So I realized that I did not mention before about the source that I found to support my argument. I went on Google and found an academic article on the philosophy of a university education. It's five pages long and has some great info that will make the things I plan to say not just some random opinion. The link to the article ishttp://www.ugs.usf.edu/gened/university%20education%20final.pdf.
I also found a useful article on the statistics of education in America from 2001. The url is
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002130.pdf
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
"Are modern-day college campuses technopolies?"
Since I have chosen to write my final paper on Technopoly, I had to refresh my memory on its main arguments and information. I did this by not only skimming through the book but also by reading my previous blog entries on the book; it was funny to read how I titled one blog entry "Not So Crazy Niel Postman". Looking back on my first impression of the book, I really did think that Niel Postman's argument was illogical and his story about King Thamus was...interesting. I mean, not only was Postman creating words like "technopoly" but he was also referring to Greek mythology and relating it to technology in America. However, the connection between today's society's use of technology and the invention of writing that is discussed in the story of King Thamus makes sense to me now. Postman is basically trying to point out that technological innovations have dumbed down American society the way King Thamus predicted writing would make people use their minds less.
In order to connect Technopoly to a modern-day college campus, I need to decide whether the campuses are technopolies or not. Technopoly, a term invented and therefore defined by Niel Postman, is roughly a society that relies greatly on technology; so much so that the society's aim is "... a grand reductionism in which human life must find its meaning in machinery and technique."(pg 52). Postman mentions how the United States is the only country that is currently a Technopoly and that it keeps a careful eye on other countries that are trying to become Technopolies like Japan. The origin, according to Postman, of Technopoly can be traced back to the nineteenth-century when Auguste Comte tried to construct a science of society through positivism and sociology (pg 52).
Since it is encouraged to focus on the modern-day college campus and education system, I have to do some more research on those topics but from my own conclusion of them based on experience is as follows: modern-day college campuses in the United States are technopolies. This is based on the reliance on electronic grading, mail, scheduling and other functions that professors and students have. The intent of higher education in the United States is to produce educated people who can contribute to society through various employment. Colleges also have the goal to produce well rounded and the utilization of computers prepares students for jobs which will most likely rely on computers in one form or another. Postman claims that being a Technoloply is fine as long as people are still educated about other historical development of humanity like language and history; since colleges provide education on those things, I don't think Postman objects to the technology of college campuses.
In order to connect Technopoly to a modern-day college campus, I need to decide whether the campuses are technopolies or not. Technopoly, a term invented and therefore defined by Niel Postman, is roughly a society that relies greatly on technology; so much so that the society's aim is "... a grand reductionism in which human life must find its meaning in machinery and technique."(pg 52). Postman mentions how the United States is the only country that is currently a Technopoly and that it keeps a careful eye on other countries that are trying to become Technopolies like Japan. The origin, according to Postman, of Technopoly can be traced back to the nineteenth-century when Auguste Comte tried to construct a science of society through positivism and sociology (pg 52).
Since it is encouraged to focus on the modern-day college campus and education system, I have to do some more research on those topics but from my own conclusion of them based on experience is as follows: modern-day college campuses in the United States are technopolies. This is based on the reliance on electronic grading, mail, scheduling and other functions that professors and students have. The intent of higher education in the United States is to produce educated people who can contribute to society through various employment. Colleges also have the goal to produce well rounded and the utilization of computers prepares students for jobs which will most likely rely on computers in one form or another. Postman claims that being a Technoloply is fine as long as people are still educated about other historical development of humanity like language and history; since colleges provide education on those things, I don't think Postman objects to the technology of college campuses.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Final Paper
When looking at the potential topics for my final paper, it's hard to decide which topic will produce a better paper. The topic on Technopolyis interesting because it deals with college education which I am currently experiencing; therefore I have a good idea of how to connect Technopoly to the modern-day college campus. However there is a warning to not to comment too much on my generation in general so that means that I will need to do some research and get some statistics on college education in the United States.
The second topic which connects Made to Break to the green movement also sounds interesting. I have taken an environmental class before so I can use some of that knowledge to write the paper. However, I will need to research for some sources so that the information on the green movement can be cited in the paper. The book Made to Break has some information on financial and social interests of the American society so that will be useful in the paper.
Overall, I think the essay on Niel Postman's Technopoly will be more interesting to write because it is on issues that directly affect me. The green movement is important to me but writing a paper on that does not sound as interesting as writing about a college campus. I am in college and so why not explore the intent and role of higher education? I have already got some backgound information on the green movement so Technopoly it is. I am ready to expose the college campuses of their technophile ways.
The second topic which connects Made to Break to the green movement also sounds interesting. I have taken an environmental class before so I can use some of that knowledge to write the paper. However, I will need to research for some sources so that the information on the green movement can be cited in the paper. The book Made to Break has some information on financial and social interests of the American society so that will be useful in the paper.
