In the previous post, I discussed how I decided which position I would take in the argument of whether we are becoming a “disposable” society or a “green” society. Although deciding this position was a very crucial step in my process of writing this paper, the next and final step was still just as important. After deciding to support Giles Slade’s argument, the next step was to come up with a couple good supporting topics for this argument. This step involved a lot of critical thinking about what aspects of life really controlled the general state of a society. After thinking about, I cam to the conclusion that there were three main things that guided a society in one direction or another: technological development, economy, and the mindset of the average person. So, I decided to modify these topics a little bit so that they apply to our specific society and then use them for the supporting topics of my argument.
The final step in my process of writing this paper was basically just to actually write, or rather type, the paper up. I had my topics, so now it was time to jus fill in the little details and add explanations. Hammering away at a keyboard isn’t very interesting, but I did find it interesting to think about how America culture is being influenced by these topics. Explaining the three topics I chose in detail really forced me to think about how each one was effecting American culture and driving it in a certain direction. I suppose the thing I was most surprised to find was how complacent most people are with just taking advice from advertisements and the media. It is not too hard to research information and find out the true facts for yourself, so the only logical conclusion that one can come to is that people just don’t even care to try. I suppose I always though this, but writing this paper really brought these thoughts to the forefront of my mind. I suppose it is just a matter of either laziness or foolishness, or maybe both, but either way I feel that it is definitely one of the biggest problems facing American culture today.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Final Essay Analysis (Part II: Finding Sources and Building an Argument)
Continuing the process of writing an essay for the final assignment of my technology and culture in America class, the next step was to decide on a position for my argument. Basically, I could either argue that Giles Slade was correct in his book Made to Break and that we are moving toward a disposable society, or that he is incorrect and that society is moving away from disposability by “going green”. After thinking about it for a bit and looking at some possible online sources, I decided to agree with Giles Slade and argue that our society is becoming disposable. Before I even started looking at sources, I had already decided most likely that I would go with this argument, but reading extra information from outside sources really made me positive that this was the position I wanted to take.
After roughly deciding the position I wanted to take in this essay, finding sources was the next step. Finding sources and seeing the general attitude of sources from both positions was what I used to either prove to myself that this was the position I wanted to take or that I should go with the counter-argument. Although Made to Break by Giles Slade was my primary sources, find some outside sources was not very difficult at all, being that this whole “green” movement is getting bigger and more advertised every day. After reading through sources, I found it quite interesting that most of the sources promoting the “green” and talking about things like global warming really weren’t scientific at all. All of the information I found from actual scientists and experts in their fields basically said the opposite and greatly supported the argument that our society is becoming disposable. Most of the scientific sources even denied the effectiveness of many of the products promoted as “green” movement and even stated they were harmful to the environment. To me, this really confirmed that I should argue in favor of Giles Slade. Also, this really proved to me how strong an influence the media and advertisers have on society. American culture is definitely an impatient one, and other than helping me to confirm which argument I wanted to take, these sources really showed me that more often than not people would rather believe media hype than do research themselves to prove whether something is true or not.
After roughly deciding the position I wanted to take in this essay, finding sources was the next step. Finding sources and seeing the general attitude of sources from both positions was what I used to either prove to myself that this was the position I wanted to take or that I should go with the counter-argument. Although Made to Break by Giles Slade was my primary sources, find some outside sources was not very difficult at all, being that this whole “green” movement is getting bigger and more advertised every day. After reading through sources, I found it quite interesting that most of the sources promoting the “green” and talking about things like global warming really weren’t scientific at all. All of the information I found from actual scientists and experts in their fields basically said the opposite and greatly supported the argument that our society is becoming disposable. Most of the scientific sources even denied the effectiveness of many of the products promoted as “green” movement and even stated they were harmful to the environment. To me, this really confirmed that I should argue in favor of Giles Slade. Also, this really proved to me how strong an influence the media and advertisers have on society. American culture is definitely an impatient one, and other than helping me to confirm which argument I wanted to take, these sources really showed me that more often than not people would rather believe media hype than do research themselves to prove whether something is true or not.
