Wasting Away on the Web... Or Are We?

OK. So in class we discussed various sites that are actually helpful to the human race (of course there is some level of bias here; I would venture to argue that arenajunkies.com is beneficial because all the new and essential arena configurations and strategies are posted there for all of us WoW players), and I thought I'd share which ones I find pretty beneficial.

Online Dating Sites (we met on eHarmony) -

So everyone knows about these but regardless, they are still one of the most important sites out there. With the divorce rate rising steadily within the past 50 or so years, there is quite an abundance of lovely singles out there searching for love (redux). I have not personally used these sites, but I have seen first hand their online match making capabilities and the abilities of singles to meet each other on one single forum. Instead of randomly meeting the love of your life in a cafe or library or some other ridiculous situation, the ability to meet a possible partner is incredibly easy; all it takes is a personal message to get things rolling.

Dictionary.com-

What? There are actually printed dictionaries? Yes, this is the attitude of the technological generation. Looking up words is easier than ever, all it takes is to type in the word in the search browser, and you're good to go. No need to go painstakingly grab your dictionary from the other side of the room, search for 45 seconds until you've got the right page, and then locate the exact word. Now all words in the English language are nicely consolidated onto e-pages for nice, easy access.

Mapquest-

Mapquest is remarkably useful for virtually anybody who travels distances without knowing the exact route to take. All it takes is to know the starting and ending address to receive precise directions to your destination. This site is quite useful because it cuts out time otherwise spent looking at map(s) and figuring out which route to take manually. Now instead of you making the decisions, your computer does.

High-tech war games help save lives (CNN article)

(see link at bottom)

 Technology to the rescue! In this CNN News article (see title), the use of helpful technologies to our armed forces is accounted for. While most of us (us being American college students) use technologies such as video games or online simulators for our own entertainment, these same types of technologies are being used overseas to "save lives" (CNN). Apparently, life sized mannequins have been developed that "can simulate bleeding and breathing, and they have blinking-eyes that dilate. Medics can test their skills on these life-like mannequins" (CNN). These mannequins have skin very close in nature to that of living humans, "allowing soldiers to practice life-saving techniques to stop bleeding and start intravenous medications" (CNN). According to one Pentagon study, these mannequins have helped "save 1000 soliders' lives in combat" (CNN).

While I use technologies to game on the internet and practice my e-skills, medics and ordinary soldiers are using these technologies to help save actual lives. During the course of the semester, we have all bore witness to various gizmos and devices that really serve no useful purpose at all, and yet for the first time this fall I believe that I have finally discovered a truly beneficial piece of technology. In regards to the survival of humans, these mannequins have considerably altered the survival of soldiers (American lives).

The mannequins are so realistic that, "The simulator will breathe and bleed. And if it's bleeding, you have to apply the proper pressure to stop or control the bleeding, or the simulator will die" (CNN). Not only are the benefits of this technology outstanding, the ability that modern-day technologies have to simulate real-life situations is frighteningly accurate. If mannequins that can imitate human bodily functions exist, what is the next step in simulation technologies? While this technology is undoubtedly useful, this development may pave the way for other simulator technologies that may alter human interaction completely...



http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/11/military.simulation/index.html

Midterm Auditing Assignment; GTA and Wikipedia

So all in all the Midterm project went pretty well. My group (which consisted of JoJo, Neuteboom, my brother, and Zach) all met at my brother's apartment to endure some work, and some fun. Before even commenting on the actual auditing process and the PowerPoint, I would like to say that this group assignment really created a sense of community and bonding between the group members. While in class, I stood witness to some of Neuteboom's absurd comments, but in a closed environment I actually learned that Neuteboom was an OK guy (haha), and bore witness to his poor skills in the classic Mario Party I (we only played after we had decided to end work for the night). All in all, I wish more of my classes had implemented group assignments. In big lecture classes (3/4 of my classes are big lectures), it is hard to gain the sense of community and communication with others in the class, but these group projects really help the student feel like he is an essential piece to something, much unlike the feeling of being a statistic in a huge state school.

