So last night we were given the instructions for the final assignment for the Technology and Culture in America course. The topics are not that bad; actually, both are pretty doable, which is the problem. I don't know which one I should pick because both interest me but seem a bit difficult when I start to delve further into them. Another factor I'm worried about is the quality of outside sources I will consult for the assignment. Since both topics are arguable and can even be controversial, I'm afraid I'll be linked to wacky blog posts or really biased pages. Hopefully, I'll be able to find decent articles and not have to rely on Wikipedia or something like that (haha).
The first topic regarding universities as technopolies brings up an interesting question of whether or not higher education is negatively affected by the growing technology. Without much thought, most people would agree that technology has improved higher education, as it made information readily available and helped students and faculty alike become more efficient with innovations. However, the truth is that because of such accessible information and such convenient tools, people are becoming less competent and more dependent on outside factors. Inventions such as calculators are amazingly helpful; however, people tend to forget how to actually do the problems, rendering them useless without a calculator. Despite all this, I don't know how I could take the topic further to expand for 6-8 pages and present a well developed essay.
I think I slightly prefer the second topic because there seems to be way more that I can talk about. Among other things, America is known to host a wasteful and ungrateful bunch of human beings. The society described in Slade's Made to Break is of obsolescence. Despite the rise of the environmental movement in America, it seems like America is miles and miles away from the path of going green. Sure, there are commercials and programs advocating "going green" here and there, but in reality, the society as a whole has not made much changes. The fact is that going green is expensive and too out of the way for greedy and lazy Americans. The possibility that putting too much resources into going green can hinder further technological development may also play a factor in America's reluctance of going forth with the green movement......I'm pretty sure I can find decent articles regarding America's wastefulness and how often new products come out and etc., so I think I'll be looking into this topic!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World PART II
The second part of the Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick revolved around what was happening behind the scenes with Facebook, mostly regarding its financial status. The more I read, the more weirded out I am of Zuckerberg. He is certainly a character.
Despite the huge success Facebook had even back then, it was hard for them to be financially stable and independent. Because they had such an incredible growth rate that even they were not expecting, they had to spend more and more on storage space to make sure their database did not overflow and crash the entire site. Nevertheless, they were able to survive and stay on track with the help of VCs and smart negotiations from Parker and the likes. Not to mention, there were numerous CEOs of really BIG name companies such as MTV, Viacom, and even Yahoo who were willing, even desperate, to negotiate a deal to buy out Facebook.
It was really interesting to see how certain features of Facebook I use and take for granted were developed and received initially by users back then. When I first joined, the photo albums were developed but definitely not as widely used as they are used nowadays. Then, when the news feed option came to be, it drove people to participate in an endless chain of take pictures, upload onto computer, make facebook album, upload pictures to facebook, tag people, repeat! It became a competition of some sort to be tagged the most by others, to upload the most albums, and even to get the most comments on one's photos. As a side note, when the news feed feature first came to be, I saw all the negative feedback. In fact, I was one of those who just didn't understand the need for such a thing. However, I'm really glad Zuckerberg decided to keep the news feed because it really is a convenient way to see what my friends have been up to while I was out, in class, sleeping, or working. I never have to worry about what I'm missing anymore (haha).
In a short amount of time this social networking site grew from a small project at one college campus to a site with over 10 million members from early teens to adults in their 50's and older. This shows the immense power the web has in this new technology-centered world. How else could this small project have been turned into the crazy addicting site we all know and "love" today? Yet, this brings up the controversy over privacy. In a virtual world where we can be friends with even strangers, how can people be safe and secure? As explored in the last chapter of this second part, Facebook is not at fault. In actuality, it can help us to better control our privacy; we can control what we want to share and what we don't want to share. Ultimately, it's up to us to decide what should and should not be plastered all over our facebook pages.
Despite the huge success Facebook had even back then, it was hard for them to be financially stable and independent. Because they had such an incredible growth rate that even they were not expecting, they had to spend more and more on storage space to make sure their database did not overflow and crash the entire site. Nevertheless, they were able to survive and stay on track with the help of VCs and smart negotiations from Parker and the likes. Not to mention, there were numerous CEOs of really BIG name companies such as MTV, Viacom, and even Yahoo who were willing, even desperate, to negotiate a deal to buy out Facebook.
