Final Paper Blog Post 2. Process

In doing some research about the green movement and it actually stands for I can conclude that it wont change the direction of our disposable society.  Going green is definitely helping the environment and its an important movement with real results.  But its only a minor dent into the growing problem that Slade describes in Made to Break.  The problem is much more involved then car pooling and buying a green light bulb.  It is in our mindsets that we must constantly purchase new products such as cars and cell phones even before our previous one is inoperable.  The second fact is that almost everything we buy is planned to not last very long.  Advancements in technology and constantly evolving the products that we use everyday requiring us to keep up with the times and purchase the newest, most advanced products.  The green movement is good, but unless it puts a stop to the advancement of technology, I don't think it will change the fact that we live in a disposable society.

Final Paper, First Post

For my final paper I will answer the question addressing Giles Slade's book "Made to Break."  I find this topic very interesting and relevant to our current time and the near future.  Society has made progress in going green with the recent movement to help reduce the use of harmful things that destroy our environment.  Although we have made progress on this topic, and I believe we will continue to make progress, our society cannot break away from being a disposable society.  Our lifestyles are too embedded in using products that are meant to be thrown away.  Technology also plays a large role in our disposable lifestyle.  In Slade's book he gives detail to how the advancement of technology leads to making its predecessor obsolete.  Products such as cell phones, cars, TV's and refrigerators will continue to advance and the need to update and replace will always be in demand.  My further research and Slade's book should be able to provide information in supporting my answer to this question.

Facebook Part 3

The third part to Kirkpatrick's "Facebook Effect" primarily discusses what platforms are and how Zuckerberg was able to include a platform for facebook.  Basically having a platform allows other companies to make their own applications that can be installed into users facebook profiles.  Added the platform to facebook allows for much more interaction with facebook users and also outside companies to join in on the "facebook effect."  The possibles to applications are endless as thousands of programmers are all taking part in developing applications for facebook.  Kirkpatrick mentions some of the applications that are very popular and still used today such as photos, the wall, and causes.  These applications allow users to have a greater interaction with the site and also with friends and family.  What I also found interesting is that Zuckerberg had no plans in charging companies for their ability to develop and use applications on facebook.  He feels that this should be free to anyone who wishes to engage with the facebook platform, sticking to his long term view of his company and facebook.  I also found it interesting that facebook is developing the largest database for information for advertisers.  Companies can now advertise on facebook and feed their ads specifically to people who would be interested in their product.  After reading this I logged onto facebook to take a look at the advertisements that I never care to look at on the left hand side of the page.  I can see that the advertisements are in conjunction with the certain websites that I visit.  This aspect of facebook will change the way companies advertise to their customers.  So can see as you read through Kirkpatrick's book that Zuckerberg truly didn't know the potential of facebook when he first developed it, and it still continues to advance and become larger and more aspects and applications are being added.  The possibilities are endless.

The Social Network

Watching the social network was gave a little insight to the beginnings of facebook and how Zuckerberg was able to develop his idea.  They portrayed him to be an intelligent, cocky person that had a fearless attitude.  The movie shows how Zuckerberg and his room mates started from nothing and developed a website first for the people of his school, and soon to the people of the world.  After reading the book, "The Facebook Effect,"  by David Kirkpatrick I was able to see that there was a little cinematic drama added to make the movie slightly more interesting.  Nevertheless the movie was a good eye opener to the beginnings of facebook and its future impact on the internet and society.  The amount of interest that developed at such an early stage of the company shows how groundbreaking Zuckerberg's ideas were.  Although The Social Network altered the appearance and personality of Zuckerberg it was still interesting to watch and learn about the development of facebook.

Facebook effect part 2

The second part of Kirkpatrick's book describes the beginnings of thefacebook becoming a large social phenomenon.  It was interesting to learn about how venture capitalists from the west began to take interest in thefacebook and I find it truly amazing of the amount of money that was willing to be spent on a company of such a young age and small size.  The amount of attention thefacebook was getting a such an early stage shows the importance of the idea Zuckerberg had and its impact to come in the future.

Once the bidding war between The Post and Accel ended, the company was ready to take building and expanding on Zuckerberg's vision.  Not only was thefacebook able to recruit top programmers from other top companies such as Amazon and Google, but their ability to recruit young bright adults that haven't graduated from college yet.  People were beginning to catch on to the impact thefacebook could have and how large it could actually become.  For someone to stop in the middle of their degree and become a full time employee of a up and coming company says a lot about how successful it would become.  The atmosphere that was created around the office was also something I found interesting.  The laid back flip-flop attitude helped stay true to the idea of thefacebook and how Zuckerberg and company were not going to play by the normal script of a multimillion dollar company.