OK. So the actual process was pretty fun as well. While we were all posted up at Jon's apartment, we were researching away on our individual laptops. The main PowerPoint was created on JoJo's laptop, however that did not stop the other group members from doing work. We all volunteered to choose certain sources from the page and audit them, type them on our own processors, and then email or IM them to JoJo's computer. We specifically chose sources that seemed to cite major pieces of information within the page, and then began auditing. Before I start to bash some of the wrongly cited sources, I must say that almost all of the information on the page seemed to be correct, regardless of whether or not the specific source actually had reliable information on its webpage (Most of the unreliable sources were blogs or other pieces of information posted by individuals that did not belong to a gaming, or news company). There were also a lot of good sources too- ABC News, CNN, IGN, and Gamespot all provided succint and clear information that was easily transferred onto the Wiki page. Neuteboom was very crucial in actually constructing the PowerPoint, adding his insightful remarks and witty writing style into the otherwise bleak show. All in all, I personally had a great time doing this project, as I am sure others did as well.

Final Paper; Which Path to Choose

So after looking pretty closely at both essay prompts, I have decided to write on the first choice, involving Postman's technopolies and whether or not college campuses are an example of such. I think that it is pretty obvious, or at least to me, that college campuses across the country are increasingly dependent on technology in order to fulfill the curriculum of any given school. I came to this conclusion simply by looking around (I am currently in the library), and almost everyone that I see is working on a laptop, texting on their phone, or listening to their iPod, including myself. In order to even complete this paper, each of us must use the apparent technology that invades our everyday life (I wouldn't even know what the final paper was about unless I logged into Sakai).

That being said, the process of actually writing this paper looms over my conscious at all times, and the arduous task is yet to be commenced. In order to begin the task set out before me, I must once again visit Postman's book, and work deliberately and precisely in order to pick out pieces that support my argument. My actual writing, something of a love-hate relationship, could be inspired by almost everything, or virtually nothing (usually the latter is the case). However, I do not doubt my intellectual capability, and plan on blowing this paper out of the water (do not perceive this as cockiness; this mindset is imperative for me to maintain while I write, otherwise I start down the slippery slope of mediocrity). Time to strap on the Apple earphones, put on my favorite pair of pajamas, and load up on tobacco products of all sorts, because this isn't going to be easy...

Giles Slade Made to Break (pages 186-281)

In the last portion of Slade's work, the author notes obsolescence in regards to technology. More specifically, Slade notes the changing obsolescence in computer chips. As early as 1963, engineers within IBM already began worrying about the obsolescence of their chips; "...an internal memo answered the concerns of some young IBM engineers who worried that the solid-circuit technology used in the designs and prototypes for the System/360 series would soon become obsolete" (194). Frighteningly enough, IBM predicted almost 50 years ago that these processor chips would soon be outdated by newer models. However, it is improbable that the engineers at IBM those many long years ago would imagine a society that could relatively easily discard last years model.

Slade later goes on to highlight the obsolescence in cell phones and other types of "E-waste". According to Slade, "When e-waste is burned anywhere in the world, dioxins, furans, and other pollutants are released into the air, with potentially disastrous health consequences around the globe. When e-waste is buried in a landfill, PBTs eventually seep into the groundwater, poisoning it" (261). Due to the eventual pile up of burned or discarded e-waste around the world, "contamination of America's fresh water supply from e-waste may soon become the greatest biohazard facing the continent"(Slade 262). Not only is it down right disgusting to imagine what results we may face for the burning of e-waste around the globe, it also highlights a very crucial flaw in society. Our persistent need to acquire new technology is telling in that we have an obsession with the new, "hip" thing on the market, rather than have a realistic outlook on these developing technologies. By society taking on a realistic outlook, I simply mean that we should analyze new technologies for their practicality to daily life, and whether or not these technologies are absolutely crucial, or whether they simply represent "toys" or new fun things to play with and serve no real purpose for bettering society (Technologies that have bettered society in the past are things like the telephone or the automobile, more or less). For example, the iPad, a glorified iTouch (it is literally the same exact thing except it is larger and thus can sustain apps that the iTouch cannot), is seemingly useless for benefiting society. That is, it does not offer any easier or more practical means to accomplishing something that is today, in real time, hard, or at least harder, than a new technology could be. And so, in our consumer society, these technologies are unfortunately gobbled up by the public, and when a newer version of this impracticality comes out, the initial useless device is discarded, adding unnecessary waste to already existing, unnecessary waste.