It was really interesting to see how certain features of Facebook I use and take for granted were developed and received initially by users back then. When I first joined, the photo albums were developed but definitely not as widely used as they are used nowadays. Then, when the news feed option came to be, it drove people to participate in an endless chain of take pictures, upload onto computer, make facebook album, upload pictures to facebook, tag people, repeat! It became a competition of some sort to be tagged the most by others, to upload the most albums, and even to get the most comments on one's photos. As a side note, when the news feed feature first came to be, I saw all the negative feedback. In fact, I was one of those who just didn't understand the need for such a thing. However, I'm really glad Zuckerberg decided to keep the news feed because it really is a convenient way to see what my friends have been up to while I was out, in class, sleeping, or working. I never have to worry about what I'm missing anymore (haha).
In a short amount of time this social networking site grew from a small project at one college campus to a site with over 10 million members from early teens to adults in their 50's and older. This shows the immense power the web has in this new technology-centered world. How else could this small project have been turned into the crazy addicting site we all know and "love" today? Yet, this brings up the controversy over privacy. In a virtual world where we can be friends with even strangers, how can people be safe and secure? As explored in the last chapter of this second part, Facebook is not at fault. In actuality, it can help us to better control our privacy; we can control what we want to share and what we don't want to share. Ultimately, it's up to us to decide what should and should not be plastered all over our facebook pages.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Wikipedia Auditing for Midterm Presentation - EDIT
My group and I decided to audit the Wikipedia page for Scientology. Yes, Scientology, the infamous 'new religion' that has gained national and international attention in the past years. The objective of the assignment was to evaluate the page itself and see if Wikipedia was indeed an "encyclopedia" that people can use as a scholarly source. Because maintaining objectivity would be hardest regarding a controversial topic and it would provide us more content to work with, we had to pick a topic that would be under the "controversial" category. After much agony and brainstorming, Sara (I think) blurted out "Scientology!" It was an epic moment.
After the whole process, I do believe that Wikipedia should not be used as a scholarly source. Sure, the articles do have their merits, but the overall reliability is not too great. In my personal opinion, I think it's a great site to get a slight overview of many topics. There are enough truths, albeit presented in a specific way, to give the reader a decent summary of various subjects. The brief overview is definitely there. However, its weakness lies in the fact that editors all have their own biases and no one site can be free of that. In some instances, different sections have conflicting views because the editors had conflicting views.
Yet, I don't know if I can even avoid the temptation of using Wikipedia for school, despite my findings. I know for a fact that students still use Wikipedia as their primary source, finding ways to go around the citation by using random citations at the bottom. While it may fly by for some teachers, as Wikipedia possesses legitimate information, the danger is that for other teachers, it may be obvious to them that their students are a lazy bunch of sneaks. Technology, as we discussed in class, is making us a lazier society.
From this project, I learned how even the sources presented in the bottom of the Wikipedia article are not as scholarly and reliable as they seem. I will be more careful the next time I look at Wikipedia as a reference. If I ever want to use information from a Wikipedia article, I will make sure to verify my facts from other sites before going through with it.
After the whole process, I do believe that Wikipedia should not be used as a scholarly source. Sure, the articles do have their merits, but the overall reliability is not too great. In my personal opinion, I think it's a great site to get a slight overview of many topics. There are enough truths, albeit presented in a specific way, to give the reader a decent summary of various subjects. The brief overview is definitely there. However, its weakness lies in the fact that editors all have their own biases and no one site can be free of that. In some instances, different sections have conflicting views because the editors had conflicting views.
Yet, I don't know if I can even avoid the temptation of using Wikipedia for school, despite my findings. I know for a fact that students still use Wikipedia as their primary source, finding ways to go around the citation by using random citations at the bottom. While it may fly by for some teachers, as Wikipedia possesses legitimate information, the danger is that for other teachers, it may be obvious to them that their students are a lazy bunch of sneaks. Technology, as we discussed in class, is making us a lazier society.
From this project, I learned how even the sources presented in the bottom of the Wikipedia article are not as scholarly and reliable as they seem. I will be more careful the next time I look at Wikipedia as a reference. If I ever want to use information from a Wikipedia article, I will make sure to verify my facts from other sites before going through with it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World PART I
Facebook is arguably one of the most important websites to the average high school/college student (even middle school and elementary school kids these days!) Case in point: I just checked my facebook (unintentionally) in the middle of writing my first sentence. Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled about READING how facebook evolved from its limited Harvard community to the global enterprise it is currently. But, the first part was an easy read, with an easy transition from one point to the next; I barely realized how far I have gotten in the reading.