Final Essay Analysis (Part I: Choosing a Topic)
For the final assignment in the class “Technology and Culture in America”, all students were given the task of writing a final essay. There were two topics to choose from: whether or not college campuses are technopolies, as defined by Neil Postman, or whether America is going to become to become a disposable society, as described by Giles Slade, or move towards “going green”. After reading the topics, I considered a couple things before deciding which one I would choose. I considered things such as how valid an argument I could make for each topic, which topic brought up the most ideas when I thought about it, and also which topic would allow me to write an essay that would be interesting to write as well as read.
After thinking about each topic for a bit, I decided that I would make an argument regarding whether our society is becoming disposable or not. This topic seemed to suit me the best. I like to think of myself as a scientific minded person, and I think writing about obsolescence was more scientific. Although there definitely is evidence to support and deny the existence of technopolies in our colleges, it all just seemed more subjective and controversial to me. It just seemed like every argument could be taken in a different manner depending one’s own views, which in my mind reduces the validity of the arguments. I felt that, making an argument about whether our society is becoming disposable would involve more scientific facts and information about the direction in which technology is moving and that felt like a topic that would be more interesting to write as well as read. Also, writing an argument about whether or not our entire society is becoming disposable involves a much more vast social area than just talking about college campuses. This made this topic feel all the more important to me, which really finalized my decision.
After thinking about each topic for a bit, I decided that I would make an argument regarding whether our society is becoming disposable or not. This topic seemed to suit me the best. I like to think of myself as a scientific minded person, and I think writing about obsolescence was more scientific. Although there definitely is evidence to support and deny the existence of technopolies in our colleges, it all just seemed more subjective and controversial to me. It just seemed like every argument could be taken in a different manner depending one’s own views, which in my mind reduces the validity of the arguments. I felt that, making an argument about whether our society is becoming disposable would involve more scientific facts and information about the direction in which technology is moving and that felt like a topic that would be more interesting to write as well as read. Also, writing an argument about whether or not our entire society is becoming disposable involves a much more vast social area than just talking about college campuses. This made this topic feel all the more important to me, which really finalized my decision.
The Counter-Productivity of Social Media
I recently read an interesting article on CNN.com, so I thought I would use one of my available free posts to analyze this article. The article, titled “Exploring the Anti-social Side of Social Media”, is essentially about a woman who tries to make people realize that the social media that is supposedly bring people together is actually driving them apart. Going about it in a bit of a peculiar way, Cristin Norine decided to live in glass quarters located on a street corner for 30 days. Except for the bathroom, every room could be seen into by people passing by outside and the only way Norine could communicate with the outside world was thorugh the internet. According to Cristin Norine, the goal of this exhibitionism was to show people how although the internet can be used to connect people from different parts of the world, it is ultimately putting glass walls between us and the people around us.
Reading this article, I find myself having mixed feelings. On the one hand, I agree with Norine’s assessment about social media, but on the other hand I feel as though Norine really did not go about spreading this knowledge in an appropriate way. I have always found it ironic how social media like facebook and twitter are actually creating more and more distance between people rather than bringing them together. Sure, they may allow two people from countries apart to chat with each other, but they are destroying people’s ability to talk to someone who is right in front of them. Instead of meeting someone and having to experience the mystery of finding out information about them through personal contact and experience, things like facebook are essentially turning people into introvert stalkers who just lurk around facebook whenever they want to find out information about someone. In this aspect, I agree with Norine and am glad that not everyone has completely fallen under social media’s spell.
Although I agree with Norine’s perspectives, I really think her exhibitionism just got her attention rather than spreading a message. Many people walking by on the street probably did not even understand why she was doing this. To those people it was basically just a circus act to amuse them for a couple minutes on their way to and from work. Also, even for the people who did understand her reasons for this, I highly doubt that it actually caused any of them to think about how much they use social media and the consequences it is having on their lives. I am sure that doing this got Norine a lot of attention and media recognition, but I doubt it actually helped get her message across. Her intentions were wonderful, but the execution was less than proper.