Overall, I think the essay on Niel Postman's Technopoly will be more interesting to write because it is on issues that directly affect me. The green movement is important to me but writing a paper on that does not sound as interesting as writing about a college campus. I am in college and so why not explore the intent and role of higher education? I have already got some backgound information on the green movement so Technopoly it is. I am ready to expose the college campuses of their technophile ways.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
"My goal was never to just create a company." -Mark Zuckerberg
The last seven chapters of David Kirkpatrick's book The Facebook Effect presented some interesting concepts that Mark Zuckerberg has in regards to the usage of Facebook. Zuckerberg wanted Facebook to be a platform for other companies to create applications for it; this strategy has been successful "As more and more software companies embrace the platform as Facebook's dominance of social network computing spreads around the globe..."( pg 233). By the end of 2009 180 countries were using Facebook and the number of people using it "was growing about a million...per day"(pg 275). And so, Zuckerberg's resistance to advertisement had to cave in despite Microsoft's $15 billion investment in order to afford and manage enough servers to support Facebook. With the help of Sheryl Sandberg, advertising became Facebook's revenue with $300-$400 revenue in 2009 (pg 273). To respect Zuckerberg's wish to avoid bombarding users with advertisement the way television commercials do, Facebook uses the strategy of charging a comparatively low advertisement fee but displaying many advertisement (pg 273); this provides users with advertisements that are more personalized for users based on algorithms.
David Kirkpatrick's discussion of society's "sense of tribal separation" is very interesting; the question of whether Facebook reinforces this separation or disables it is left for the reader to consider. I personally believe that Facebook is erasing this tribal separation because users are able to broaden their social network through the use of commercial pages. For example, if two people "Like" the same band on Facebook, they might "Friend" each other and build a friendship. The "global village", as Kirkpatrick puts it,is more connected through the technology of Facebook and therefore the tribal separation is lessened. Zuckerberg's goal to partake in a gift economy instead of a market economy with Facebook users is another interesting concept. My personal opinion is that with the growing population of the Facebook community, a gift economy cannot continue to carry on. This is because the "freeloader" of this gift economy that Zuckerberg mentions is essentially Facebook itself. It's true that Facebook has provided the agency for easier social networking but when the gains of Facebook is compared to the gains of users, there is an obvious imbalance. This is not to say that users will discontinue their association with Facebook but instead, users may demand their share of profits from Facebook. This will shift the economy of Facebook from a gift economy to a market economy.
Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro discuss in their book Computers how the invention of the computer was an international effort because people throughout the world and ages have had a fascination with computational skill and devices. Kirkpatrick's concept of the global village can be used to support this convergence of ideas and innovation; fitting the entire world into the context of a village makes the world seem smaller and more connected. Thus, the American culture is one that seeks to connect with people around the world and through the use of technology, this culture is supported and magnified.
David Kirkpatrick's discussion of society's "sense of tribal separation" is very interesting; the question of whether Facebook reinforces this separation or disables it is left for the reader to consider. I personally believe that Facebook is erasing this tribal separation because users are able to broaden their social network through the use of commercial pages. For example, if two people "Like" the same band on Facebook, they might "Friend" each other and build a friendship. The "global village", as Kirkpatrick puts it,is more connected through the technology of Facebook and therefore the tribal separation is lessened. Zuckerberg's goal to partake in a gift economy instead of a market economy with Facebook users is another interesting concept. My personal opinion is that with the growing population of the Facebook community, a gift economy cannot continue to carry on. This is because the "freeloader" of this gift economy that Zuckerberg mentions is essentially Facebook itself. It's true that Facebook has provided the agency for easier social networking but when the gains of Facebook is compared to the gains of users, there is an obvious imbalance. This is not to say that users will discontinue their association with Facebook but instead, users may demand their share of profits from Facebook. This will shift the economy of Facebook from a gift economy to a market economy.
Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro discuss in their book Computers how the invention of the computer was an international effort because people throughout the world and ages have had a fascination with computational skill and devices. Kirkpatrick's concept of the global village can be used to support this convergence of ideas and innovation; fitting the entire world into the context of a village makes the world seem smaller and more connected. Thus, the American culture is one that seeks to connect with people around the world and through the use of technology, this culture is supported and magnified.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
In chapters 5 to 10, David Kirkpatrick summarizes how Thefacebook transformed into Facebook, a multibillion company with big-time investors. In these chapters, Mark Zuckerberg’s values and leadership skills are presented. The description of Facebook as Zuckerberg’s baby and the interest Zuckerberg had in the Washington Post because “it’s just such a long-term focus there, and that they’re so focused on the brand of Washington Post and the trust it has”(pg 109) shows Zuckerberg’s attachment to Facebook. The final decision to make an investment deal with Accel because of an $80 million postinvestment valuation proves that the Facebook is a business first and even Zuckerberg could not resist a high offer over a moral dilemma.
