhere in the world. Books are published, articles written, movies made, it has become a part of everyday life. This I can vouch for, a lot of what I do relates to directly or indirectly to energy: turning a light off when I leave a room , turning my computer off at night, or recycling bottles. But what about 20 years ago? Was energy as that important? This is how I generally geared my interviews; I wanted to get at how it was before and whether our current views of energy have changed. My candidates were Jane Benardete and Joyce Albert both over 60. They’re responses were more or less similar and reflected a trend that I’m beginning to see. When asked about whether they saw energy as important issue 30 years ago both responded yes. Ms. Bernadetre  took a seminar in Hunter college on the subject, while Ms. Albert remembers days of  increasing gas prices at the pump during the 70’s. When asked about how energy is used today both acknowledged the fact that there is a much greater focus on conservation, and protecting the environment. “More people are being frugal” Ms. Albert stated. Going on to later explain that people are caring for their actions and the potential consequences that their decisions might have.    On the possible reasons why these views might have changed Ms. Benardete states a varying political field as one of these changing factors saying “Various political challenges in the Middle East , OPEC, etc. changed American attitudes”. As one of my closing questions I asked both interviewees how they viewed energy use in other countries and if they saw it as different, both responded yes. What I found most interesting was how they viewed it. Ms. Benardete gave a general example of how the needs of a suburban farmer might be different from city dweller energy wise, while Ms. Albert gave me a real life example of how at one point in her life she was living with a Hungarian student who never heard of a clothes dryer. The sheer notion surprised her a bit as she thought everyone at least knew what it was.

            These interviews gave me an insight into energy issues I would have only read about. Their personal insight and stores made it a very interesting and enjoyable experience. The contrast between the then and now was fairly clearly illustrated by them, and their responses no doubt helped me influence my view of the world today and how energy is used in it.