Archive for Reading Response
April 30, 2009 at 7:40 pm · Filed under Reading Response ·Tagged article, Clive Thompson, Communication, Facebook, Internet, New York Times, Privacy, Reltionships, Status, Twitter
For class on Tuesday I read the article Brave New World of Digital Intimacy by Clive Thompson. The article dealt with privacy issues on the internet and the effects that being digitally close (which is much different than being close in real life) to a wide realm of people is having on human communication. Features like newsfeed and status updates on Facebook make it easy to keep track of as many friends or acquaintances you choose. Some people love this. They enjoy being able to have a glimpse into the lives of others at the tip of their fingers. Others feel that such features are an invasion of privacy and lead to stalker-like tendencies.
Another new phenomenon that some people swear by and others find to be “stalkerish” is Twitter. Twitter is a site in which people constantly update their status (up to 140 characters) and publish these short blasts to anyone who chooses to follow them. It can be as simple as, “I am making a sandwich.”
I have yet to understand the whole Twitter craze. What exactly do people see in it? I signed up for Twitter but have not used it yet because I don’t particularly get it. One woman who was highlighted in the article, Laura Fitton a social-media Consultant said that updating her status led her to be calmer and happier because it forced her to look at the events she posted about in an objective way, and she began to see them more clearly. Any Twitter addicts with some thoughts on the matter?
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April 28, 2009 at 7:21 pm · Filed under Reading Response
Reading “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” and thinking about the purpose that the news feed serves, I was quickly reminded of Twitter. I personally do not use Twitter, because it seems slightly “stalker-ish” in my opinion. However, the news feed on Facebook does the same thing! In some ways, it is very convenient and definitely entertaining to know what your friends are doing each day, but sometimes I find myself too immersed into creeping around the site and finding out what everyone is up to, as well as being sure to update my own status so they know what I’m doing too. Sometimes I will log on and have about 15 new notifications, informing me when someone (that I may not even know) has also left a comment on someone’s status or photo. Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook and will continue to use it, but I feel as though it sometimes provides you with too much information, connecting you to every move that everyone and all of their friends are making.
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April 24, 2009 at 1:29 am · Filed under Reading Response ·Tagged A Rape in Cyberspace, codes, gamers, Internet, Julian Dibbell, law, online, psychological, rape, virtual reality
Today I read the article, A Rape in Cyberspace by Julian Dibbell. I must say that it was a really intense and thought provoking piece. Dibbell relays the story of a virtual world on the internet in which players can create their characters, spaces, etc. People that used the software became extremely drawn into the game and things that occurred in the virtual world started to have real psychological impact on the participants.
Because of this, things started to get heavy when a player used “voodoo doll” codes to force other characters to perform sexual actions on his character. These two characters were “cyber-raped.” One might think that it is really screwed up that it happened but easy to recover from – after all it didn’t really happen. However, the victims of the situation did not find it so easy to forget. When talking to one of the “cyber-raped” women some time after it happened, she broke down into a fit of tears and vengeful rage. She definitely suffered from some serious psychological effects and thought that something should be done to punish the perpetrator.
This article raises a lot of questions about just how serious the effects of machines and computers can actually have on us. These people were really hurt—not physically, but psychologically. In regards to real life rape, the psychological effects are often more damaging than the physical ones. This makes me think that sometime in the future cyber-crimes may be punishable by law. I think it will definitely be a battle between privacy rules and protecting of people’s rights. And one must ask the inevitable question – if that sadistic person had the gall to commit cyber rape then it is probably a deep, dark, fantasy; could it translate into a real life situation?
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April 21, 2009 at 5:51 pm · Filed under Reading Response, Uncategorized
“…Zuckerberg’s greatest contribution goes beyond Facebook’s success. His company suggests a new model for how connection, communication, and commerce can work online — a radical and ambitious rethinking of the Internet’s potential”.
I just recently deleted my Myspace and am now strictly a Facebook user. The site is extremely fast-paced and has the ability to connect you to friends instantaneously. The above quote really captures the true aura of the site and its capabilities. Mark Zuckerberg’s simple project to keep in touch with his own classmates has turned into a multi-million dollar investment, and in my opinion will soon be surpassing the popularity of Myspace. As I was scrolling through the statuses of my friends a few days ago, I laughed at one status in particular: “Stop requesting me if I don’t know you. This isn’t Myspace”. I couldn’t agree more. Facebook is a more sophisticated Myspace, being used to keep in touch with those we already know rather than creating false personalities to meet people we know nothing about.
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April 21, 2009 at 5:31 pm · Filed under Reading Response
I got some great laughs out of the blogs we checked out for homework. PostSecret has always been one of my favorites, and some of the postcards really tug at your heartstrings. The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks was hilarious. It’s mind-blowing how many people are not sure of the proper way to use quotation marks. As for the Bathroom Graffiti Project, I found it amazing how many in-depth drawings and messages have been left in the grimy stalls of random bathrooms around the world. There was one particular piece of writing left on a mustard-yellow stall door that really caught my attention: “When the last tree falls, when the last river is polluted and when there is not a breath of clean air left, people will realize you can’t eat money”. What a strange place to leave such an intense message. I guess they know there will be plenty of people to read it!
