Second Blog fof Final; Final Blog

The more I think about and work on this paper I really see how much a college education encourages the use of technology. Before writing my paper I made a list of all the instances where some sort of technology was required or promoted by college. I just started to type and before I even realized it I had a page single spaced of all the times I used technology of some college related event. These really ran from the obvious of writing a paper, to paying for food etc with a college id/swipe card. The idea of swipe cards really got me thinking about how school technologies teach money spending habits. Students use a swipe cards to pay for nearly everything on campus, which changes how students learn to interact with money. This is an age, I believe, where people need to learn a sense of responsibility for money. After college is real life with real bills. Students should use this time in college, especially at Rutgers where a lot of students live off campus, to become accustomed to the saving and spending of money. However, using cards to pay for everything from cafeteria food to vending machines can create a dangerous mindset where students see money as something abstract rather than tangible. By swiping instead of using money people remove themselves from the real idea of money. If a person has cash on them, I think, they have a better understanding of the amount they hold and that this can run out. A card, a symbol of money, makes people accustomed to not really dealing with money and thinking of it in more intangible terms. Add to this that most parents pay for their child’s swipe card makes it hard for students to learn how to have a responsibility to money. This is also an age where people will start to receive applications for credit cards. Being accustomed to not supplying the money, and simply swiping a card to pay for something can become a very dangerous combination. It becomes too easy to get into credit card debt and not even realize how it happens. By having and using a swipe card this subtle and every day way, college students interact with a form of technology which has a potentially huge impact on behavior. It is scary how a swipe card and lead to credit card debt but these are outcomes of becoming compliant to technology.

First thoughts on final

My first thoughts on the final were about deciding which topic to write about. I decided to write on the first topic, colleges being a Technopoly. Having spent the past year away from most technology coming back to a world full of technology I found myself in an odd place.
There are number of ways and forms of technology which take over/controls/ influences colleges. These included things on a daily and sporadic time table. Every day use would include checking emails, Sakai and similar sites which require constant monitoring. Less ever day use includes writing papers, registering for classes, or research. For either use, it would be extremely difficult if not nearly impossible to complete a college education without access to a computer or internet.
It would be almost impossible to go to college without a computer. That is quite an interesting idea, and one I want to address in my paper, what if you can’t afford a computer, or it is hard to access one? It is one thing if a person lives on campus where they have easy access to computer labs. What about a school like Rutgers, where a lot of students commuter and do not have such easy access to computers or programs required for a class project. Say for example if a person needs to share the computer with their family. What if you don’t live at school and need to balance travel, a job, school, and computer lab hours? What if you live in New Brunswick and your laptop is stolen and you cannot afford to replace the computer? Given the importance of a college education for a job have to wonder how much this hurts the gap between the poor and middle class and impact on the digital divide.

This is further complicated by the need for college education for most jobs. Moreover, jobs want employees who can use a computer, at least know how to type or use the Internet. A person without computer skills, often honed in college, will have a harder time in the job market.
College students also use computers for their social life. Facebook is an almost daily activity for most college students. It informs students about parties and events, and is an easy way for people to keep track of old friends and events on campus. Another social use of technologies are “talking programs”, such as Instant messages, text, and Skype. These are constant forms of communication and needed to stay on top of a person’s social circle. Also important are recreational sites, for instance TFLN or FML. Having access to an internet and these sites helps people know what is cool, new slang, or even feel connected to a community.