With the superficial relationships and usage of facebook these days, I was a bit shocked to read the prologue with the story of Oscar Morales and Mark Zuckerberg's description of his goals of facebook in the beginning.
Oscar Morales was an ordinary citizen in Colombia, where the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) instilled fear and anger in the average Colombian. His story was inspiring, and set an almost unrealistic view of facebook, as if anything was possible with facebook! With a simple creation of a group, Morales was able to organize a world wide march again the FARC (p. 4). He became a celebrity and a hero; thanks to facebook, he was able to pioneer an influential group who stood up for the Colombian people.
Mark Zuckerberg had an interesting way of describing facebook: a platform for people to improve already existing relationships. It's ironic how people nowadays argue how social networks such as facebook negatively affect personal relationships, as if the internet-based relationships are replacing face-to-face connections.
I especially loved all the little bits of Mark Zuckerberg the readers can put together throughout the reading. He is one interesting character. Undoubtedly, he is a smart guy with a slight tendency to get in trouble in one way or another. He dabbled in various programs during his first year at Harvard, some of which led to massive usage as well as conflicts. The descriptions of Course Match (p. 20), Facemash (p. 23), and Synapse (p. 25), which is eerily similar to Pandora, make me wish someone like Zuckerberg existed here at Rutgers. Yet, he had his batch of problems. He sounds like a creeper, first of all, staring at people and keeping quiet, seemed to have an elitist mentality, and obviously had trouble keeping good interpersonal relationships with people, judging from all the various problems he had over the course of the years. Of course, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it had to have something to do with how "...whenever [Zuckerberg] did something successful, every capitalist out there wants a piece of the action" (p.83).
Despite everything, facebook is what it is today. Through the progression and transition of one social network to another, facebook seems to be the clear winner right now. From the development of "the wall" (p. 93) to the establishment of new branches, facebook has encountered countless transformations. We got through the very beginning of the site in the first part. It should be very interesting to see how it opened up to the general public instead of just to college students and how the business aspects influenced much of the decisions.
With the superficial relationships and usage of facebook these days, I was a bit shocked to read the prologue with the story of Oscar Morales and Mark Zuckerberg's description of his goals of facebook in the beginning.
Oscar Morales was an ordinary citizen in Colombia, where the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) instilled fear and anger in the average Colombian. His story was inspiring, and set an almost unrealistic view of facebook, as if anything was possible with facebook! With a simple creation of a group, Morales was able to organize a world wide march again the FARC (p. 4). He became a celebrity and a hero; thanks to facebook, he was able to pioneer an influential group who stood up for the Colombian people.
Mark Zuckerberg had an interesting way of describing facebook: a platform for people to improve already existing relationships. It's ironic how people nowadays argue how social networks such as facebook negatively affect personal relationships, as if the internet-based relationships are replacing face-to-face connections.
I especially loved all the little bits of Mark Zuckerberg the readers can put together throughout the reading. He is one interesting character. Undoubtedly, he is a smart guy with a slight tendency to get in trouble in one way or another. He dabbled in various programs during his first year at Harvard, some of which led to massive usage as well as conflicts. The descriptions of Course Match (p. 20), Facemash (p. 23), and Synapse (p. 25), which is eerily similar to Pandora, make me wish someone like Zuckerberg existed here at Rutgers. Yet, he had his batch of problems. He sounds like a creeper, first of all, staring at people and keeping quiet, seemed to have an elitist mentality, and obviously had trouble keeping good interpersonal relationships with people, judging from all the various problems he had over the course of the years. Of course, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it had to have something to do with how "...whenever [Zuckerberg] did something successful, every capitalist out there wants a piece of the action" (p.83).
Despite everything, facebook is what it is today. Through the progression and transition of one social network to another, facebook seems to be the clear winner right now. From the development of "the wall" (p. 93) to the establishment of new branches, facebook has encountered countless transformations. We got through the very beginning of the site in the first part. It should be very interesting to see how it opened up to the general public instead of just to college students and how the business aspects influenced much of the decisions.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America PART III
The final part to Slade's "Made to Break" was the so-called "eye-opener" that was mentioned in the brief synopsis of the book (written on the back cover). Chapters 7 and 8 continued to talk about the progression of technology and how that attributed to America's obsolescence, from chips to video games to even weapons. The final chapter, however, brought all of the factors together and presented a question that I realize we should all think hard about.
