That Final Pape Part 1

The 21^st century internet is having a major impact on our culture and the way we live our lives. The internet has become one of our most powerful tools, and we must learn how to harness its power for the greater good of humanity. We must now keep it out of the hands of our government, and the corporations that would use it to take our money, and control us. In the next few years could bring major change in the way we use the internet. The web 2.0 will either  develop into a media tool for mass population mind control and advertisements, or it can be used by the people to speak out, and fight back against the corrupt powers at hand through grassroots activism at least while we still have a means of free expression on the internet. The government is trying day and night to gain full control over this media tool with acts such as PIPA and SOPA, and now is the time for us to fight back.

“What the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. Whether im online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.” Carr, 6)

The point Carr makes is one that I have not stopped thinking about since I first read this. The analogy is perfect. I too have similar feelings about how the internet and other modern technology has changed the way I ingest information. While in grade school you are taught how to read and write, and the way I was instructed made it possible for me to lose myself in words.  Each word written down was to be analyzed and were individual pieces of a what made up a structured sentence. The difference for me today is that I am used to looking for key words. I will rarely come across an internet post and immediately start reading from the very top to the bottom, without skimming or skipping ahead. The first thing I would do is actually see how long the article is, and actually look for key words that I may be searching for. Quite often the subjects, quotes, names, or whatever I may be searching for will be conveniently highlighted for me, and could even be a direct link to what I am really looking for.

“We seem to have arrived, as McLuhan said we would, at an important juncture in our intellectual and cultural history, a moment of transition between two very different modes of thinking.”

It’s an exciting time to be alive in the world! Things are rapidly changing around us, and new technology is developing exponentially faster and faster. In a little more than a decade we have gone from a world where cellular phones were just becoming available to a world where nearly everyone of almost all ages carries a device capable of not only making phone calls, but accessing the internet, and making media stream able to you from almost anywhere on the planet. Technologies such as smart phones are going to be a major part of the human race from now on. I don’t see a way of us getting rid of them now. I predict that the smart phones will continue to develop into stronger tools, and will become essential for everyone to own. They will act like a second brain that does all of our thinking and remembering for us, and those people who never buy into the technology will eventually be completely left out of our society of smart phone addicts, who will be busy uploading and downloading information at a constant rate. The youth of the future will have no time for books, and no time for any old ways of thinking.

“People didn’t have to memorize everything anymore. They could look it up.” (Carr, 177)

By making artificial memory we no longer have to rely on our own memory. We can have a backup. We can have multiple backups of information. The artificial memory can be easily accessed and it is permanent. Unless we erase the information ourselves it can last forever, which is not always possible for our human brains. To me there is something that just doesn’t seem right about the way we are heading. Search engines such as Google, are giving us abilities to access information that no one else in human history has ever come close to. The greatest libraries in the world all put together do not have as much information as the web 2.0, and the time it would take to find a certain book, then read through that book, could take hours, while it takes me less than 10 seconds to search literally anything in the world on my iphone. This is a major change in human history, but most people never even take that into consideration. To many it’s just another advancement in technology that they must buy immediately, or they risk becoming obsolete like the previous technology.  

“In worrying that writing would enfeeble memory, Socrateswas, as the Italian novelist says, expressing “an eternal fear: the fear that a new technological achievement could abolish or destroy something that we consider presious, fruitful, something that represents for us a value in itself, and deeply spiritual one” (Carr, 178)

The technological race to have the best of the best technology is an endless one. The technology we buy will be obsolete before we even turn it on. With so much focus on new technologies we forget that we were perfectly fine with the old technology, or an older way of doing something. Today the fear of being out of date or obsolete outweighs the fear of destroying or abolishing anything from the past. We are a culture of constant growth and exploration, and constant improvement, whether we are actually improving ourselves or not.

chapters 7,8,9,10

Revolution 2.0 Wael Ghonim

Chapter 7

“By the time people went home, the internet had been flooded with images and videos from Jan25 protests across Egypt.”

It incredible how fast things are uploaded to the internet. Events that happen in real life are almost simultaneously being recorded and made global by uploading it in some way to the internet, whether its facebook status, tweets, or video on youtube. It will be interesting to see how this will effect our history.

“History is made on the streets, not on the internet, I told myself.” Page 190

Once he got the revolution started on the internet, and after the people started gathering in the streets, and truly protesting for a new government, the internet was not quite as powerful. When it comes down to it, people fighting in the streets against the government and police, is when things begin to change. It is what makes the people in power take notice.

