Shirky, Pt 3

With Shirky's analysis of the world technology and communication today, he highlights the use of social media and the inter connectivity between people around the world. Being a part of this generation it isn't that shocking to be able to talk to someone half way around the world, whereas around the time I was born, very few people were testing out email. What Shirky depicts in the latter part of his book is FOAF, or friend of a friend networking. Basically all social media turns into FOAF networking after awhile, especially on WSU's centralized campus and network, it isn't difficult to see a friend of a friend seen online to see them in real life going to class. Most of WSU uses Facebook to communicate and create communities of groups, and some are slowly making the switch to Twitter, although there is less "friend of a friend" communications because you just see the updates of who you are following, not necessarily who your follow is following (that's a whole new point). Both of these social medias show and try to help you out by pointing out the "mutual friends" and "you may likes" to create a shared environment of those around you who are interested in similar things.

Another branch of social media is LinkedIn, which would be extremely useful for the FOAF networking for the real world. I say this because this site is about using it to get jobs or connections with people you have met and communicate with them to reach a prospective employer. Although most connections could be added between people who barely speak and don't necessarily do on the site, they are able to come back and use their connection to reach another. Depending on the amount of contacts and connections could help you gain more access with even a broader spectrum of like minded people.

Shirky had given an example of the "small world" meeting scenario of two people having a mutual friend they didn't know they had, I find that this statement will be used more frequently soon due to social media. I have personally said this and have heard others but it truly is becoming a small world due to the connectivity of technology. Not necessarily easy to communicate with EVERYONE in the world, but of those acquaintances or friends of friends who could help you out in the long run.

Shirky, 1-3

The beginning of Shirky’s book related to Tapscotts observance of the Net Geners that sharing creates a community within a group of people, whether it’s just a few individuals or a huge population. An example use of community and technology was given in the format of a story in the beginning of a woman losing her phone in the back of a cab, and had someone else go through all the trouble of finding and returning it. There were a few hiccups with whether it was called stealing or “finder’s keeper’s” but in the end it was returned. Most all communities on the internet have spawned from a shared idea or concept. From the shared idea usually turns into a form of social media (i.e Facbook, tumblr, twitter).

Another anecdote given by Shirky was the use of Flickr to showcase pictures taken by people not of random things in their lives but document what was happening in the world of disasters. Taking, uploading, and tagging these photos directly gave people something to view right away rather than wait for news people to get to the scene. With the use of integrated communication and technology, there is hardly a phone without a camera in it. For example, one of the people witnessing the London terrorist attacks uploaded photos of what was happening and then assured the people viewing the photos that he was unhurt in the onslaught. Same goes with the tsunami of south eastern Asia, the photos taken and uploaded were used to possibly find missing people or to make vigils of those that could not have been found.

Tapscott Pt 3

From the third part of Tapscott’s book I like the outline made about a possible fear of the new generation for the future. Reading through the outline, I realize that I (like usual) relate to the points made throughout this book.

1. The dumbest generation?

With respect to the amount of time watching television and online versus reading books for enjoyment, you could say this is a dumber generation. Not all the time this generation is online is for enjoyment, there is a lot of multitasking with school/work/enjoyment trying to all work at the same time. In this time, the younger generation has a world of information at the simplest point and click, so no I don’t think this is the dumbest generation; but there are definitely cases of people not accomplishing anything for  hours due to internet use.

2. Screen addicted? Losing Social Skills?

Along with the fight of social networking sites and interactions, some of the sites are used so that people from far away are able to still converse with each other. There’s a balance of using social media to find others with similar interests, being lazy and not wanting to leave your house to meet a friend, and other sorts of creating ‘meetups’ and groups to ease the communication for projects or for shared interests.

3. Are they giving up their privacy?

Privacy is very much so compromised more than ever because anything you post online is there for basically ever. Some of the postings are meaningless to the poster but can be used some how by someone on the other side of the world. There are privacy features available, but apparently the generation now isn’t adequately using them when they complain they want privacy.

4. Are they coddled? Do they lack independence?

This generation has a closer relationship with the family than ever before, which is probably due to the fact of increased school costs and they become financially dependent upon them. Being close to their family doesn’t mean they lost their independence. I admit I’m close with my family and grateful I have them, but there are times when they get on some nerves and I have the room to get away.

5.Does the internet encourage youth to steal/cheat?