Facebook

Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, recently faced a character attack after the release of The Social Network. The movie, a somewhat biographical depiction of Faceboook’s origins and legal troubles portrays Zuckerberg as arrogant, self assured and rude. The movie begins with Zuckerberg’s girlfriend not only dumping him but insulting him by insisting on his less than desirable personality. From the start, the movie actively portrays Mark as the “bad guy”. This is a theme constantly reinforced throughout the movie through the language, demeanor, and dress of Jessie Eisenberg, who played the part of Mark Zuckerberg. Comparatively, David Kirkpatrick’s work on the same topic, The Facebook Effect, gives an entirely different perspective on Zuckerberg. Compared to the hostile opening of the movie, the introduction of Kirkpatrick’s book tells how Facebook was used to generate support against the FRAC and helped stage a worldwide demonstration. From there Kirkpatrick moves to the fateful night when Zuckerberg created Facemash. In this telling, the author only breezes over women issues, rather than focusing on the topic. Throughout the book, the author seems to stray away from less favorable topics, and includes situations where Zuckerberg,, or Facebook come off in a better light. Advertising is an interesting example of such instances. Kirkpatrick constantly insists how Zuckerberg fought against ads and tried to restrict their presence on the site. Kirkpatrick writes “The last thing Zuckerberg wants was for it to feel like watching a network television, where the show is routinely interrupted by irrelevant and inane advertising” (236). By adding such comments the author makes Zuckerberg out to be someone who fights against “the man” and for the rights of the people to have their own space. The idea of creating a free space for users also appears when Kirkpatrick writes about Zuckerberg’s obsession with adding platforms to Facebook. Once again, Zuckerberg is seen fighting against the masses to create something great for Facebook. By adding such examples the books shows Zuckerberg as a hero, defending the rights of Facebook and its integrity to the users. By creating a character who protects and defends the site it is easier to have a sympathetic view of Zuckerberg. It is interesting how each portrayal takes a different approach to the same person through the use of examples. Rude person or not, Zuckerberg created Facebook and in doing so changed American culture.

Computer and Movies (free blog)

My friend and I were having a conversation the other day about a new feature being offered to her by her Internet company. Her cable and Internet are provided by the same company, this new feature makes it possible to download data from the television to her computer. This means ordered movies or shows recoded from the TV can now be viewed on a person’s computer. The more I thought about it the more I realized how much of the film industry was being dominated by computers. The merging of film and computer impacts the entire movie experience. How a movie is made, advertised and viewed has been altered by advances in computer technology.

Take for instance the different between older children’s movies, Beauty and the Beast or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to a newer one such as UP or Toy Story. In older films each panel had to be drawn and colored by hand, an arduous and time consuming task. The movie Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderful example of the hand crafting labor movies required. Each scene was crafted from clay, filmed, redone and filmed again. Comparatively, newer films shy away from such elaborate handmade work; both Up and Toy Story were created entirely by computer animation. Today most movies are done with CGI or other computer programs. The first three Star Wars movies and Avatar are perfect examples of computers making films. The fourth through sixth Star Wars (three original) were mostly done sans computers. Shooting took place in different locations for the multitude of terrains the movie required. Sets were built and actually blown up. One the other hand, the newer movies were mostly done in front of a green screen, and there were no ornately constructed puppets or costumes. Personally this was a huge disappointment, half of the wonder of the original three movies was watching all the action and thinking about how people were able to make the movies; there was such a feeling of movie wonder. Not to say this wonder has gone away, something like Avatar, which was done almost completely with computers, has its own sense of magic. However, this magic is computer based.
Advertising has a whole new medium, the Internet. Trailers now appear on YouTube exciting people and generating interest. One person can find a trailer for a new movie, and send the link to all their friends with similar taste is films. Instead of relying on traditional forms of advertisements, movie makers can put a trailer online and rely on word of mouth to get their movie out. The Internet has also cultivated our love for celebrity gossip. If Mel Gibson pulls a crazy stunt before one his movies is released and his actions are captured online, his new movie receives a lot of press. After a film has been made and advertised, it is finally time for viewing, another process impacted by computers. The theater is a dying experience; most people prefer to watch movies at home, more than likely on their computers. Movies can be instantly viewed on a computer, either legally or illegally. Sites such as Netflix have made this an extremely easy process. Now information can even be taken from the television and watched on a computer. Overall, the world of movies has been forever changed with the introduction of computers.

Free Blog

Internet communication sites engage with the non- virtual world in an interesting way; while operating online, these sites construct communities which impact real life events. This delicate balance allowed for the creation of alternative travel sites, for instance Squattheplanet.com (STP.com) and similar forums which encourage global or local travel on limited budget and resources. The site exists online, allowing travelers to retrieve necessary information or communicate with fellow squatters or housing families regardless of location and time. The communications on such a site help people locate homes, places to eat, and stay safe while traveling. Furthermore, they provide the comfort and social connections humans require. Constant travel across countries, or worlds, means leaving behind friends, family and all sense of communal ties, a situation which can become isolating. Squattheplantet.com provides members with something constant and unchanging, providing a sense of stability.
Online relationships operate in a similar manner to a normal community by providing support, aid, and information, even a space for self expression. STP provides a space to create an online profile; using these profiles people can create a traveling identity and format relationships with other like minded individuals. These profiles are less interested in relationship status and gender than they are experience with travel and being on the road. One reason I think this occurs is when people travel what becomes important in their ability to survive and go from one place to another; by focusing on these ideas the online community decides what traits and skills are important and reinforce their own social norms and values. Furthermore, it allows people to create a traveling identity. While running around the world, people are disconnected from any ties and traits they were once associated with and are given the chance to create a new persona. Because the site connects travelers to actual people, the new personality has a chance to become actualized. This is a major difference between this site and other social networking systems. Something like Facebook does not necessarily facilitate actual human contact. This site connects people from all over the world, in a virtual and physical manner.