The article can be read at this link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/19/social.media.isolation.project/index.html
Reading this article, I find myself having mixed feelings. On the one hand, I agree with Norine’s assessment about social media, but on the other hand I feel as though Norine really did not go about spreading this knowledge in an appropriate way. I have always found it ironic how social media like facebook and twitter are actually creating more and more distance between people rather than bringing them together. Sure, they may allow two people from countries apart to chat with each other, but they are destroying people’s ability to talk to someone who is right in front of them. Instead of meeting someone and having to experience the mystery of finding out information about them through personal contact and experience, things like facebook are essentially turning people into introvert stalkers who just lurk around facebook whenever they want to find out information about someone. In this aspect, I agree with Norine and am glad that not everyone has completely fallen under social media’s spell.
Although I agree with Norine’s perspectives, I really think her exhibitionism just got her attention rather than spreading a message. Many people walking by on the street probably did not even understand why she was doing this. To those people it was basically just a circus act to amuse them for a couple minutes on their way to and from work. Also, even for the people who did understand her reasons for this, I highly doubt that it actually caused any of them to think about how much they use social media and the consequences it is having on their lives. I am sure that doing this got Norine a lot of attention and media recognition, but I doubt it actually helped get her message across. Her intentions were wonderful, but the execution was less than proper.
The article can be read at this link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/19/social.media.isolation.project/index.html
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Facebook Effect (Part III)
Yesterday it seemed like facebook was just some start up company with couple kids working there, but tomorrow it seems like facebook might rule the world. In the third part of The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick, David discusses how facebook began expanding into much more than just a mere website. He begins by talking about the transformation of facebook into a platform, which according to David had been a goal for Zuckerberg ever since he first made facebook. Turning facebook into a plateform expanded its potential exponentially. It turned facebook into a system off which other software and applications could be run. Also, with the addition of the news feed, after a relatively small protest from users, facebook’s usage began growing even more rapidly. After this expansion of facebook’s abilities, David Kirkpatrick discusses how facebook was turned into a highly profitable enterprise. This was highly due to the acquisition of Sheryl Sandberg, who was hired as the COO of facebook and took charge of facebook’s ad campaign while Zuckerberg was traveling around the world. This new movement in facebook ads led to a serious increase in revenue for the first time. Up until then, although facebook was held at very high standards and valued at a very high worth, it really wasn’t making that much money. After discussing facebook’s road to monetary success, David Kirkpatrick talks about the new direction Zuckerberg began taking facebook in, world expansion. This is where I think David Kirkpatrick makes his main arguments during this part of the book. During this time in facebook’s life, Zuckerberg mainly concentrated on expanding it to the entire world. It had already spread to many parts of the world other than the United States, but it was only used by people who could speak English. Zuckerberg began creating translations of facebook so that it could be used by speakers of other languages. This led to a global expansion of facebook. It is in this expansion that I think the main argument was made by Kirkpatrick. With this great expansion of facebook, users all around the world now held a great deal of power in their hands and could right the wrongs that before they would have to just accept.
Although expanding facebook globally was a arduous task, it allowed facebook to attain a level of power that no other internet company has. It is in this power that I feel David Kirkpatrick makes is main argument. This power facebook users now possessed was the power of common goals. Now that facebook was so large and expansive, all around the world people could virtually come together to protest about any issue they wanted. If anyone wanted to protest about something, they could start a group about the issue and it would be almost certain they would get thousands of members within days that would share their views. According to David Kirkpatrick, it seems like this power is a wonderful thing that allows people around the world to fight injustices that before they could not. A prime example of this is Oscar Morales, who started a group against the FARC. After a short amount of time, the group had 350,000 members and led to a 10 million people march against the FARC (pg. 1-6, 288). Although in this case and admittedly numerous others, facebook gave people the power the fight back against injustices, overall I would still have to disagree with David Kirkpatrick’s argument. Facebook may be a tool that can help many people come together to fight a good cause, but I think by far the larger percentage of users do not use facebook for anything so noble. I think this technology just further supports Neil Postman’s views about technopoly. As with all technology, the potential for it to be used to help humanity and do the world good is always there. But the ease, convenience, and shear quantity of it causes most people to use it for selfish reasons. Facebook has the option of being used to fight causes and injustices, but from my own experiences it is much more often used just to satisfy people’s want for attention and fame.
