There's the saying that says something along the lines of "you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket." If you're going out to the market in the olden age to sell those eggs, isn't it better if you're more efficient and make better spatial use of that basket by putting as many as you can in there? You'd definitely have more eggs to sell by the time you reached the market, and therefore make more revenue. But what if you dropped that basket? Wouldn't it be better to have split up your 50 eggs into different baskets and have only dropped 10 of them?
In the same way, it's not always good to invest one's resources or opinions completely into one side of a subject area. After all, isn't the number one rule of a good stock portfolio diversity? (It not only makes you sound intelligent if you know both sides of an argument in a conversation, but if you're talking with an opponent on a certain subject matter, wouldn't it be better if you knew their side of the argument and could point out all of the flaws with their opinion and lord your better, smarter opinion over them? Maybe that's just me.) As students, we're taught certain things and pick up particular habits from the people who teach us; this is how we grow. People grow by meeting other people and interacting with them, and often times we consider people who are well traveled and well-versed in today's political climate to be wise.
Each individual has his or her own viewpoint on certain things, and will inevitably take more interest in news about their party than the party of their opposition. However, this is becoming a dangerous thing for today's people. As Eli Pariser mentions in his talk about "filter bubbles,"people no longer receive the same news. We are fed what web algorithms think we want to see, and that only leads to a narrowing of our view on the world.
In one way, it's understandable that websites would tailor search results to what they think we would want - it's just simple rules of successful marketing. It is, however, unhealthy for us as citizens, in the long run, for this to continue in the manner it is presently in. It's like feeding a child only candy because that's what they like to eat. For all that, that child will grow up having eaten exactly what they wanted, but they will most likely have cavities and diabetes amongst a host of other health issues that might ensue.
Because these web algorithms that are used to personalize our web experience are not yet encoded with rationality or human moral aptitude, we are not able to give the "vegetables" and other important "nutrients" that our informational diet needs to be healthy. We as citizens of the web must, to the best of our aptitude, go out in search of information other than from our default source or point of view to verse ourselves in the ways of the world, otherwise we'll be stuck with no virtual teeth and virtual dibetes.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/st_thompson_homophily
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Part 2 - Campaign
I personally think that President Barack Obama is a very smart man, especially during campaign seasons. Maybe I wasn't old enough during the other presidential elections (or any other for that matter), but I think his use of social media was genius. Politics always felt like this old, tired thing that only adults over the age of 35 seemed to partake in because it would "affect them more." I always heard of adults/people who actually seriously care about politics saying that the 18-late 20's demographic weren't going out to the polls to vote, and that it was baffling that they just didn't seem to care. Honestly, I think it was in a large part due to the fact that participation in the workings of politics was predominantly through mediums or channels that just didn't keep up with the changing times. The Obama campaign, however, used social networking tools to their advantage and ended up tapping into an underutilized gold mine of voters. By focusing their campaign around social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and etc., Obama was able to set the technological world ablaze with his promotions. Using social media and making it easy to partake in, the Obama campaign workers were not only able to use their own staff to do the massive national promotions, but they were able to get supporters to spread the world and multiply their following exponentially. The Obama campaign was extremely perceptive and innovative in going to social media, and the first to take full advantage of this foot in the door with the virtual demographic.
http://cs12.cs.qc.cuny.edu/~waxman/8fn_002.pdf
http://cs12.cs.qc.cuny.edu/~waxman/8fn_002.pdf
Part 1 - Moderation is Key
I've grown up in two eras: the era of analog technology, and the era of digital technology with its golden internet. I grew up playing outside and scraping my knees, and just being an active kid. I knew who most of the people in my school were, and they knew me, and we've all exchanged greetings, ort a "hey. cool light-up sneakers," at least once in the time that we were in school together. We got the basic gist of who the weirdos, bullies, cool kids, and super smart kids were just from interacting with them throughout the day, even if it was embarrassing because of the stupid things we'd say or do.
These days with the internet exposing people, especially school-aged kids, to so many different things, it's easier for them to not have to physically interact with others to get their fill of social needs. You can browse the web, discover things about other peoples of the world, and really think about what type of person you want to be after being exposed to the vast cultures of the internet. This is great because you might have more people you can identify with on the internet than in those who are around you geographically, and be in a supportive social environment.
However, one thing that really bothers me, personally, is when such people cannot communicate with people in-person. I understand shyness and all, but there is a whole other level that people are reaching these days because the only practice they get with interacting with other people is through the internet. On the internet they can either say whatever rash thing they want to say and take it back and delete it, or they can carefully mull over it and take forever to get their statement out.
Or, users can be like Autumn Eadows, in which they have two very different lives on the internet and in real life. That's not always the case with people, but the internet does provide plenty of opportunity to do such. I feel like today's society, catapulted by the changing technology and times, just takes too many things to an extreme. Autumn Eadows is an extreme case in which internet personality and real-life personality were estranged, but statistically, it's not proven that this will be the fate of all internet users. I think that one thing that we've all strayed from, as a modern urban society, is moderation in the things that we choose to do.
These days with the internet exposing people, especially school-aged kids, to so many different things, it's easier for them to not have to physically interact with others to get their fill of social needs. You can browse the web, discover things about other peoples of the world, and really think about what type of person you want to be after being exposed to the vast cultures of the internet. This is great because you might have more people you can identify with on the internet than in those who are around you geographically, and be in a supportive social environment.
However, one thing that really bothers me, personally, is when such people cannot communicate with people in-person. I understand shyness and all, but there is a whole other level that people are reaching these days because the only practice they get with interacting with other people is through the internet. On the internet they can either say whatever rash thing they want to say and take it back and delete it, or they can carefully mull over it and take forever to get their statement out.
Or, users can be like Autumn Eadows, in which they have two very different lives on the internet and in real life. That's not always the case with people, but the internet does provide plenty of opportunity to do such. I feel like today's society, catapulted by the changing technology and times, just takes too many things to an extreme. Autumn Eadows is an extreme case in which internet personality and real-life personality were estranged, but statistically, it's not proven that this will be the fate of all internet users. I think that one thing that we've all strayed from, as a modern urban society, is moderation in the things that we choose to do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)