With the intense web network of today and accessibility to everything, 77% of Net Geners have said they had illegally downloaded something. The thought is that why not just download something that otherwise would have spent a lot of money one. I feel the same about some things, but when the numbers grow higher, then the money lost on sales can hurt our economy.

6. Does it encourage bullying?

More recently in this time era of the internet, you hear more of cyber bullying creating more havoc due to the amount of technology present now. In older generations people were bullied usually at school with physical or verbal but on the internet it could be anyway and do the same without leaving home. Seeing the actual risks of bullying face to face is diminished through the web and people don’t see the consequences making it seem that it’s okay to do. It has been shown to go too far, but is more easily tracked for those doing it.

7. Does it incite youth violence?

I have heard this question quite a bit with these sorts of games, and from the book reading a statistic was shown that crime rates have dropped from the time of 1993 to 2005. There was a smaller percentage than originally thought of those who would play video games and prompted the youths to commit those same instances. More often are the ones who use their video games to play out those instances instead of committing them in the real world.

8. Do the Net Gen have a misguided sense of entitlement; bad work ethic?

With all this technology assisting our daily lives you’d think that it would hinder our work ethic. Well for some it is true, but the accessibility through technology has made this generation want to have their own freedom and not spend hours in a cubicle like previous generations. The ones who are lacking the hard work ethic are most likely to be co-dependent on their parents and not wanting to make their own life and make their own earnings.

9. Are they narcissistic?

Along with technology and editing has led to people becoming more aware of themselves and the ones around them. Although I found it interesting that the book pointed out that our generation smokes, drinks, and less crime than previous generations; calling this generation not as ‘self-centered risk takers.’

10. What about values? Always want to be rich and famous?

Along with the narcissism aspect, it seems that this generation’s goals are usually to aspire to become rich and famous mostly due to cost of going to college. That makes some sense in that they make almost a heinous amount of money, compared to a large amount of debt of going to school for years. But it has been found that this generation has been more driven to volunteer than ever before. 

Grown Up Digital Pt 2

From the second part of the book, the author used his eight points of what he thinks defines the net generation and applies it to what sort of work this generation will try to get to and feel about what they’re doing. The eight criteria lined up were freedom, customizing, scrutiny, integrity, collaborate, entertainment, speed, and innovation. During the class discussion and reflecting on my life styles I can agree with these criteria and see how observant the author is of this time period.

Following the criteria and work standards wanted by the net generation begins with freedom of flexible hours and location; before the hours were generally 9 to 5 and in an office. Now this generation have the opportunity to work where they want and when, although this approach is not for all; usually for those who are self driven. Next is customizing their work situation; this generation would rather be managed under a group than one singular person telling everyone else what to do. Sure there is one boss generally of the company or work place but there are other committees than have control over others. Similar to choosing some college courses, this generation scrutinizes the work situation they might encounter before taking a job offer. They want to make sure they aren’t making a mistake going to work for the wrong people if there is someone with better perks out there.

Along with scrutiny, this generation looks for integrity of the business or company to be well known, good appearance, and good perks for working. Some of the big companies in this state are Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon, which can look very well to someone who is asking where you work at. Having worked at a high level business gives you the integrity for others to listen to you because you have made it to that point in the work force. In these businesses, collaboration is wanted so that achievement can be accomplished through others instead of a huge workload accomplished by you. Working with others generally has a wider variety of ideas to figure out a problem and brainstorm to fix basically anything. Depending on the project it can help or hurt to work with others on a project (ex: design and marketing campaigns).

With new freedom in the workplace this generation wanted to have part of their time working also to be entertaining; there has become a fine line between working and entertainment. When most think of this (well probably me) is with Google, where they can play games, have massages, etc right in their workplace (said to push innovation), but when does that become too much? The speed of communication between companies has to be up to date almost immediately. People will now become upset with you if you do not respond quick enough to something; similarly keep up speed for feedback and turnaround time for projects. And lastly, innovation is key for the future and all of these put together can create more solutions for problems we are facing now and prepare for the future. 