Although expanding facebook globally was a arduous task, it allowed facebook to attain a level of power that no other internet company has. It is in this power that I feel David Kirkpatrick makes is main argument. This power facebook users now possessed was the power of common goals. Now that facebook was so large and expansive, all around the world people could virtually come together to protest about any issue they wanted. If anyone wanted to protest about something, they could start a group about the issue and it would be almost certain they would get thousands of members within days that would share their views. According to David Kirkpatrick, it seems like this power is a wonderful thing that allows people around the world to fight injustices that before they could not. A prime example of this is Oscar Morales, who started a group against the FARC. After a short amount of time, the group had 350,000 members and led to a 10 million people march against the FARC (pg. 1-6, 288). Although in this case and admittedly numerous others, facebook gave people the power the fight back against injustices, overall I would still have to disagree with David Kirkpatrick’s argument. Facebook may be a tool that can help many people come together to fight a good cause, but I think by far the larger percentage of users do not use facebook for anything so noble. I think this technology just further supports Neil Postman’s views about technopoly. As with all technology, the potential for it to be used to help humanity and do the world good is always there. But the ease, convenience, and shear quantity of it causes most people to use it for selfish reasons. Facebook has the option of being used to fight causes and injustices, but from my own experiences it is much more often used just to satisfy people’s want for attention and fame.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Informative Websites
www.cramster.com
Cramster is a website that works as a learning tool. It allows people to view detailed step by step solutions to the problems in many science and math related textbooks. Furthermore, it also the users to contest a step in a problem solution if they feel it is wrong. There is also a forum in which people can further discuss textbook solutions or any problem with other users as well as experts.
www.webmd.com
WebMD is a website that allows users to research medical information. Users can use this website to search for symptoms of a certain disease or just search for symptoms and learn about what possible diseases could result from such symptoms. Also, users can use WebMD to chat directly with medical experts.
www.physicsforums.com
Physicsforums, as the link implies, is a forum dedicated to the communal information exchange of all things science. Although the link says physics, really this forum can be used to help someone who needs information about any type of science, whether its physics, mathematics, or even engineering problems. Once signed up, a forum member can ask any question about some type of science in the appropriate forum section and most of the time will promptly be aided by one of the numerous knowledgeable members.
www.autotrader.com
Autotrader is a website that gives everyone one place where they can post their automotive ads for the world to see. Whether you’re looking to sell or buy a car, autotrader will give you more options than any magazine ever could. Autotrader is especially helpful in connecting a buyer and seller who aren’t close to each other. If a person is looking for a specific type of car and is willing to have one shipped from California to New Jersey to get it, than Autotrader will be especially helpful.
www.drifting.com
Drifting is a website that allows everyone who is interested in the motor sport known as drift racing to meet and discuss different aspects of the sport. It allows people who are new to the sport to learn all about it and talk to people who have been interested in drifting for years. Also, it allows people to talk to professional drift racers and ask them questions. Its place where anyone can keep updated with the sport.
Cramster is a website that works as a learning tool. It allows people to view detailed step by step solutions to the problems in many science and math related textbooks. Furthermore, it also the users to contest a step in a problem solution if they feel it is wrong. There is also a forum in which people can further discuss textbook solutions or any problem with other users as well as experts.
www.webmd.com
WebMD is a website that allows users to research medical information. Users can use this website to search for symptoms of a certain disease or just search for symptoms and learn about what possible diseases could result from such symptoms. Also, users can use WebMD to chat directly with medical experts.
