hoffm493

After reading Andrew Keen’s “Cult of the Amateur,” It makes complete sense to me that some blogs are bad and wikipedia is not completely reliable, but then a lot of mainstream writing is ill-informed and bad too. Is YouTube really more sarcastic and stupid than television?

The essential problem for people today has not really changed: there are a lot of sources of information and we must somehow decide which ones to trust. We must check our facts from several sources and beware of politicial bias. Of course many were not doing this when using the traditional media like newspapers or magazines.

Blogs actually allow more experts to express their views in public, and they can also discuss narrow areas of interest with great detail, where coverage in the traditional media does not exist or is too brief.

In the 'old world' media, the 'experts' were chosen by an elite such as producers, editors and owners who could indeed have their own agenda, and their own desire to alter the real story. With blogs, as with everything else we must exercise our judgement and experience to decide which voices to trust and which we can ignore.

Posted by hoffm493 at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After reading several articles and discussing several topics in class regarding social networking sites and both the benefits and issues that go along with them, I feel that they can be entertaining and fun but at the same time extremely dangerous.

I am a frequent YouTube viewer and I also have a facebook account, but that is the extent to which I utilize social networking sites. I feel that YouTube is very entertaining and in many ways educational or informative of the world around me. Although there are numerous totally stupid and irrelevant videos posted, the site provides viewers with a closer look at the popular culture surrounding us.

People utilize SNS for numerous different reasons but mainly for networking, marketing, communication and surveillance. I personally have gotten involved in facebook because I enjoy being able to keep in touch with old friends and share pictures.

Through personal experience I have learned that SNS can be an extremely dangerous aspect of media. They can be fun and entertaining but one must be extremely careful about the information posted on a personal page and the settings and access that others have to your page.

Posted by hoffm493 at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The digital divide has been called one of America’s leading economic and civil rights issues. There are many controversial issues pertaining to the internet today, but in my opinion, the digital divide is one of the most critical issues that we should strive to resolve. Because newspapers, education, work and many other aspects of our everyday lives are moving strictly to online resources, it is important for everyone to have the resources and knowledge of the internet that they need in order to access all the information necessary.

The divide is linked to income, race geography and education. Single parents, rural residents, Native Americans, Latinos and African-Americans are all groups that fall behind in computer ownership and Internet access. Through watching the Google tech talk on YouTube, which is linked below, I learned that wealthy Americans are 20% more likely to have Internet access than the poor. African-American and Latino households are one-third as likely to have home Internet access as Asian households, and two-fifths as likely as white households, the college educated are 16 times more likely to have home Internet access than the least educated, but in rural areas they are 26 more times likely to have home Internet access than those with an elementary education.

There are numerous reasons for this digital divide, which we discussed in class on Wednesday. In my opinion, the issues with satellites are the most important issue for us to resolve in order to provide access to the internet for anyone who wants it. After viewing all the possible solutions that we have come up with, not many of them seem like they will be successful. It is somewhat unrealistic for everyone to have internet at their fingertips at all times. If we gain better satellites at least people will have available connections. This Google talk on YouTube addresses interesting facts and possible solutions for this critical issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7A1tbnm2Ic

Posted by hoffm493 at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the internet has progressed and developed over the years, people are becoming dependent and in some circumstances addicted. Because there are so many means for information, entertainment and satisfaction through the internet, it has been said that ten percent of internet surfers are addicted. These addicts are mostly people who began surfing the internet as a teenager or earlier and have become dependent on the entertainment and satisfaction that it provides them. Teens today become consumed with video games, social networking sites and in many cases, shopping.

I believe that this recent realization that several people are becoming addicted to internet use, is an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed. Earlier I said that I feel that the digital divide is the most important issue that needs to be resolved pertaining to the internet. I feel that Internet addiction is more severe and can have extremely life altering affects for people, but the digital divide affects many more people and that is why I said that it is most important.