Face my book

David Kirkpatrick ‘s book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World really explains what about Facebook is so unique and captivating. As the title suggests, the site deals with connecting people, and does so by changing the way people communicate. The Internet opened up new mediums for human interaction, and most of these are available on Facebook. This gives the site a great amount of power and prestige, something early investor such as the Washington Post and Accel noticed. There is a lot of worth and potential in a site which functions as a social interaction space. These early investors saw this and acted quickly and in the case of Accel hungrily. The willingness to pay millions of dollars for interest in the company demonstrates not only the power of such a site but the overall future want from Internet users.
Where once going away to college meant being disconnected from friends and family, Facebook has all but eliminated this problem. The site connects people, and allows for continuous communication through such features such as writing on people’s walls, poking and leaving messages. One interesting component mentioned by Kirkpatrick was the addition of photos to the site. Mostly used by girls at first, the posting of pictures adds an additional form of communication. Where once the happenings at a party had to be told first hand to others, it is now possible to go on Facebook and see what took place. In addition to telling story though picture, these photos also inform the world who people are friends with and what sort of social interaction they have with one another. As the author quotes, “I consider these people part of my life, and I want to who everyone I’m close to them” (155). By posting and tagging photos, users construct a type of hierarchy. Pictures are proof a person attended a party and how the other party goers interacted with that person. This can also be seen with groups, joining a group means the person has an interest, or at least wants other to think they have an interest in a particular idea. Joining certain groups creates an online persona for that user. By adding pictures or being tagged and joining groups, people can become “cool”, compared to others. The social interactions which ran high schools are now available online.
This idea of Facebook hierarchy even appears with online advertising. Advertising on Facebook almost guarantees the right people see certain advertisements, for example the Gwen Stefani “Hollaback” song. The advertisement was aimed at cheerleaders with the hope they would adopt it for their performances. Soon the song became popular during football games; being a cheerleader meant having first access to the song and a step up on this social hierarchy. Facebook may have changed how we communicate and connect with people, but certain parts of social interaction, for instance popularity, still remain.

FACEBOOK

After reading the first few chapters of David Kirkpatrick’s book the Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World, defining Faebook as the social network makes sense. Today the Facebook phenomenon connects peoples from all parts of the world on a single space, making it a social network. The origins of Facebook also play into this title, Facebook is the child of social networks. Putting aside the lawsuit between the Winkelzoss twins and Divya Narendra, it is hard to say exactly where the concept or idea of Facebook originated. Sites such as Friendster, Paxo and MySpace and the numerous others Kirkpatrick mentions in his work, all existed before Mark Zuckerberg created his site. These preexisting sites provided necessary information on how to properly run and expand the Facebook idea. From looking at these past projects Facebook could determine what ideas or products would help the site survive or fail. For instance, from watching the problems facing Friendster, Mark and his team knew they had to carefully monitor new member use or the site would become slower and less enticing. One of Facebooks biggest and earliest competitors, MySpace allowed anyone to be anybody when creating a page. Doing so made “it difficult to limit your connections to genuine friends.” (75), Facebook took a more restrictive approach. The insured user validity limited whose profiles could be viewed by whom, making the experience about connecting with people. Additionally, the creators relied on real world networking to make Facebook happen.
Facebook heavily depended on Sean Parker’s previous experience dealing with investors and online companies . Parker’s connections lead the Facebook team to their first major investor Thiel. Parker’s previous experiences made him taught him how to protect the autonomy of the site, and to abandon the Wirehog project, both valuable pieces of information. Networking with Sean Parker contributed to the success of Facebook. Facebook has become a revelation, its success in part dependent on personal social networks and already existing networking sites.