www.physicsforums.com
Physicsforums, as the link implies, is a forum dedicated to the communal information exchange of all things science. Although the link says physics, really this forum can be used to help someone who needs information about any type of science, whether its physics, mathematics, or even engineering problems. Once signed up, a forum member can ask any question about some type of science in the appropriate forum section and most of the time will promptly be aided by one of the numerous knowledgeable members.
www.autotrader.com
Autotrader is a website that gives everyone one place where they can post their automotive ads for the world to see. Whether you’re looking to sell or buy a car, autotrader will give you more options than any magazine ever could. Autotrader is especially helpful in connecting a buyer and seller who aren’t close to each other. If a person is looking for a specific type of car and is willing to have one shipped from California to New Jersey to get it, than Autotrader will be especially helpful.
www.drifting.com
Drifting is a website that allows everyone who is interested in the motor sport known as drift racing to meet and discuss different aspects of the sport. It allows people who are new to the sport to learn all about it and talk to people who have been interested in drifting for years. Also, it allows people to talk to professional drift racers and ask them questions. Its place where anyone can keep updated with the sport.
Solo Presentation
Although having internet security is more important today than it has ever been, it seems as though people today are neglecting to consider it more than they ever have. Last class, I presented an article about security issues dealing with bank applications that have been made available to smart phones such as the iphone and droid. The idea behind these applications is that with this application on a person’s phone, they are always connected to their bank accounts and can quickly check the status of them at anytime. In this article, Andrew Hoog, chief officer for the company viaForensics, researched and scrutinized seven different banking applications to see if the had any security flaws. All of them except one had security flaws and some of the flaws were pretty serious. One of them actually stored the account holder’s username and password in a text file on the phone. With this flaw, all someone would have to do to gain access to your bank account is either just steal your phone or make a virus that steals the files off your phone. Using these applications seems like a pretty big gamble.
I always thought these types of applications were risky and dangerous to use, but after discussing this article with the class, it seems like most people who actually take the time to think about it would agree with me. I asked the class if it seems like people are giving up security in exchange for convenience when they use applications like this and pretty much everyone seemed to agree that people are doing this. After seeing this response from the class, I have to believe that pretty much anyone with a properly functioning brain would come to the same conclusion. Therefore, it seems that people are actually willing to give up security and safety in exchange for quick and easy access. Really, when you think about it, something can not be secure and easy to access; that is just an oxymoron. A person can either have one or the other or maybe some balance of the two. This culture’s indifference to security or the consequences of its actions are really exemplified with these banking applications. Anytime a new product comes out there is always a time period in which flaws are found and re-calls are made to fix the problems. It should have been obvious when these banking applications first came out that there would be initial flaws in them, but no one cared and tons of these applications were downloaded. All people cared about were how easy the applications made banking. Looking at the path our culture is traveling on right now, when someone looks up the history of our culture someday far in the future, it seems as though the main adjectives that will be used to describe us are words such as foolish, impatient, and indifferent to the consequences of our actions.
I always thought these types of applications were risky and dangerous to use, but after discussing this article with the class, it seems like most people who actually take the time to think about it would agree with me. I asked the class if it seems like people are giving up security in exchange for convenience when they use applications like this and pretty much everyone seemed to agree that people are doing this. After seeing this response from the class, I have to believe that pretty much anyone with a properly functioning brain would come to the same conclusion. Therefore, it seems that people are actually willing to give up security and safety in exchange for quick and easy access. Really, when you think about it, something can not be secure and easy to access; that is just an oxymoron. A person can either have one or the other or maybe some balance of the two. This culture’s indifference to security or the consequences of its actions are really exemplified with these banking applications. Anytime a new product comes out there is always a time period in which flaws are found and re-calls are made to fix the problems. It should have been obvious when these banking applications first came out that there would be initial flaws in them, but no one cared and tons of these applications were downloaded. All people cared about were how easy the applications made banking. Looking at the path our culture is traveling on right now, when someone looks up the history of our culture someday far in the future, it seems as though the main adjectives that will be used to describe us are words such as foolish, impatient, and indifferent to the consequences of our actions.
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