David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect, pages 214-end of book

The final part of Kirkpatrick's work begins by giving the reader the sense that Zuckerberg and friends imagine(d) that Facebook would serve as a much broader tool than they had originally thought. The first chapter of this last section is titled, "The Platform", already giving the reader the sense that Facebook may, or maybe already partially has, evolve into something larger. The platform that Kirkpatrick speaks of is one similar to Microsoft Windows, or Apple Macintosh: a fully functioning operating system in which others can build off and manipulate. Kirkpatrick tells us of Zuckerberg's vision; "He wanted to do for the Web what Gates did for the personal computer: create a standard software infrastructure that made it easier to build applications-- this time, applications that had a social component" (217). This point is again reiterated by Zuckerberg himself: "We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system, so you can run full applications" (217). This concept held by Zuckerberg is crucial in understanding the gravity of Facebook on everyday life, and what its plans are for the future. Zuck's claim that he wants Facebook to become an operating system is a very bold one indeed, comparing his social interaction website to the system that made it possible for people to actually be able to use personal computers, Microsoft Windows. However far-fetched and outlandish-like Zuckerberg's imagination may seem, his idea is already in motion today. These applications he talks about are used by virtually everybody who uses Facebook itself. There are the pictures and events app that Facebook itself created, but there are also the Farmvilles and the Mafia Wars. Apps such as Farmville and Mafia Wars are created by third-parties, mostly big software companies that have uploaded these apps to Facebook's system. Already Zuck's idea is in play; these companies are adding on, or building upon, an already pre-existing system, just as software companies create programs and games to add on to systems such as Windows and Mac. While Facebook is not currently the basis for all socially-related applications, that may very well be the case soon enough. Just as Windows is our way to utilize gaming and the internet, Facebook will be our outlet for all social interactions via the worldwide web. The site would dominate all activity on the internet, as almost everything would be built upon the already existing social system. In layman's words, one would not be able to escape Facebook if he wanted to interact with other human beings on the internet, or so is the theoretical concept of Zuck's idea of broadening Facebook.

To further the idea of the expansion of Facebook, the Nielsen Company Research Firm claimed that, "Time spent on social networks by Internet users worldwide had for the first time exceeded the amount of time Internet users spent on email" (274). As part of the general public, almost all of us in the class have a Facebook account, and almost all of us log in to the site almost daily. Already Facebook defines most people's activity on the web, and the site is only going foward. Kirkpatrick writes, "Facebook is changing our notion of community, both at the neighborhood level and the planetary one. It may help us move back toward a kind of intimacy that the ever-quickening pace of modern life has drawn us away from" (332). This quote really scares me. The author, who seems to have immense knowledge of Facebook, maintains the thought that the site will actually help society move backwards in the sense of local community interaction. The fact that people are online, isolated by themselves on the computer just to interact with one another demonstrates the concept that people are growing farther apart on a physical level, despite what one computer screen may show, or may not show. Facebook is just another part of Postman's idea of the "Technopoly". We are moving into a technologically dominated era, in which most of life will revolve around pieces of technology instead of it being revolved around each other. The future is definitely one that I remain skeptical about.

David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect, pages 107-214

The second portion of Kirkpatrick's account of the rise of Facebook focuses heavily on Thefacebook's rise to a real company; the beginning of which documents various companies inquiring into possibly investing in the company (107-118). Thefacebook eventually settled with Silicon Valley VC, Accel: much of the handling of possible investors was done by Sean Parker, who eventually committed the Company to Accel (118). Once Thefacebook landed money, their restrictions were nonexistent, and so the company began to have room to prosper. However, Kirkpatrick tells the reader, "[Parker's] willful disregard for business conventions was as thorough as Zuckerberg's ignorance of them" (128). He also states that, "For all their vision, creativity, and commitment, they retained the mind-set of college kids. They knew next to nothing about how to organize a business" (128). I find it remarkable that Zuckerberg, the brilliant founder of Thefacebook, was almost helpless as to actually run the company. I feel that Zuckerberg, with all of his genius and IT skills, happened to come across one of the most important inventions of our decade, and the rest was taken care of by others- more business orientated peoples who had very little to do with actual development of the idea. This shows that breakthroughs, especially technological breakthroughs (as technology is clearly the way in which society is headed, if its not already defined by the persistent use of technology), are valued among one of the most crucial contributions to both American life, and the culture and economy of which it is based.