It was interesting to see how the development and improvements of chips led to a whole series of drama between different companies and products. My favorite one, though, was of video games (p. 216). It started out with one simple game that was developed on the side by an engineer (p. 217). In just a short amount of time, the video game industry expanded so much that consumers went on a 'strike,' refusing to buy anything because there were too much to choose from (p. 221). At first, I thought this was hilarious. Who would have thought Americans would complain about having too much? Yet, when I saw the devastating effects of the strike on the majority of the video game companies, it wasn't so funny anymore.
I didn't really get how obsolescence related to weaponizing and the Cold War besides the one little mention of how faulty weapons were sold to the Soviets but it was kind of cool to see all the different aspects of the Cold War play out. The espionages for technology, the drama between Reagan, the French, the Soviets, and Gun Weiss (who realized early on that Soviets were keeping up with spies) was intense!
Finally comes Slade's overall point: obsolescence in America (and the world) is getting dangerous. Cell phones and other electronical devices are being thrown away earlier than when they are supposed to function until (p. 261). Advertising by firms as well as new marketing strategies encourage dissatisfaction, meaning people will be more inclined to buy new products to change their dissatisfaction into satisfaction. This conditioning also seemed to have led to the development of "neophilia," the love of new things, as coined by Campbell (p. 266).
So what can we do?
As a society, anything to reverse our mentality. Slade gives several suggestions as possible solutions to the problems of obsolescence and overflow of dangerous waste. Programs for taking back, reusing, and recyling products can prevents consumers from wasting. Spreading awareness among consumers can also achieve that goal, as a more informed consumer will be less likely to waste than an ignorant one. These are just few possibilities. What we have to think about amongst ourselves is how else can we change the way we are? I wish there was a way to stop the advertising that advocates obsolescence but especially as a business major, I know that it's not possible (unless the government intervenes, which would cause even more problems in itself). Hopefully, we will be able to welcome the new industrial challenge, as Slade calls it, with open arms.
It was interesting to see how the development and improvements of chips led to a whole series of drama between different companies and products. My favorite one, though, was of video games (p. 216). It started out with one simple game that was developed on the side by an engineer (p. 217). In just a short amount of time, the video game industry expanded so much that consumers went on a 'strike,' refusing to buy anything because there were too much to choose from (p. 221). At first, I thought this was hilarious. Who would have thought Americans would complain about having too much? Yet, when I saw the devastating effects of the strike on the majority of the video game companies, it wasn't so funny anymore.
I didn't really get how obsolescence related to weaponizing and the Cold War besides the one little mention of how faulty weapons were sold to the Soviets but it was kind of cool to see all the different aspects of the Cold War play out. The espionages for technology, the drama between Reagan, the French, the Soviets, and Gun Weiss (who realized early on that Soviets were keeping up with spies) was intense!
Finally comes Slade's overall point: obsolescence in America (and the world) is getting dangerous. Cell phones and other electronical devices are being thrown away earlier than when they are supposed to function until (p. 261). Advertising by firms as well as new marketing strategies encourage dissatisfaction, meaning people will be more inclined to buy new products to change their dissatisfaction into satisfaction. This conditioning also seemed to have led to the development of "neophilia," the love of new things, as coined by Campbell (p. 266).
So what can we do?
As a society, anything to reverse our mentality. Slade gives several suggestions as possible solutions to the problems of obsolescence and overflow of dangerous waste. Programs for taking back, reusing, and recyling products can prevents consumers from wasting. Spreading awareness among consumers can also achieve that goal, as a more informed consumer will be less likely to waste than an ignorant one. These are just few possibilities. What we have to think about amongst ourselves is how else can we change the way we are? I wish there was a way to stop the advertising that advocates obsolescence but especially as a business major, I know that it's not possible (unless the government intervenes, which would cause even more problems in itself). Hopefully, we will be able to welcome the new industrial challenge, as Slade calls it, with open arms.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Websites That Help Us
Nowadays, all we seem to hear about the internet and the growing technology is that they are somehow negatively affecting our lives. Too much information, too little privacy, too much nonsense, too much dependency, too little validity....you get the picture. Yet, there are so many positives that the world wide web has brought us.