Bathroom Graffiti Project
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April 21, 2009 at 5:27 pm · Filed under Reading Response ·Tagged future, people, think, virtual
Today’s readings included the article called “Who Am We?” by Sherry Turkle, which I found to be pretty disturbing. I just realized that the article was published in 1996, so obviously the world hasn’t imploded yet….. However it still scares me to think about what our future will be like as a society with all of this virtual reality. I just worry about how personal relationships in what the author refers to as “RL” or real life, will be changed if people stop interacting face to face and keep having these online relationships with personalities that are being made up as they go along. I don’t think that it will help someone who is anti-social to come out of their shell; in fact I think it will have the opposite effect. The more time people are spending alone in their houses pretending to be someone else, the harder it will be for them to actually function in society. There are social skills that you need in life that you cannot learn without interaction with real live humans.
Is our future doomed to consist of people sitting in their homes ordering virtual dinner for their virtual date while watching other people live their lives on reality television? I sure hope not.
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April 16, 2009 at 7:16 pm · Filed under Reading Response
In the article “World Wide Web” by Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Frystyk, and Arthur Secret, the authors definitely had the right idea of how intricate the internet would become after years of growth and change. Just ten years ago I received my first computer, and it was not nearly as advanced as computers or the web are today. At the end of the article they make a statement that is a perfect foreshadowing to the capabilities of our technology today:
“The Web does not yet meet its design goal as being a pool of knowledge that is as easy to update as to read. That level of immediacy of knowledge sharing waits for easy-to-use hypertext editors to be generally available on most platforms. Most information has in fact passed through publishers or system managers of one sort or another. However, the incredible diversity of information available gives great credit to the creativity and ingenuity of information providers, and points to a very exciting future”.
For those who have been using the web even before the extreme advancements in our technology, what have the changes meant to you?
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April 14, 2009 at 9:10 pm · Filed under Reading Response ·Tagged Diversity, Information Ecology, Library, Technology, writing, writing space
At the bottom of page 51 of Nardi and O’day’s Information Technologies, there is a quote that I found insightful.
“In an information ecology there are different kinds of people and different kinds of tools. In a healthy information ecology, they work together in a complementary way. In a library information ecology, for example, we find that librarians fill niches such as handling rare books, telling stories to children, answering reference questions, and publishing World Wide Web materials. All of these different roles of librarians help make the library work well for its community, providing different resources for varied audiences and their needs. the set of technological resources in a library is also diverse. There are computers that provide electronic catalogs and internet access, paper and pencils for writing down call numbers, and labels on shelves so you know which section of books you’re looking at.”
I thought this paragraph demonstrated a good example of the diversity aspect of information technologies. These technologies and services are very specific to the library. It would be strange to see some of these elements in other information ecologies. Each one is unique in its own way. Can you think of an example of another place that incorporates a specific, diverse set of writing resources?
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April 14, 2009 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Reading Response, Uncategorized
“Since the publication in 1954 of Ellul’s masterful The Technological Society, social critics have sounded alarms about the stress to the human mind and soul of having to adapt constantly to the new. These scholars point to the erosion of tradition and identity entailed by the constant necessity of moving on to the next tool, the next technology, the next fundamentally different way of doing things. We are adapting to technology rather than controlling its fruitful and pleasurable use.” (pg. 27)
I found the entire reading of “A Matter of Metaphor” to be very interesting and I found this passage (the one above) to be especially thought provoking. I found it thought provoking and interesting because I would have to agree with much of this passage. I do feel as though newer and so-called “better” technologies are being produced at a rapidly increasing rate. New TVs, new computers or laptops, and new cell phones are coming out so fast its becoming very hard to stay updated. The production of these new technologies are coming out so fast, I feel like am getting whiplash because whenever I turn my head something new pops up.
We are in a time where we are constantly looking for bigger (or smaller), better, faster and stronger things from the “techie” world. We demand these things but I wonder do we really need them? Do we really need them to come out as fast as they’re being put out? I also wonder if the critics from the above passage are correct. Are new technologies coming out faster than we can cope? At times I feel as though I would have to agree with the critics from above, I do think technology is moving faster than we are able to cope or have the tools to transition to the newest technology. New technology is coming out so fast that I don’t think we really understand how these new technologies really work or how they will affect us in the long run.
The only thing I might disagree with is the last sentence of the passage. Are we adapting to technology rather than controlling it? Would you agree with this assumption? Please discuss.
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April 14, 2009 at 7:29 pm · Filed under Reading Response
“One way of understanding technology is to see each technology as a tool, something made to fit the hands and minds of individual human beings. This is the most commonsense definition of technology, and indeed “tool” seems to be merely a synonym for technology. But as we explore all the metaphors–tool, text, system, ecology–it will be clear that tool is only one way of looking at technology. There are other meanings of technology. Technology goes far beyond the notion of device-used-by-an-individual-to-get-something-done, which is the way we think of it in everyday terms” (Nardi, O’Day 29).
I agree with this excerpt, in the sense that the technologies we have been lucky enough to have access to are much more than just tools that we use every day. They represent an important piece of our culture, having shaped the way we communicate over the course of thousands of years. Without these technologies we would be lost, with no way to exchange important information with other parts of the world or learn about cultures other than our own. Technologies have taught us everything we know, and their constant growth have given us the ability to learn even more at even faster rates, exposing us to ideas never thought possible. Our evolvement has depended so much on the information we are exposed to, and without technologies we would be left in the dark.
As for something to ponder….What does technology mean to you?
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The Creators' Conscience 