It is also important to note the ramifications of using Facebook, and what software is embedded in the programs coding that can target user's privacy; Kirkpatrick informs the reader of "cookies", or pieces of software that are embedded in web browsers. He says, "They can know, for example, you have been to the kinds of sites a twenty-year-old girl might go to, or that you have shopped for pop music online" (Kirkpatrick 142). The author relates these "cookies" to advertisement targeting that appeared on Facebook, much to the help of Dustin Moskovitz, Zuckerberg's right hand man. This approach to online advertising is now prevalent on almost every website in which you register a username for, solidifying it's role in everyday use of the internet. It would be almost impossible for someone, take you or me, to use the internet and not have this method of advertising appear on the margins of our Firefox browser as we surf the web's almost endless waves.

David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect, pages 1-106

Much similar to the movie, The Social Network, David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect; The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World tells the story of nerdy, socially awkward Mark Zuckerberg as he discovers the social phenomena, Facebook. This first third of the book continues on a much similar path of the movie, in which Zuckerberg's personality is revealed and the beginnings of Facebook are documented. Kirkpatrick describes Zuckerberg as the quiet introvert type, although surprisingly enough, he seemed to attract girls because of "...his confidence, his humor, and his irreverence" (Kirkpatrick 20). He appeared as somewhat of an elitist, easily bored with the conversations of strangers and ridden with a super-ego; "... if you went (talked) on too long or said something obvious, he would start looking through you. When you finished, he'd quietly mutter 'yeah,' and then change the subject or turn away" (Kirkpatrick 20). This description of Zuckerberg remains consistent with that of the movie, in which he is portrayed as a cocky nerd, resentful to those who he either finds too boring, or to those who he feels don't pay him the proper attention.

Later in the first part of the book, Kirkpatrick describes how Facebook, or called in those early days, Thefacebook, derived from Zuckerberg's earlier project(s), Facemash. Facemash was similar to websites such as Hotornot.com, in which the viewer judges two different girls and decides which one is "hotter". However, after getting dumped by his girlfriend at a local bar, Zuckerberg went back to his dorm at the Kirkland House and created this new website Facemash, in which viewers judged two or more different girls and decided which one was hotter (very similar to Hotornot.com), however in this case the girls actually belonged to the university. Zuckerberg, or "Zuck", hacked into the Kirkland House's directory, and uploaded pictures of the girls who belonged to the house onto his site, and coded it so that students all over the university could judge these girls from Kirkland House and rate them (Kirkpatrick 24). The difference between random girls from other known sites and Zuck's Facemash is that the students who actually rated the girls, knew the girls in real life. Students were judging online girls that they possibly knew, or interacted with, or just saw, on a day to day basis around school. This local, and familiar aspect of Facemash was crucial to the development of Facebook. On Facebook, as most of us all know pretty well, the user interacts with people he or she knows in the real world, his friends. This aspect of Facemash built the fundamental social networking idea that Facebook is built upon.

The rest of this portion of the book describes how Thefacebook grew out of the Harvard campus, and by the end of the summer of 2004, was now on over 34 schools and over 100 thousand members (Kirkpatrick 41). Also, Kirkpatrick introduces Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake, the boy-band superhero, in the movie), one of the co-founders of Napster, and documents Parker's early contributions to Thefacebook.com. Although a little silly, one of the major contributions Parker made to Zuckerberg and his growing company was to drop the 'The" in Thefacebook.com.

I think that beyond a shadow of a doubt Facebook was driven to success by the ambitions of Zuckerberg, and also by his cocky and self-righteous attitude he had towards himself. Zuckerberg, already early in the makings of Facebook, would undergo a law suit filed by the Winkelvoss twins, who had come to Zuckerberg early in the 2003 school year to hire Zuck as a coder for their own idea of a social networking site. Also, he would lose his bestfriend and CFO of the company due to legal issues surrounding Saverin's shares in the company, and disputes Saverin had with Parker about control of Facebook (Kirkpatrick 87).
 

