The video EPIC 2014 is a scary guess from 2004 on what the world would be like with technology in 2014. It mentioned that newspapers will be overthrown by e-papers, which are electronic newspapers. The video said that newspapers will slowly die and news and media will slowly but surely be consumed by people online. Thus, leaving newspapers to extinction. Today, in 2014 most people prefer to read their news online because it is quicker. However in class, Andrew mentioned that sometimes even the quickest option is not as reliable. But this does not matter, on the internet, things can be edited and are not exactly permanent. But on paper, once the news comes out, the newspaper company would have to wait for another issue to be able to apologize for giving out the wrong information on paper. I personally would like to have the news first and corrected as soon as possible, rather than having to talk about it and later find out after a week that it was false. The newspaper has truly become just for the "elite and the elderly" as the video predicted, I don't see many young people reading the newspapers. In UWT, there are always newspapers stacked on the racks, but never empty. The news travels fast and they travel through word of mouth and the internet. The newspapers "per se" are now longer than 5 minutes behind on the news because of our access to site such as: Twitter, Google News, CNN.com, etc..
"Welcome to our world the Evolving Personalized Information Construct [EPIC]. Is the system by which our sprawling chaotic mediascape is filtered, ordered, delivered. Everyone contributes now from blog entries, to phone cam images, to video reports, to full investigations. Many people get paid too, a tiny cut of Google's immense advertising revenue." Think about it. This is happening right now. The computers filter, order, and deliver our: e-mails, searches, news, etc.. We contribute through: Twitter, blogs, YouTube. And yes, many people get paid for their sites for having advertisements in their blogs, and the media and information that we provide in our social media is contributing to the information that can be accessed in the web; whether it is private or not, it is accessible in one way or another. We are living through the world of EPIC 2014.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
A Visit from Erik Hansberg
Erik Hansberg's visit has me thinking about my identity on the internet. "The person on the internet isn't really them in real life." he said. That is true, when you go on a site that someone actively participates on, you will only see one side of them. However, if we put all the data of a person in different sites together, will we see the whole person?
Nowadays, the majority of internet users have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and/or Tumblr. All these things are all connected to one's personal life. If all the data of each of these sites would merge together for a certain person, we could possible guess what the person is like. During Erik Hansberg's talk, LinkedIn came up in conversation. And I ask, are we willing to give out our professional life out for the world to be accessed as well? If we add LinkedIn to all the social media sites that we already own, aren't we basically giving out all information on who we are on the internet? Will we ever have complete privacy without giving up advantages like security?
Nowadays, the majority of internet users have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and/or Tumblr. All these things are all connected to one's personal life. If all the data of each of these sites would merge together for a certain person, we could possible guess what the person is like. During Erik Hansberg's talk, LinkedIn came up in conversation. And I ask, are we willing to give out our professional life out for the world to be accessed as well? If we add LinkedIn to all the social media sites that we already own, aren't we basically giving out all information on who we are on the internet? Will we ever have complete privacy without giving up advantages like security?
Monday, October 6, 2014
User or Used: The Machine is Using Us.
Growing up, already introduced to the www and the internet, I thought it was an amazing thing. A machine is organizing and giving me outputs because it is "smart." I received a smartphone which was capable of almost everything that a desktop computer or a laptop was capable of. In comparison to my first 3310 Nokia phone, it was extremely "smart." , hence I thought it made sense that it was called a "smart"phone.
However, having a better understanding of computers with a little programming insight, really we are teaching the machine to do things. Professor Monika Sobolevska mentioned at the beginning of this quarter that computers are "really dumb" and through programming, we teach it what to do. It's like a child, we have to teach it the most basic things step by step. I forget this often and this video reminded me that information and the things the machine does is because of the people who teach it what to do. It does not have a mind of its own, the machine was taught to do things by humans from different parts of the globe. The machine is us, connected.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Hopes for My Adventure in the Virtual World
In my studies in TINST 207, I hope to learn and be reminded of the power of the technologies of the world wide web. This class was recommended to me by my adviser because I am a computer science and systems major. I agreed to it knowing that it would be nice to actually be educated on the world that I have been born to.
I would like to have a better understanding of the technologies that surrounds the world and the effects of these technologies. The world has progressed its development of technologies and cultures are immersed and affected by the technologies that surrounds them. Computers not so many decades ago took up the whole room; today, computers sit on a desk, and fit in the smallest front and back pockets of jeans. Phones, iPods, tablets computers, laptops, all these are smaller and even more powerful than the computer that took a whole room not too long ago.
What's even more baffling is my class was asked to raise their hands if they owned a smartphone and all but one person raised his hand. The class discussed that the protocol for contacting someone today is through text messaging that it only takes a few minutes for a person to contact somebody with the help of text messaging and e-mails compared to sending paper mail to the post office. I would like to learn how we adopt to a rapidly changing world with new technologies being developed every day.
We also touched a little bit about something called the "dark web" in class. The dark web is where everything on the internet is in memory. Which means, everything and anything can be accessed and retrieved through it. I woke up to the reality that the internet, although it is a very powerful tool, is a terrifying place to share information in. I would like to learn in the class why people continue to use the internet and how I can protect myself. I'd like to delve deeper into subject matters that not many internet users know but should be aware of.
I would like to have a better understanding of the technologies that surrounds the world and the effects of these technologies. The world has progressed its development of technologies and cultures are immersed and affected by the technologies that surrounds them. Computers not so many decades ago took up the whole room; today, computers sit on a desk, and fit in the smallest front and back pockets of jeans. Phones, iPods, tablets computers, laptops, all these are smaller and even more powerful than the computer that took a whole room not too long ago.
What's even more baffling is my class was asked to raise their hands if they owned a smartphone and all but one person raised his hand. The class discussed that the protocol for contacting someone today is through text messaging that it only takes a few minutes for a person to contact somebody with the help of text messaging and e-mails compared to sending paper mail to the post office. I would like to learn how we adopt to a rapidly changing world with new technologies being developed every day.
We also touched a little bit about something called the "dark web" in class. The dark web is where everything on the internet is in memory. Which means, everything and anything can be accessed and retrieved through it. I woke up to the reality that the internet, although it is a very powerful tool, is a terrifying place to share information in. I would like to learn in the class why people continue to use the internet and how I can protect myself. I'd like to delve deeper into subject matters that not many internet users know but should be aware of.
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