Although Zuckerberg wanted Facebook to be a social network and that alone, pressures and need for income through advertisement lead to the development of algorithms to establish which Facebook users were target consumers for advertisers (pg 143). The declaration of Facebook as “a utility” by Zuckerberg gave it an “affinity with the telephone network and other communications infrastructure of the pas…a new communications medium”(pg 144). This ensured that Facebook would not die off because of the sole reliance on its coolness the way that Friendster had. The reason why Zuckerberg continued to have so much power and authority during the development of Facebook is because Sean Parker gave Zuckerberg his board seat after he stepped down from his position as president of Facebook; this resulted in Zuckerberg’s control of a total of three board seats.
The "ethos of openness and transparency that was at the heart of the company's values" (pg 158) is admirable and is the root of Zuckerberg's vision for Facebook; this vision is to allow users to only have one identity on Facebook so "that may allow people to recognize things about you that they never previously knew, whether for good or ill"(pg 194).Niel Postman states in his book Technopoly the fear that "Cultures may also suffer grievously from information glut, information without meaning, information without controlled mechanisms.”(pg 70). Zuckerberg has made all information of Facebook users available in the "News Feed" but users have the ability to control what they put out on Facebook and who can access their information. Therefore, it can be argued that Facebook is not to blame for the suffering that results from the broadcast of personal information but the person himself/herself who did not edit what they broadcast.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Scientology: As told by Wikipedia
After auditing Wikipedia's page on Scientology, I have come to the conclusion that Wikipedia cannot be used as a scholarly source because of the biased opinions present. Because there were 266 works that were cited and used in the Scientology page, the amount of research done on the topic is the strength of Wikipedia. The weakness of Wikipedia is the biased nature of it and the amount of outdated and invalid sources that are cited. The semi-protection that the Scientology page is under assures users that not just any Wikipedia editor can edit the page. However, because the Scientology page is supported by WikiProject Scientology, the biased nature of the page is more questionable. Although WikiProject Scientology claims that they promote Wikipedia editors who have an unbiased view of Scientology, they also claim that they support editors who seek to improve Scientology's image as a whole. Therefore, the negative press surrounding Scientology is not present in the page and this editing can be seen as biased.
The strength that Wikipedia has in providing a large list of cited sources allows people to do further research on the topics given. This shows that technology has changed the American culture from one that relies on "hear say" information on controversial matters to one that is more prone to do research on those topics. Although the information that people obtain from Wikipedia is likely to be more abundant than the information obtained from other people, the quality of the information on Wikipedia remains questionable. Because most Wikipedia users probably do not look into the sources that are cited on Wikipedia pages, this shows that the American culture is also one that does not question the validity of information given to them.
Through this experience of auditing Wikipedia's page on Scientology, I have learned the importance of doing further research on topics searched on Wikipedia by looking into the sources that are cited on the Wikipedia pages. It has also now come to my attention that the authors of works cited can be repeated many times and therefore have a large influence on the contents of the Wikipedia page. I have also learned that pages on Wikipedia can be supported by groups and be semi-protected by Wikipedia. In any future use of Wikipedia, I will be more wary of the validity of it's contents and will visit the works cited to determine if the Wikipedia page is biased.
The strength that Wikipedia has in providing a large list of cited sources allows people to do further research on the topics given. This shows that technology has changed the American culture from one that relies on "hear say" information on controversial matters to one that is more prone to do research on those topics. Although the information that people obtain from Wikipedia is likely to be more abundant than the information obtained from other people, the quality of the information on Wikipedia remains questionable. Because most Wikipedia users probably do not look into the sources that are cited on Wikipedia pages, this shows that the American culture is also one that does not question the validity of information given to them.
Through this experience of auditing Wikipedia's page on Scientology, I have learned the importance of doing further research on topics searched on Wikipedia by looking into the sources that are cited on the Wikipedia pages. It has also now come to my attention that the authors of works cited can be repeated many times and therefore have a large influence on the contents of the Wikipedia page. I have also learned that pages on Wikipedia can be supported by groups and be semi-protected by Wikipedia. In any future use of Wikipedia, I will be more wary of the validity of it's contents and will visit the works cited to determine if the Wikipedia page is biased.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Thefacebook -> $ ->facebook -> $$$
The book that I have been looking forward to read the most is The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick and after reading the first few chapters along with the prologue, it definitely seems that the best book was indeed saved for last. I was expecting the prologue to present some glossy background information on how much success and revenue the facebook company has gained thus far but what I found was quite the opposite. Oscar Morales's story of creating the facebook group "Un Million de voces Contra Las FARC" that eventually lead to a global march against FARC (the REvolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) who's guerrillas were kidnapping innocent people was a touching introduction. This example of how networking can unite people for a cause leads to the questions on facebook's effects on the real-world that Kirkpatrick poses in his book.