Andrew Dalby's The World and Wikipedia, pages 114-225

Andrew Dalby continues to unveil to the reader just why Wikipedia is so appealing to the public, and also the reasons to which it cannot be used as a proper academic encyclopedia. In the beginning of the latter part of the book, Dalby explores the reasons unto why we (the people, as stated by co-founder Jimmy Wales and later reemphasized by the author) love Wikipedia so much; "We love it because it is a virtual nation, or rather a virtual world. We, the people of this virtual world, can be as shy and anonymous as we like, and yet our work, good and bad, is listed and others can explore it"  (Dalby 120). Dalby's assertion that Wikipedia exists as a virtual world further illustrates the direction in which society is headed in the technological age. I think that the reason why Wikipedia has become so popular is that contributors can remain anonymous, while still providing scholarly work to the global community. The fact that contributors, if desired, can remain anonymous is a huge factor both to why so many people frequent the site, and also to why internet games and sites remain and are growing increasignly popular. This is for one basic fact; contributors to sites such as Wikipedia can publish work to a much larger community than they could if they were revising and creating articles in a printed encyclopedia, and probably more fundamentally important, these people can contribute without their identity being known by anyone as they so choose, a distinction that could not be made outside of the "virtual" world. Aside from the appealing aspect of remaining hidden yet probably contributing to a much larger network (more people frequent Wikipedia than any individual encyclopedia (Dalby 9), the contributors to the site often come in contact with each other, an inevitable trait of Wikipedia itself. This sort of networking is beneficial because contributors are able to acquire peers that would otherwise be impossible if the internet, and the encyclopedia itself, did not exist.


However, there are still some concerns surrounding the user ship of the site. With any contribution by non-professionals, there is bound to be at least some degree of bias within the articles (Dalby 157). Dalby claims that the, "articles, which are supposed to be definitive and stable, are in reality endlessly mutable; an added detail may very soon disappear again, and article histories are seldom visited" (Dalby 164). In other words, contributors that have a hidden agenda in editing articles for political purposes ultimately is detrimental to the survival of these articles on an unbiased, definitive level. The publication of certain articles revolving around political figures are bound to stir controversy, because the analysis of political events are without a doubt opinionated, and although the articles are supposed to remain neutral and present the facts, a certain level of bias always seems to arise in the publication of these types of articles.

Andrew Dalby's The World and Wikipedia, pages 7-113

Andrew Dalby and his work, The World and Wikipedia; How We are Editing Reality, demonstrate the power and accessibility of the world's fastest growing online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. In the openings of the book, Dalby gives the reader a good idea of what it is like to take part in the Wikipedia community: he takes a handful of users and documents their activity on the site over a course of a few hours, mentioning what articles they created, modified, or in the case of KeyKingz13, a deliberate attempt to sabotage the hard work of other Wikipedians. Other than this, the first chapter consists largely of the work done by Wikipedians, and demonstrates the power and long-lasting reach Wikipedia has on the online community, as well as the world. The roots of Wikipedia, as told by Dalby, are founded in ancient texts that imitate modern Encyclopedia's, such as Gaius Plinius Secundus's, or Pliny's, 'Survey of Nature' (Dalby 20). In the third portion of the book, Dalby goes into great detail of the reception of Wikipedia in its earliest stages by botht he public and the press. According to Dalby, "Wikipedia had attracted more than a thousand new entries a month from everything from astronomy to the visual arts. It is clear, without even reading Dalby's documentation of the history of Wikipedia, that it is a an extremely influential tool and effective tool for any sphere of the public. Otherwise unknown editors, anonymous and named users have the ability to edit millions of articles on the online encyclopedia, with a specific interest in a field available to the editor.

The site, and other sites like it, have greatly changed what it means to be connected to the internet. It is one of the first sites that peers on the internet actually work side by side to achieve something greater than themselves, in fact the goal they achieve is not actually measured by any official party, rather the public's viewing of the Wiki pages grants the ultimate satisfaction of the Wikipedians work.