Grown Up Digital Pt 1

I can definitely relate to what Tapscott was pointing out in the first part of this book, the difference of generation and their relation to technology. Time and time again, the ‘millennial” generation and beyond wont know what it’s like to grow up without technology in their face basically all the time. reading through some possible days of other generations featured in the book, I wondered what it would’ve been like to live during those times. Sure it’s nice to have technology today to reach numerous people with a few buttons, but what if all of that was gone and we just had the landline and a television set. It was quite funny also relating to the things the author pointed out as ‘drawbacks’ for the current generation: they aren’t ‘physical world’ social, lack of attention, and weren’t as active as past generations. I didn’t relate exactly to all of them but I can see the difference of the amount of people that would rather chat online with their friends in the same town than actually see them face to face.

With that, sometimes you find yourself ‘bored’ and think of someone to ‘talk’ to so you text them asking what they are doing, how they are, or just something random to spark a conversation. This current generation has probably honed the ‘I can make a conversation last through simple phrases for hours’ and just keep it going and going without much real meaning behind it (that’s mostly from my experience though, some detest messaging conversations). The quick ‘how’re you?’ has seemed to become the closest meaningful somewhat face to face interaction as we can get when we are not in the same room, building, or area as someone else.

This can be useful for people who are far away from each other (say opposite ends of the world) than others goofing around sitting right next to each other. I find it somewhat foolish in others, but in any case I am also guilty of doing this. And so I am curious to how the future generations pan out with what we have created with our free time and how it will affect them. Compared to past generations we’ve become lazy and easily distracted, but if technology continues to grow as such, what will the future become?

A Better Pencil Pt 2

As discussed in previous class times, technology has been a good and bad thing for us. Connectivity and ease of access has increased with the world, but lack of memory storage and becoming dependent on it has hindered us. And so it has also become a problem for authentication of information upon the internet, not only including people and contacts but information that may be used for data. The ever expanding portions of the internet has dwindled the amount of real proof that we could use to prove the information is ultimately correct. Also with the case of seeing versus believing is not promising due to ability of fabricating information and images.

With the ever changing technology, there are always new tools to learn and different ways of doing things. There was an example given in the book of the Normans invading the English and their different culture of reading and writing had increased both of their cultural knowledge. With these cultures, to secure sending of letters and other information, seals and signatures were used so that the person receiving the letter knew they were not tampered with and who they were from. Signatures can be used to finalize something or making an important mark on a document, for example John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence and other politicians.

The next question of the expanding internet web is that everyone can become an author, but should everyone? You are basically “authoring” something when you post on a social media network, but it is less monumental than writing a book or a journal article that was scanned to be used for online access. I believe that some people who have a knack for writing online are able to continue what they are doing but some people post some unnecessary information that doesn’t need to be shared with the world. 

A Better Pencil Pt 1

Before reading these chapters in A Better Pencil, I hadn’t realized the extensiveness and evolution of writing and creation of the pencil. According to this book, Thoreau was one of the first to use the graphite pencil to write down his thoughts. Plato had claimed that writing down everything will lead to lack of memory and must be trained without writing things down. I believe this has somewhat happened in today’s culture due to the amount of technology we all use in a day. Our society has also had smaller attention spans and can use the assorted technology to obtain any information within the Internet’s grasp.

The evolution of technology, as simple as a clay tablet in the beginning, has led some to believe we are getting lazy. The books description of writing with a clay tablet sounds a lot more extensive to write out something simple than today we can grab a piece of paper and pencil (or type on basically anything electronic). From the clay tablet, to quills, to pencils, and now to typing; the amount of time we use for writing has diminished. Some input has been said that the amount of time writing has reduced the amount of meaning we put into writing. Books and writing in the middle centuries had become expensive and rare commodities thanks to a small group of literate people and the cost of creating them.

 It was interesting to find other variations of the graphite pencil making its way around the world and the ones I am familiar with. The ones I am including are Conte crayons and Staedtler pencils. Both of these are used mostly in drawing and are a mixture with graphite to create certain effects. Sadly I see the future of technology diminishing our memory usage, lack of using real speech (ex: “internet speak”), but aids in the connectivity of the world. I guess it all depends on what you believe is too much technology and what you’d rather hold onto the past. 

Achebe Pt 2

There are three distinct parts of this book both marked and unmarked, they correspond as the first part of most of the life of Okonkwo, when his family is exiled, and when the family moves back to Omuofia after their exiled years are over. During their exile, the missionaries infiltrate the town of Mbanta and when they return to Omuofia, they are found their too. The chapters had changed from how they were organized in the beginning of the book; at first they were as we had discussed in class “episodic” and once the missionaries moved in, the writing was less so. There was more speaking mentioned, but had to be between the Igbo and the missionaries because they obviously didn’t speak the same language. The lack of “speaking” in the first parts of this book let me to believe that they did not mention the speaking as much because the people of the group had known the customs and knew what to do.