Having payed ten dollars and fifty cents to watch The Social Network, the first chapter presented some familiar information on how facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and all the legal battles resulting from it. The in-depth information that was lacking in the film is fortunately present in this book. According to the book, the collaborative efforts of Zuckerberg and his roommates to create new computer programming projects was a routine activity for the boys and this "...wasn't too noteworthy at Harvard."(pg 22) where "Down every hall were gifted and privileged children of the powerful."( pg 22). However, to Zuckerberg, "Making Thefacebook fun was more important than making it a business."( pg 33). The idea of facebook being a social networking site was not revolutionary because websites like Myspace and Friendster were already created but what lead to the popularity of Zuckerberg's site Thefacebook was the exclusivity of it. When first created, Thefacebook, later renamed facebook, was only for Harvard students and later Ivy League schools. Kirkpatrick describes the importance of social ranking in Harvard with the popularity of Zuckerberg's early Internet software called Course Match which allowed students to decide which classes they take based on which students were already registered in them. Aside from the usual flirting and networking that most social networks were already used for, Thefacebook introduced a new medium for "creating study groups for classes, arranging meetings for clubs, and posting notices about parties.
With popularity and traffic growing, Thefacebook easily gained partnership with Y2M which placed ads on Thefacebook. This advertising income helped Zuckerberg and his colleagues buy new equipment and servers to support Thefacebook's growth. Through it's popularity, Facebook has become the world's largest social network. This is not to say that Mark Zuckerberg was a genius for creating Facebook. The pattern of copying and competing in the computer industry introduced earlier in the book Computers by Eric Swedin and David Ferro is essentially what Zuckerberg has done. Although it can be argued that codes and forums from other social networking sites were not used by Zuckerberg, the idea of facebook is influenced by websites like Friendster, ConnectU, and houseSYSTEM . Aaron Greenspan,who claims that he "invented The Facebook"( pg 84), experienced the consequence of neglecting to patent his ideas the way Edward Roberts, the founder of MITS, did not patent his idea of the microcomputer as discussed by Swedin and Ferro (Computers 89).
The success that Mark Zuckerberg and facebook has gained is indisputable. Giles Slade mentions in his book Made to Break :"We are going to have to live and be comfortable and maneuver in a computer environment" (pg 224). The wide usage of facebook proves that a large part of today's society already live that comfortable computer environment.
Having payed ten dollars and fifty cents to watch The Social Network, the first chapter presented some familiar information on how facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and all the legal battles resulting from it. The in-depth information that was lacking in the film is fortunately present in this book. According to the book, the collaborative efforts of Zuckerberg and his roommates to create new computer programming projects was a routine activity for the boys and this "...wasn't too noteworthy at Harvard."(pg 22) where "Down every hall were gifted and privileged children of the powerful."( pg 22). However, to Zuckerberg, "Making Thefacebook fun was more important than making it a business."( pg 33). The idea of facebook being a social networking site was not revolutionary because websites like Myspace and Friendster were already created but what lead to the popularity of Zuckerberg's site Thefacebook was the exclusivity of it. When first created, Thefacebook, later renamed facebook, was only for Harvard students and later Ivy League schools. Kirkpatrick describes the importance of social ranking in Harvard with the popularity of Zuckerberg's early Internet software called Course Match which allowed students to decide which classes they take based on which students were already registered in them. Aside from the usual flirting and networking that most social networks were already used for, Thefacebook introduced a new medium for "creating study groups for classes, arranging meetings for clubs, and posting notices about parties.
With popularity and traffic growing, Thefacebook easily gained partnership with Y2M which placed ads on Thefacebook. This advertising income helped Zuckerberg and his colleagues buy new equipment and servers to support Thefacebook's growth. Through it's popularity, Facebook has become the world's largest social network. This is not to say that Mark Zuckerberg was a genius for creating Facebook. The pattern of copying and competing in the computer industry introduced earlier in the book Computers by Eric Swedin and David Ferro is essentially what Zuckerberg has done. Although it can be argued that codes and forums from other social networking sites were not used by Zuckerberg, the idea of facebook is influenced by websites like Friendster, ConnectU, and houseSYSTEM . Aaron Greenspan,who claims that he "invented The Facebook"( pg 84), experienced the consequence of neglecting to patent his ideas the way Edward Roberts, the founder of MITS, did not patent his idea of the microcomputer as discussed by Swedin and Ferro (Computers 89).
The success that Mark Zuckerberg and facebook has gained is indisputable. Giles Slade mentions in his book Made to Break :"We are going to have to live and be comfortable and maneuver in a computer environment" (pg 224). The wide usage of facebook proves that a large part of today's society already live that comfortable computer environment.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)