“one very famous TV anchor claimed that protestors in Tahrir were attacking unarmed police soldiers while the innocent soldiers were voluntarily carrying fainting protestors to ambulances.” Page 191

This made me laugh. It’s hard to believe that what is supposed to be credible source could produce such lies. This happens so frequently in media it can be difficult to tell what is fact and what has been fabricated.

Chapter 8

“You and the rest of those kids protesting do not appreciate the value of this country, and you have no idea how much we sacrifice for the sake of the home land. You don’t put your lives on the line like we do” page 223

This must have made him realize that the security police and parts of the regime genuinely believe that they were doing their jobs the best they could, and they could not understand why the youth of Egypt was so upset. From their point of view they were the patriots, and the rebels were the enemies of Egypt.

“The army did not and would not use force against the citizens of Egypt. It was a signal moment in the revolution: there would be no bloodbath at the hands of the army.” Page 227

This must have been the biggest confidence booster for the rebels. They now had the support of the army, and that must have been a major eye opener to the regime, as well as a warning that this revolution was truly on its way to toppling the country’s corrupt leaders.

“The new Egyptian minister of interior announced that the police force had returned to it’s original motto “the police serve the people,” in an attempt to reduce the protestors fury.” 232

The attempts that the new leaders made after Jan25th were laughable. They continued to deny the seriousness of the protestors, and the negotiations they offered were far from what the people demanded. This revolution was about a lot more than the motto of the police officers.

Chapter 9

“In their faces I could not sense a tate for sadism or torture. They did not seem miserable or cruel. Instead, the faces I saw could have belonged to any young middle class Egyptians.” Page 250

While he was being held in the cell he thought of his captors as the evil seuqurity gaurds that were capable of smashing a mans head on a rock. He found that they were people similar to him, and could have been walking the streets as a friendly Egyptian civilian like himself. He did not expect to find people who had as many strong feelings about their country as he did.

“Seriously, do you consider yourself someone who loves this country and it’s people? You are nothing but a propaganda minister who spreads lies, and I certainly do not want to appear on a TV channel run by you! People like you should be in prison and not in government positions!” page 266

It would be great to say something like this to all of the big news companies in America. The news anchors and reporters spreading lies to this country should be held responsible for their actions. I think if anyone who has a position in a major news corporation should feel a tremendous amount of guilt for the untrue information that is enforced on the blind and naive people around the world.

“Everybody have to come home, we want to have normal life we don’t want anybody in the streets. Go to work, bring once again back the tourists, go to the normal life, save the economy of the country.” 268

I cannot believe that General Omar Soloman would actually come out on TV and say this. I was outraged to read this! Maybe if he had not said this in his broken English it would not have sounded so bad, but for him to tell people to just go home, go back to work, go back to sleep, forget this whole thing ever happened. Go back to normal so you can start buying things, and rebuild the economy, so I can start making more money off you all again. Our government in our own country would want the exact same thing. The people in power don’t want you to be involved with your own life. They just expect you to be silent and continue the cycle of making them money.

Epilogue:

 “Thanks to modern technology, participatory democracy is becoming a reality.” Page 293

This is really exciting! It never really occurred to me how much power technology like social media has. It makes it possible for everyone to have their own little voice, which can be combined with other people who are saying the same thing. This makes it possible for ideas to spread really quickly and for them to gain a lot of support.

“Slowly but surely, the weapons of mass oppression are becoming extinct.” Page 293

The governments around the world have been able to control their populations through their media. Now in the 21^st century these old methods no longer work on the youth. The youth of the world has almost been set free by our technology. We are free to access endless amounts of information, so we will not be so easily fooled by any government trying to brainwash, control, and manipulate us.

“The revolution in Egypt was different: it was truly a spontaneous movement led by nothing other than the wisdom of the crowd.” Page 293

This is a major point of this book. The revolutions of the past started with one charismatic leader, one person who’s voice spoke for the people. No all the people have a voice that can be easily heard by anyone with an internet connection. A single person is not as effective at making new polices as the entire consensus of the nation.  

chapters 4,5,6

Chapter 4

”It was becoming clearer to me that Arabs, no matter how divided they seemed, shared a very deep common anger.” Page 85

This is clearly a good reason to start a revolution. When an entire nation of people can all agree to hate something and protest it, it will surely have to fall. There was so much hate for the regime it was only a matter of time.

Face book post: “This is the new Arab generation… A thousand Tunisians came together to support khaled said… If Facebook youth in this country unite against corruption and injustice, Egypt will become a better place.”page 86

I think it is interesting that they referred to themselves as the facebook youth… Its amazing to me that an entire generation can be identified as all being users of FB, and that it has become their most powerful tool to have a voice for their generation. I wish that youth in our country used facebook in similar ways, rather than using to waste time.