Neil Postman's Technopoly, pages 92-199

Postman starts out the latter part of his book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, by citing Americans tendency to aggressively diagnose and treat patients with medicine. A phrase that correlates with Postman's thesis about the aggressiveness of American physicians, most likely due to the abudance of machinery available and the amount of potential capital earned by using such machines, highlights the attitude towards American medicine both in the time it was written, and even today, in a technologically brimming society: "Desperate diseases require desperate remedies" (Postman 97). Postman writes; "...American medicine was attracted to new technologies. Far from being 'neutral', technology was to be the weapon with which disease and illness would be vanquished" (Postman 97). The effects of such technologies in the field of medicine had subsequent results, of which are still just as relevant today as they were when these technologies were first introduced into the field: "...interposing an instrument between patient and doctor would transform the practice of medicine; the traditional methods of questioning patients, taking their reports seriously, and making careful observations of exterior symptoms would become increasingly irrelevant" (Postman 99). With the introduction of technology to the practice of medicine, the methods in which doctors diagnose and treat patients has completely transformed, although we, the present society, have not really noticed this transformation as we have only existed in society that has had availability to such technologies. Of course, as Postman mentioned in the beginning of his work, not all technology is bad, in fact in most cases specific technologies are developed to benefit mankind in a certain aspect, otherwise their creation would be useless and the practice of such technologies would be obsolete. However, that is not to say that all medicinal technologies are beneficial, in fact Postman highlights this in the beginning of this chapter by citing statistics in which American doctors seemingly overuse such technologies, conducting unnecessary X-rays and performing C-sections to an nth degree, etc.  However, in the present society, there really is no stopping this overuse and American aggressiveness with medicine, rather the emergence of this technology has become so integrated in our society that it would be hard to imagine modern medicine without its practice.

Postman later goes on to describe the machine like attributes of language; "But in many respects, a sentence functions very much like a machine, and this is nowhere more obvious than in the sentences we call questions"(Postman 125). He later goes on to give an example of the difference between a fill-in question and a multiple choice question, highlighting the concept that students would be "smarter" at the latter question than at the first because it gives us choices. Although not a machine, language does similarly reflect some of the most basic functions  that machines do. Postman makes us aware of the modification of language, and how this modification can differ our perception of the world around us. He gives us an example of a Japanese professor/doctor at MIT, who addressed his country men to reason with science in the English language, because it contains an "ideological bias" that helps deal with the reasoning of science more effectively than Japanese (Postman 124).

Neil Postman's Technopoly, pages xi-91

Neil Postman begins his book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by recounting the legend of Thamus and Theuth, told through the ancient philosopher Socrates. In this legend, Postman highlights a key error that Thamus makes when considering Theuth's new invention, writing. Thamus decides that the invention of writing will force those who "...rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources" (Postman 4). Postman points out Thamus's error; "We may learn from this that it is a mistake to suppose that any technological innovation has a one-sided effect" (Postman 4). Thus, by taking from Postman's argument, it would be irresponsible of us to only view new technologies in a one sided manner, rather noting the pros and cons of each developing technology is the only healthy way to predicting its impact on culture.

Postman later goes on to develop his theory of our culture emerging as a technocracy, or "a society only loosely controlled by social custom and religious tradition and driven by the impulse to invent"(Postman 41). Postman marks the date of America rising as a technocracy with the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in which Smith defines humanity as an "Economic Man", "born with an instinct to barter and aquire wealth"(Postman 41). Smith's theory of the Economic Man, and Postman's deliverance of it to his book highlights the direction in which our culture, one explicitly revolving around the development of new technologies. With this emergent culture, and Smith's Economic Man, it is easy to see how our day to day life is becoming more intertwined with these new technologies and how they benefit our capitalist society, rather than the individualistic society that has been lost with the emergence of our new technological culture, or technopoly.

Towards the end of the chapter, Postman describes his social scientific experiments, in which he claims something outlandish to see if his colleagues would believe him. Although it may appear rather silly, Postman's experiments actually underline a very crucial aspect of our culture; we almost believe anything that seems outlandish, or more specifically something that seems outlandish that has to deal with science, because we do not have the information ready to disprove such concotions of the imagination, and thus we have become more susceptible to new and somewhat outlandish technologies in our society that may have no real purpose or use.