I also was a little bit confused with the ending, which seemed so sudden of Okonkwo’s death. Did he realize that their lives were going to be permeated by the missionaries and it was such a crushing thought that he would rather not be part of that future? Was it part of one of their customs, which seemed opposite of what his people said that suicide was an abomination. Achebe seemed to build the story of Okonkwo and his life with much more gusto in the beginning but his immediate death was so unlike the beginning writing.  

Achebe Pt 1

First of all, if it was not mentioned this was African literature, then I would have thought it could have taken place anywhere around the world. Some of the actions that occurred during this first reading of the book have similar characteristics to other cultures. They ‘converse’ and abide by whoever is known as the “oracle” and reference a “personal god” of chi. When hearing of an oracle I related the thought to ancient Greece where they would make sacrifices and hear of the future or other information brought to them by the oracle. The chi aspect I thought of the Asian cultures who think of chi as a balance of a life force and doing certain things in your life can affect it.

Another aspect that may have clued me in to this being centralized in Africa is that their main harvest was yams. To Okonkwo and the rest of the village, yams are a “man’s crop” and must be harvested and grown by them. I had heard once that yams have been known to boost the number of multiples in some African tribes; this also brings up the strange point brought up in the book that multiples were deemed evil, and either one was saved or all were gotten rid of. I find this quite counterintuitive because they are eating the food that is creating the multiples and then they are trying to rid of what they created. Once Ezinma got sick, it was made known that Ekwefi had had trouble with keeping her children alive past infancy, and so it looked to me that they were having population control issues or something along those lines. 

Walter Ong, Part 2

Technology to our world today is mostly referring to computers and digital technology; thousands of years ago it was the simple use of writing. With any sort of new technology, and stated by Walter Ong, that it does not degrade life, but enhances it. I believe that with writing thousands of years ago because it helped with the use of communication between people. Writing to past centuries was like the latest gadget coming out and we would have to relearn and redesign everything to fit this model. From the book it sounds like all technology has always enhanced life (i.e. military weapons technology is good for generally one side). For one person the next statement made more sense for technology being good interiorized, meaning to me that it is specific to that people.

Also from Ong’s book he stated “the use of technology can enrich the human psyche, enlarge the spirit, and intensify its interior life;” I’m guessing that he was referring more to the use of writing and expanding of knowledge for humans. For today’s world, I don’t believe that all technology, digitally based, is always “enriching the psyche and intensifying its interior life.” Although the connectivity of life can be useful, I believe we’ve become too dependent on it. It enhances it in the ways we need them to, as in healthcare and safety, but the far reaches of the Internet can suck some people in and they can become addicted to it. Knowing the difference between right and wrong of information can hinder the ability of having a good ‘web experience.’

And so technology can go either way with enhancing life, either used in a good way to help people but not in an over self indulgent way of sitting in front of a computer all day wasting your time.

Walter Ong, Part 1

From Ong’s Orality and Literacy, I found the difference in memory usage of oral and written language had both their good and bad points. In the oral society’s, remembering something is to repeat and count back to something in a loop system to refresh the memory. With writing language down, the amount of brain power to remember diminishes compared to the oral society since their reference to something occurring becomes an outside factor. Oral language is faster to translate face to face, while written can be faster is sent as a quick note. Speaking with someone who doesn’t speak the same language can definitely hinder the information being shared, and also can go for writing; some languages have their own symbols for words (i.e. Mandarin). Although I believe our society is a heavily written society, I tend to remember things that have happened on a loop; if there is time to think about nothing, there are usually old memories that have come to mind.

This can also bring forth the fact for redundancy, the same memories are reviewed over and over and little bits are lost each time; with oral societies they must have better memory to recall much more detail. Like the ancient rhetors, they used a system of mnemonics, repetition, and mental imagery to remember long speeches to recite. So if for the future and using computers now more than writing, will we lose even more memory usage? From the oral society’s to written, Ong claimed that much more thought went into writing down the words, and if we can type even faster and translate the information, will people lose more of their brain power used for memory?