Facebook Effect Part 1

It is very interesting to read about the start of face book and how it has become the social powerhouse it is today.  Zuckerberg ran into many issues while first building face book into what is it today, but the choices he made turned out to be the right ones, and face book has now become a revolutionary movement in the social network realm.  The idea started out relatively small, with only targeting college students and requiring an .edu email address.  By expanding on other social networks already available, Zuckerberg was able to expand face book into what it is today.

It is interesting to think back before the time of face book and remember when AOL instant messaging was one of the most popular ways to be involved in social networking and chat with friends.  This concept has been expanded by face book and other social networks to a much more intricate and sophisticated way to build social networks.  With millions of people now joining the face book movement, people from all over the world and multiply languages can all join in on the largest social network in the world.  The social implications that face book has on society is the ability to be far apart from people, but still be able to keep in touch with them.  The way society is communicating with each other is changing, and the normal face to face interactions has now moved onto the internet.  I think that the future will only expand on this notion and face book will become more and more apart of peoples lives.  Although I have face book, I think the fact that people are using face book rather then having face to face interactions will have a negative effect on society.  As we move into the future, we will see just how big the face book effect will become, and its overall effect on our society and culture.

Wikipedia Midterm analysis

I thought that our assignment on the Wikipedia audit was very interesting and also eye opening.  By taking a deeper look into Wikipedia, I was able to learn where the information from these articles was coming from.  Ive learned that Wikipedia isn't really the best source for information about certain topics.  I think the main function that Wikipedia holds in terms of information seeking is that it can touch the surface on topics to give the reader the main idea of the situation, but I wouldn't recommend using it as a scholarly source.  In our audit of the Katrina article on Wikipedia, we found that many of the sources were bias especially the information on the sociopolitical aspect of the article.  Although the factual information about the storm was accurate, such as statistical damage and other quantitative information.  The overall analysis of Wikipedia is that it contains a large amount of bias that needs to be taken into consideration while using Wikipedia to gain information.

Made to Break Part 3

The third part of Giles Slade's book "Made to Break"  continues the argument of how technology in America is planned obsolescence.  Despite the large amount of positive things that technology has provided us, there is a large amount of negativity as well.  I thought it was interesting to learn things about the cold war and how planned obsolescence can be applied to war situations and weapon manufacturing.  What is most interesting to me is how this concept of planned obsolescence has evolved from first being introduced from small things like female products to the large mass production of things like computers that will be out of date within a year.

Its also very interesting that this notion of obsolescence is somewhat hidden to the majority of the public.  People cannot realize the harmful effect that constant technological advances has on society.  This notion is also deeply embedded into our culture that its hard to see the other side of things.  For example, I am not one that believes in the idea of leasing a car.  I think its not to smart to basically "rent" a car for three years and just trade it in for something else.  Although you get to use the car everyday but you still aren't really paying towards something.  Many people that I know lease cars and they prefer not to have it any other way.  Everyone wants something new, but they are not exposed to the giant waste that is being produced.

Although Slade mainly displays the negative effect that technological obsolescence has on society, I think that there is still some positive effects to this.  For instance, we use technology in our hospitals that help save lives everyday.  We are constantly evolving our technology in our hospitals to better serve to public and save lives.  We have technology now that we didn't have ten years ago, and this fact is keeping people alive from things like injuries and cancer.

Although technological obsolescence is mainly a negative concept for society, I think it would be best to find some sort of balance that can ultimately cut down on our waste but improve other things to help us be a cleaner, more efficient society.

Made to break part 2

The second part of Giles Slade book gives insight to obsolescence in the form of innovation.  The story behind the start of AM/FM radio and television is an example of the growth of technology and the positive and negative effects it has on society.  Slade builds upon the notion of technological obsolescence with radio and the changing from AM to the more advanced FM radio signal.  After millions of homes installed an AM radio, the FM radio hits the market a few years later making the AM radio useless.  This is not only a significant advancement in technology but also shows the advancement of society and how they run side to side.  Technology has become integrated into our lives to the point that when technology changes and advances, so does society.  The invention of the radio and television changed society in many ways.  The radio became the a way to get news faster then any other previous way such as the newspaper.  When the television hit the market, it again changed society in a large scale.  The story behind the invention and progress of radio and television not only shows our technological obsolescence but also how technology and society functions together, and changes together as well.

Made to Break, Part 1

"Made to break," by Giles Slade, gives insight to the evolution of how products became produces to essentially break.  These products range from the watch on your wrist to the car that you drive.  American business have produced a nation that worships the saying of out with the old and in with the new.  The book explains the history of how the American industry developed obsolescence to increase sales of their products.  Its not good business to make something that will last forever, but rather invent a way to keep the customer coming back for the same thing. 