For instance, etsy.com is a site which draws on people's entreprenuerial spirits. It's a place people can buy and sell handmade and/or vintage products. Obviously, it doesn't deal with people who want to wholesale masses of products. In actuality, it deals with the individuals who only desire to make a few bucks from their hobbies of making jewelry, clothes, accessories, and etc. It brings together people from all over the United States, as well as the globe and it's pretty cool to just browse through the kind of things other people can make without crazy expertise. This site is a similar one to Ebay.com, except etsy deals with direct sales whereas ebay deals with optimizing profits through auctions.
I cannot go through the pros of the internet without mentioning SPARKNOTES!!!! A prime example of information sharing, it is possibly the best thing ever since sliced bread. I love how it was first developed by students at Harvard as a small project and became this gigantic enterprise, helping middle/high school and even college students everywhere. Can you imagine having to read all the books we were supposed to have read during the past several years? (hahahaha)
Besides facebook, myspace, twitter, and tumblr that are international, there are social networking sites for individual countries. For example, cyworld.co.kr is a social networking site specifically for South Koreans. Although some may say that it is too limited, it is actually great that it is limited to just one ethnicity, since it makes it easier for people to connect as a small tight-knit community. It also has a mechanism that makes it more private than the social networking sites that we readily use, which helps to make it even more personal.
The most interesting way internet has provided good to the public is the website where we can see the nearby sex offenders (if there are any). This acts as a deterrant in some ways, since people will know that being labeled a sex offender will stay with them forever on this site, and that the information will be available to anyone. Parents can find out possible threats by logging on to the site and can inform their kids about the dangers, if they wanted to. Some may argue that having the information about sex offenders public may be unfair to minor offenders or those who were 'wrongly' convicted, but for the greater good, I think that this is a great idea.
The three properties of internet that I learned in my Comp Apps class says a lot of about the advantages of it: universal language, open technology, and separation of layers. These indicate that people from around the globe can come together and operate with the same language without any hindrance. With the internet, it has become possible to interact freely (for the most part) with those we wouldn't have had the chance to deal with before.
For instance, etsy.com is a site which draws on people's entreprenuerial spirits. It's a place people can buy and sell handmade and/or vintage products. Obviously, it doesn't deal with people who want to wholesale masses of products. In actuality, it deals with the individuals who only desire to make a few bucks from their hobbies of making jewelry, clothes, accessories, and etc. It brings together people from all over the United States, as well as the globe and it's pretty cool to just browse through the kind of things other people can make without crazy expertise. This site is a similar one to Ebay.com, except etsy deals with direct sales whereas ebay deals with optimizing profits through auctions.
I cannot go through the pros of the internet without mentioning SPARKNOTES!!!! A prime example of information sharing, it is possibly the best thing ever since sliced bread. I love how it was first developed by students at Harvard as a small project and became this gigantic enterprise, helping middle/high school and even college students everywhere. Can you imagine having to read all the books we were supposed to have read during the past several years? (hahahaha)
Besides facebook, myspace, twitter, and tumblr that are international, there are social networking sites for individual countries. For example, cyworld.co.kr is a social networking site specifically for South Koreans. Although some may say that it is too limited, it is actually great that it is limited to just one ethnicity, since it makes it easier for people to connect as a small tight-knit community. It also has a mechanism that makes it more private than the social networking sites that we readily use, which helps to make it even more personal.
The most interesting way internet has provided good to the public is the website where we can see the nearby sex offenders (if there are any). This acts as a deterrant in some ways, since people will know that being labeled a sex offender will stay with them forever on this site, and that the information will be available to anyone. Parents can find out possible threats by logging on to the site and can inform their kids about the dangers, if they wanted to. Some may argue that having the information about sex offenders public may be unfair to minor offenders or those who were 'wrongly' convicted, but for the greater good, I think that this is a great idea.
The three properties of internet that I learned in my Comp Apps class says a lot of about the advantages of it: universal language, open technology, and separation of layers. These indicate that people from around the globe can come together and operate with the same language without any hindrance. With the internet, it has become possible to interact freely (for the most part) with those we wouldn't have had the chance to deal with before.
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