“more than 50.000 members of the page watched the video in the next few days.” Page 86

He is talking about the video he made and posted on the FB page. It’s amazing what FB I s capable of these days. A video itself is a powerful medium, but when you are able to share it with over 50,000 people instantly it becomes a super meme capable of infecting the minds of people everywhere overnight. The Kony video is another good example of something that seemed to appear out of no where and be a topic on everyone’s mind around the country.

Chapter 5

“At 11:30 that morning he returned to headquarters, and as a protest, set himself on fire.” Page 122

This isn’t the first time that self immolation has happened. I googled self immolation, and found that many people have done this in protest. The Buddhist monks in South Vietnam burned themselves in the 60s, and generated a lot of talk about why they did it, and it is still happening today by protestors in countries in need of revolution. There has been 33 people who set themselves on fire in 2011 in china to protest the Chinese government. And 14 people in Egypt did the same to protest their government.

“Often when a traffic officer would pull me over to issue a ticket, I would bluntly say, “I do not pay bribes.” Most of the time the officers would let me go, because he was either disappointed or embarrassed.”

There must have been a lot of corrupt cops! Clearly their police force was not doing its job, when cops are more interested in easy bribe money than upholding any laws or protecting anyone.

“Even some women in the niqab, the face veil, attended church services that night. We published their images, and those of the muslims who held up signs stressing the unity of Egyptians in the face of terrorism in all its forms.” Page 129

Even the dividing lines of organized religion were forgotten during this time of protest. That says a lot about how ready for a change Egypt was. Muslims and Christians settling their differences before the people and the police and regime could settle theirs, is amazing. Maybe someday there will be no religion or government to separate the people at all, but what they were moving towards seems to be a brighter future.

Chapter 6

When the guard at the airport asked him about being on the watch list he said “I don’t like Hosin Mubarak, and that’s why my name is on the list.” “God willing this will be the last time I am searched, because we will catch up with Tunisia on January 25^th” The guard agreed with him, and continued to do his job with a smile.

Many of the guards and police were actually good people who also hated the regime, and that is always a good sign. The fact that the people within the regime were starting to voice their opinions as well, could only help the protestors cause.

Number 8 on the list of instructions for the 25^th protest states “It is very important not to come out alone, because friends come in handy in situations like these.

It is hard to imagine being in a situation like that. Where police could capture torture and kill you, and no one would know what happened to you unless you were with a group of people who knew you. It must have been terrifying just to go about an average day in Egypt knowing that police were capable of such brutality.

“It was then that I Discovered that for the first time in Egypt, the government had blocked Facebook and Twitter.”

 The two internet sites have become such powerful tools! I hope someday our country might be able to harness their power to over throw our government, but what will most likely happen is the government will gain control over them, and use them against us creating bogus propaganda, and using it for advertisement to sell us more stuff we don’t need. I think the future of FB will be used for mind control over US citizens, and corruption of younger generations.

Social Media Project 2

350.org
 

350.org is a non profit organization with a goal of informing the world about climate change, and claims that we need to act now and work together if we are going to save our planet. 350 is working to build a movement to solve the climate crisis. They do this with online campaigns, and organizing local workshops and protests. They have thousands of followers in over 188 countries who organize themselves in protests and rallies aiming to bring awareness of the climate crisis to absolutely everyone.

350.org claims that 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. They say that we now have 392ppm in our atmosphere, and we must reduce it back to at least 350 to avoid rapid climate change. 350 claims that we need to stop using fossil fuels and find a new green energy source.

The greatest means of sharing information in modern culture is through the use of social media. Websites such as twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, have been exploding in popularity in recent years and have become the best forum for spreading information. 350 encourages people to join up and start helping by just being a part of some organization. 350’s goal is to teach other people how to start organizing movements in any way they can. They teach workshops on how to spread the warnings of climate change, and how to organize a 350 movement in your area. The social media sites give constant examples of some member of 350 out in the world attempting to make a difference.

The social media sites for 350.org are constantly generating news for followers. The Facebook page has a steady stream of videos and articles from many different contributors. The greatest thing about this organization is its grassroots approach to its mission. There is contributions to the Facebook wall from individual members and other organizations all with the same goal of social awareness on climate change. There are new videos posted every day on the Facebook and Twitter account. The posts on the wall are from members sharing information on climate change or their opinions on how to help the cause. There is news updates from around the world regarding oil companies, or protestors trying to shut them down. The greatest benefit from using the social media sites is the number of people they can reach. A tactic 350 uses is to gather as many followers as possible. They have nearly 90,000 followers on twitter, and over 190,000 people like their Facebook page. The number of followers comes to great use when 350 posts a petition. They are able to get ideas from thousands of people, and their signatures or vote.