This notion of progressive obsolescence  has a large impact on society.  It has developed a culture of people that constantly want new things with no end in sight.  I too am guilty of this as well from buying TVs, cars, cell phones, and computer when all of my previous items were still usable.  This way of life is also a large producer of waste.  Products are being mass produced at such an alarming rate only to soon be outdated or not functional.  This creates a waste problem that is depicted on the cover of Slade's book.  It is no question that the the notion of a made to break society has drastic negative effects.  As time goes on and technology becomes more and more advanced, I believe that this will only get worse.  Companies are going to find way to make things cheaper and cheaper to increase their profits, and decrease the quality of the products.

Wiki Part 2

The second part to Andrew Dalby's book further discusses Wikipedia and the reasons behind its popularity.  Dalby talks about the reasons why people love Wikipedia and also delivers reasons why Wikipedia its popular in a lot of peoples minds.  The concept of Wikipedia is truly remarkable and has revolutionized how we share and receive information.  I think the biggest concept to take from this book is how powerful Wikipedia can be, and its social consequences.  Looking at it from a communication perspective, Wikipedia has made it easy to share and edit useful information and has become a source for knowledge about almost anything.  It has evolved into an online community that consists of people from all over the world.  As Dalby says in the book, the freedom of being able to communicate your voice to this online community is why Wikipedia has been so successful. 

The unique thing about Wikipedia is that its constantly evolving from new edits and threads added every minute.  The more time that passed to more information that is added to Wikipedia and there seems to be no end.  This has a a impact on society because it has created a live source for information and a community of knowledge.  Wikipedia is another player in the emergence in social networking by being able to connect people all over the world.  This has truly changed the way people obtain information and will only grow larger as we move into the future.

Technopoly 2

In the second half of this book, Postman continues his argument about technology and its negative effects on our culture.  He believes that with every new technology that is used in our lives, it takes something away from us, and this I believe is Postman's main argument.  I agree with Postman in this sense and I can begin to see the impact that technology has on me and others around me.  For instance, I used a calculator just before I wrote this to do some simple math.  Although I could have maybe done it in my head or wrote it out by hand, I used to calculator because its fast and easy.  The more I go to this method of math the less math skills I will posses and eventually I will need the calculator to do almost all addition and subtraction.  Maybe a more notable example of Postman's argument about technology is with my cousin and his horrible driving skills.  Not only is he a bad driver but he has no sense of direction and therefor has to use his GPS for almost everywhere he goes.  The GPS works great for him and it allows him to get to where he needs to be, but it also infringes on his ability to gain a sense of direction.  He will probably never learn because as long as he has his GPS he will just have to turn when it tells him to.

These examples are the main argument that Postman delivers in his book "Technopoly."  Although I was technology on a regular basis, I have to agree with Postman and his negative view of technology.  I think that his notion of a culture that is dependent on technology has only begun and will continue to become more prevalent in time to come.

Technopoly Part 1

"Technopoly" by Neil Postman, is about the history of technology and its impact on our culture.  He begins by explaining the very start of technology and how it changes our culture.  Postman has an interesting view of technology because his argument leans toward the negative side of technology and our dependence on it.  His argument sheds light onto the other side of technology, a side that most people do not realize today.  How can something that helps us complete daily tasks everyday more effeiently be something negative?

I find it very interesting when Postman talks about the very early years of technology and the story about the invention of writing, and its negative affects.  It was argued that the ability to write had a negative impact on our ability to remember and recall information from our brains.  To even consider writing to be a technology was a bit of a surprise to me because of how embedded writing is in our daily lives.  When I hear the word technology I think of cars, cell phone, or a computer.  The first half of this book raises some interesting points about technology and its negative impact on our society and has changed my view of what technology is and its impact on our society.

"Computers"

"Computer" by Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro is a book about the invention of the first computer and the evolution it has taken to become what computers are today.  From the very first computer that needed to take up an entire room, to the PC's and laptops that are used today.  It is fascinating to learn the history of computers and how fast they have evolved to the technological companion they are today.  The book also gives insight to have fast technology has progressed and can only make you wonder about what the future of computers and technology will hold.

The historical journey of the computer is truly fascinating on two levels.  The first being the human ability to create such technologies and to continue to improve, make smaller, and become more efficient.  The second level is the social change that has come along with the invention of the computer.  The PC and the laptop has become and everyday tool for our culture and has truley changed the direction of our culture.  We no longer have to walk outside to pick up the daily newspaper to get our news, nor do we need to take a few more steps to our mailbox to get our mail.  Learning about the evolution of the computer only makes me ponder of what is to come in our future, and how it will once again bring social change.

Reaction to my internet log.

While reviewing my log to my internet use, I noticed that I use the internet much more then I originally thought.  The majority of the internet use was for entertainment only.  I went online to check my fantasy football team, you tube, and also to listen to music.  I also used my blackberry to gain useful information such as the train schedule for New Brunswick so I could know when to head towards the train station.  I mainly realized from my logs is that I use the internet a lot more then I first thought.  The internet is a very useful and important tool that I use periodically during each day.

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