It has been said that social networking sites are the largest cause for internet addiction. Sites such as second life, cause people to escape reality and their everyday problems to sit on the internet and life a whole different life which many people take way way too far. Socialization is what makes the Internet so addicting. Plain old hanging out with other people and talking with them. Whether it's via e-mail, a discussion forum, chat, or a game online (such as a MUD), people are spending this time exchanging information, support, and chit-chat with other people like themselves. To me this is a sign that internet addiction could come from depression or loneliness because many people who are uncomfortable interacting with certain types of people in real life, become addicted to online interaction and cravethe attention and affection that they are receiving through the web.

Posted by hoffm493 at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social Networking sites, Instant messaging and all other forms of cyber communication has brought about many issues with cyberbullying among teens and tweens. A decade ago, cyberbullying wasn’t an issue because teens were limited to bullying the old-fashioned, in-person way.The rapid advance of technology has allowed kids to broaden their bullying horizons to the point where cyberbullying is now a serious issue. Cyberbullying is generally defined as deliberate ongoing intimidation, harassment, or threats conducted via any type of communication technology including e-mail, instant messenger (IM), chat rooms, social networking sites, cell phones, and more.

In order for a behavior to be labeled as harassment, it must be repetitive and offensive. And for it to be considered a form of cyberbullying, it must occur online. Online harassment is common among kids who use e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and social networking sites. Harassment is probably the simplest way to bully another child online.

A bully can send hundreds of hostile e-mail messages and can enlist the help of her friends to do the same. A bully can launch a “text war” and send hundreds of nasty text messages to another person's cell phone. Not only will the victim have to sort through hundreds of hate-filled messages, she may have a huge bill to pay for all the text messages she receives.This has evolved as a huge problem for teens today and with the way technology is continuing to expand and progress, it is frightening to think of the negative social effects it will have on adolescents in the future.

Posted by hoffm493 at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cyberpunk literature and media in general, deal with marginalized people in technologically advanced hierarchical societies. In cyberpunk settings there are usually powerful elites such as oppressive governments, multinational corporations or fundamentalist religions who dominate the lives of the mass population. These regimes are aided and distorted by artificial intelligence, electronic media and information technology. Cyberpunk is reckoned a postmodernist, sub-genre of science fiction with its focus on "high tech and low life." It offers a wide range for research in the boundary between literature and technology; man and machine; cyberspace and hyperreality; utopia and dystopia; identity conflicts; professional ethics and human values.

The movie Blade Runner, which we watched in class, is set in a dystopian future, and presents forbidding vision of the future. The film has a post apocalyptic sense in its setting where the sun doesn't shine on the overcrowded, neon-lit streets of cold Los Angeles where it is always raining. The cyperpunk aspects of Blade Runner lie in the dystopian world where flying cars and video phones exist. There are fake people walking around in a real environment and they are fighting against real computers. The disparities of wealth and power as well as truth and representation present the postmodern themes that exist in the movie as well. The idea of the end of nature and the artificial animals presents a postmodern idea within the plot. For example, the scene where Deckard chases a replicant known as Zhora acknowledges many postmodernist features in the movie. Zhora has been working as a snake dancer known as Miss Salome, when Deckard speaks to her in her dressing room he asks her if her snake is real, but Zhora replies that if she could afford a real snake she wouldn't have to work as dancer. This reinforces the idea of the consumed planet where real animals are rare and therefore reduced to being a product that can only be had by the rich. Her snake, like Zhora herself, is a man made imitation, and therefore an example of man playing god, having both the power to destroy the planet and create life. The link between cyberpunk and postmodern theories presents the idea of identity, truth and representation of the world.

Cyberpunk represents the far-reaching effects of life in a postmodern society. Since Cyberpunk represents the apotheosis of postmodernism, it is believed that it is quite possible that the future of both the Internet and postmodernism could be found within Cyberpunk texts and films. Blade Runner presents a plot filled with cyberpunk ideas but they incorporate ever-changing themes and disparities. The plot, which is said to occur in the near future present dystopian world where corporate interests have taken over the government. The ways in which postmodern ideas are incorporated in this future, presents the concern of this every changing truth and representation of the world.

Posted by hoffm493 at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)