The information distributed on their websites is to prove that there is global warming, and that it is caused by us humans, and that it is a threat to us. 350 attempts to inform people on how to reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It also preaches importance of finding a solution to the problem.  This is something they recently posted on their Facebook page claiming 2010 to be the warmest year on record.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/perfect-storm-erupts-over-new-climate-data-20120320-1vib5.html

A major part of the social media is to simply get people aware and interested in helping out. The social media is constantly asking for the help of whoever is reading to “like” something on Facebook or re-tweet on Twitter. The organization really wants the people all over the world to be a part of this solution and encourages a grassroots approach in gaining support. They mean to get people interested enough so they will start to organize on their own and recruit more people. They believe if they build local chapters of 350 followers across the world it will be the most effective way of stopping the climate change. The problems that we face to end the use of fossil fules are too large for one group to tackle, so 350 aims to spread as much as possible. 350 uses workshops that they will setup with current members any where they are asked to go. They will set up workshops to educate people about climate change, and how to organize local groups to help more. They post over and over the times and dates that they are organizing rallies. They want as many people be involved with them as possible so they wil try to get people excited about a certain day so people can participate the world over together. This is “the Invitation” http://www.climatedots.org/

There are many comments on the things posted on 350 by the members, mostly all agreeing, and adding information in connection with the post. The Twitter account is more directly responsive, answering questions and re-tweeting to members.

350 uses their social media really well. They have a ton of followers and members, so they have clearly been successful making their presence known online. The media that they use such as videos are very effective in delivering their messages. The Youtube account has a lot of videos, and some have a good amount of views, and are effective in their messages. This is a video that they have posted at the bottom of their “mission” page. This is a short but effective video in showing what 350 is about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY&feature=player_embedded

chapters 6,7,8

Chapter 6

“A long sequence of printed pages assembeled between a pair of stiff covers has proven to be a remarkably robust technology, remaining useful and popular for more than half a millennium.”

Its amazing to think how long books have been around, and how little they have changed since they were invented. The basics of what a book is (words on a page of paper) is a simple but powerful technology, and the last few years we have seen the first challenging advances in technology like the Kindel.

“Many observers believe its only a matter of time before social networking functions are incorporated into digital readers, turning reading into something like a team sport. We’ll chat and pass virtual notes while scanning electronic text.”

The future of reading seems like it is on the verge of change. Having your book connected to the internet and the rest of the world seems like it would interfere with the basic act of reading a book from start to finish. A book could possibly be better digested by someone if everything in the book they could google search, but It seems to me like this would take all the critical thinking out of reading a book, and just leave people with a spark notes understanding it.

“Electronic text is impermanent. In the digital marketplace, publication becomes an ongoing process rather than a discrete event, and revision can go on indefinitely.”

The information that we access will be constantly updating. Everyone will be able to share ideas instantly around the world, and what we think we know and understand will be a constant cycle of new information.

Chapter 7

“With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind altering technology that has ever come into general use.”

This statement terrifies me. My generation is the first to see the internet be born and start to grow. The fact that the internet can alter the way our brains work seems like something we need to be on top of. With everything going on right now about trying to own and regulate the Net we could be allowing government and corporations to have a mind control device that is in the hands of every citizen. The technology is getting into younger kids than ever before as well.

“When were online, we’re often oblivious to everything else going on around us. The real world recedes as we process the flood of the symbols and stimuli coming through our devices. “

The internet demands a lot of our attention. We can become so focused on the little screen, and not think enough about what is going on around you. Our priorities get mixed up in the internet age. While we are communicating through our devices all day, there is real human interaction that we will not be having. We have become zombie like walking around with our heads lost in the world wide web.

“If they stop sending messages, they risk becoming invisible.”

I understand this idea, but don’t understand why it has become such a major issue on young peoples minds. There is so many people posting and messaging together, it is easy to fall out of the loop now days. The feeling of not having your phone or an internet connection makes me feel like I’m no longer connected to everyone. We are so connected to each other it is in a way a giant safety net. If I ever need anything I always have my list of contacts and the internet to ask for answers. I prefer to live without these tools, but it is becoming harder to give them up.

Chapter 8

“Irene Au, the companies director of user experience, says that google relies on “cognitive pshychology research” to further its goal of “making people use their computers more effectively.”

The company carries out thousands of expeiriments everyday, and uses the results to improve upon their search engine. Google knows how the human brain reacts to their search engine. They know how to shape it and how to best work with our minds.

“Anything that stands in the way of the speedy collection, dissection, and transmission of data is a threat not only to google’s business but to the new utopia of cognitive efficiency it aims to construct on the internet.”

What could be a threat to google? Google is becoming too big of a company it owns too much. The only way for Google to obtain their goal of “the perfect search engine” they will need to own and have acces to everything on the Net, and as of now they seem to be on the right track.

“If our brains are computers, then intelligence becomes can be reduced to a matter of productivity of running more bits of data more quickly through the big chip in our skull. Human intelligence becomes indistinguishable from machine intelligence.”

If this was completely true then the accessibility of the internet, and the speed of how quickly we can gather information, should give us all we need to become extremely intelligent. We are now able to put in an endless amount of information all day everyday as long as there is an internet browser nearby.

The Shallows: prologue-chap2
 

Prologue

“Understanding Media was at heart a prophecy, and what it prophesied was the dissolution of the linear mind.” It’s amazing to me that in 1964 long before the modern internet could have been imagined that there was already people thinking that media could change our linear minds. Now in 2012 I am starting to see direct parallels to his prophecy.

“The technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society.” This to me sounds exactly like the internet. It is a man made technology that simulates a conscious network of information that we all create and build together sharing our knowledge with the rest of the world, and soon everyone of us humans will be a part of it.

“We’re too busy being dazzled or disturbed by the programming to notice what’s going on inside our heads.” I don’t think that everyone is dazzled all the time. The Internet to me these days is comparable to WWE wrestleing on TV. Everything is so fake, and everything is there to capture your attention, and most likely trying to sell you something. As we lose control over the internet to Mecha Godzilla corporations I think it will become more and more “dazzling”.

chapter one

“What the net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” I feel so very similar about the internet. I used to spend much more time on the internet, but I too noticed how it was changing my way of thinking. I feel like im in a constant struggle every time I’m on the internet to gather more and more information faster and faster and faster. I would have no time for contemplation.  

He then says “Whether I’m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it.” Again I feel the same way. My brain can not focus on things that take time to digest. I’m way to used to ingesting media at a constant rate, and I believe that it has effected the patience of people around the world who are so connected to the net. Think about how frustrating it is to wait 30 seconds for a youtube video to load.

“We seem to have arrived, as McLuhan said we would, at an important juncture in our intellectual and cultural history, a moment of transition between two very different modes of thinking.” I have a feeling like there is going to be rapid changes happening in the world, and I think that it will come sooner than we anticipate. The Internet and our technology is going to take off exponentially in the next few years, and I think that the people who are able to harness this new power will hold power over people that can not. I think it will just become more and more difficult to be computer illiterate in the future.

Chapter two

Friedrich Nietzsche’s friend Heinrich  said to him about his writing ball “perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom.” And noting that in his own work, “my thoughts in music and language often depend on the quality of the pen and the paper.” Nietzsche replies “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” If they thought this way about a primitive type writer how would they feel about computers and the internet? The thoughts of all the greatest thinkers in history would be blasted with information they couldn’t handle, while young children are becoming more and more involved with technology and are more capable of using it than people much older than them.

“over the course of the next three decades he conducts many more tests on many more monkeys, all of which point to the existence of broad plasticity in the brains of mature primates.” If other people had taken his exieriments results seriously in the first place how much further along would we be in brain research? It seems like I read about a bunch of scientists who somewhere along the way discovered great things but no one is ready to listen to them. Maybe his research was just not widely spread enough. Now in the internet age it seems like sharing news and results of experiments will be instantaneous. Hope fully that will have a good effect on our society, and poor monkeys getting their brains inspected.

“The more a sufferer concentrates on his symptoms, the deeper those symptoms are etched into his neural circuits. In the worst cases, the mind essentially trains itself to be sick.” This is really interesting to me. This is referring to dome kind of depression or OCD, and it makes sense to me that the more you think about how something is bothering you the more it is etched into your mind, and becomes difficult to get rid of. Depression as a disease is difficult to understand, but knowing how repetitiveness of something can effect us neurologically and form bad habits is making sense to me.

I really have no idea what I'm doing.
I really don't spend much time on a computer, and I like it that way.
Is this necessary to our survival in the hunter gatherer sense of the word?
Hey look at this!  There is a lot of art work on here from my favorite artist! I guess this is a cool thing on the internet.

and hey why not a link to a video by a band no one will know or care about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNe8uYjZIHY
did i mention i dont know how to make this blog look all fancy? I cant even get the links to work!

Also my internet is incredibly slow, which is one of my biggest pet peeves of all time, so i think i will go out and enjoy this beautiful sunny day... in Febuary. thanks global warming, ur the best.
- love El Christo.