Blog 2-Amst 475:Digital Unflattening

Hello Readers

First off I’ll start off topic and say Go Hawks.

Now,to answer the prompt. I’d like to discuss the documentary “Unpacking  Multitasking”. I thought that this documentary was quite interesting to watch. When you first think of a documentary they might seem daunting, dated and generally unrelateable, but with this documentary, it was exceptionally relevant and relateable to us and our everyday lives. The main thesis of the documentary is that Technology has become so embedded in our lives that we don’t even give it a second thought. As I watched the documentary I began to realize just how right Nass was. I was writing a paper that night and I was beginning to notice that I was checking my phone, Facebook, and other media instead of just busting out my assignment. I do agree that these technological distractions are doing just that, they are distracting/amusing us to death, maybe not to death, but to a worse version of our selves that was should be (with respect to our work). This even ties into my personal job, I am a server and the management has begun to crack down on people “on their phones” leaving the definition vague so they can punish you for texting, Facebooking, or any other distraction one’s phone may provide. As for Nass’s statement that we can’t possibly multitask, I do believe that he does miss the point of our social lives, not just our ability to process and work in a multitasking situation, but the social context in which most of us multitask. For instance: A friend of mine was having a baby soon, but I didn’t know when, So I was actually checking Facebook more often than I usually would have because I wanted to congratulate him as soon as possible. I would check while at school, work, and at home watching TV because this friend happens to be a big part of my life and I couldn’t be there for him physically, but I called him as soon as he posted pictures and status updates. But that is just how culture is today. People use social media sites for so many things, its hard to say the sites are just for distraction. For instance: a friend of mine was getting married and he used Facebook to set up an event so he could invite people he knew. This worked marvelously because he didn’t have to send out expensive letters by hand to the people he wanted to invite and he got immediate or more “immediate” responses than waiting around for letters and RSVP’s. Culturally this is acceptable (now) because Facebook has become such a norm, when people see such an event they can reply in a few manners which let the poster see just how many are going, potentially going, or not going so quickly and free of cost. This “quickness” really is dependent on the American was of “faster, quicker, easier” mentality. I found this blog from an MSU student that elaborates on the American “faster” mentality(but this is not a strictly  American characteristic).

http://history.msu.edu/hst250/2012/05/23/the-need-for-faster-things/

And here is something on our FAST food epidemic, we want fast food, and we want food fast.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/big-data-download/americans-love-food-fast-more-fast-food-160653627.html

This actually ties in with me and my work, because the owner tells the cooks, the food needs to be out the window in ten minutes or less. The crasy thing is our portion size, these are not small plates of food, they’re HUGE! I cant possibly see how these people can eat that much food, and plate after plate I pick up are clean of food. As we all know, we want things faster, to us sooner, available NOW! When teachers don’t post grades fast enough we freak out, when our mail or packages don’t arrive fast enough we call up customer support and complain, and when people don’t reply to our texts and messages as fast as we want we think something is wrong, we get irritated or we give them the silent treatment. All because technology has given us the means for excessive speed and responses, when those responses are delayed we freak out. Anyway, that’s what I think about Nass and his ideas, with a little of my own observations.

Thank you for reading.

Joaquin

Blog 1-DTC 375

Read Weatherford 80–108 (Chapters 5 & 6). Write a blog entry and comment on two other peoples’ blog entries. You are always welcome to do a custom or freestyle option, but if you elect to do a stock entry, here’s your prompt: Weatherford describes how technological advances in mathematics (Arabic numerals, arithmetic) contributed to the spread of empire and the seeking of gold in a new frontier in the Americas. Today, we have technological advances in mathematics (including cryptography and its application to Bitcoin and other online currencies) influencing the ways people use money. What do you imagine the new frontier will be for seeking profit, and how do you imagine some form of empire (national, financial, cultural, or otherwise) might extend into that frontier? Your blog post can be analytical or creative: write a short story, if you like.

Seeing as how I can form this post in the style of a story, I will format is as such.

A long time ago a nation (not so different from ours) decided to forgo any of its regular currency, ie “dollars and coins” to go with their own revolutionary internet currency. They did this because this cryptocurrancy had many advantages over their current monetary system. The bit-coins had their own multilevel encryptions making them virtually impossible to fabricate, much like their own bills. As it is well known there are always ways around the system, but making these high level encryption procedures would say even the most adept of hackers and crackers. Companies would have their employees provide them with their accounts which would be encrypted as well, so the companies could direct deposit their money, doing away with paper checks all together. In turn saving tons and tons of paper and trees. The bit-coin currency could be transferred from their account to their personal credit cards, debit cards, loans, mortgages, and so forth, or the person could even order a bit-coin card which pulls their money directly from their account. Because of this massive revolution, their economy went on the rise because this country no longer needed expensive processes to produce physical currency and coins. Unfortunately this byproduct led to a loss of jobs in the minting sector of their government but it also led to more spending because the cryptocurrancy was much more stable and easier to carry around than bills and coins. This update in currency and availability of funds matches what the Templars did, in that it makes the persons money so accessible from a variety of sources. Instead of going to an ATM, which would charge a person a fee, or a bank, all a person would need is an internet connection and access to their account and they could transfer funds from anywhere in the world. This bit-coin revolution caught on so rapidly and with so much fervor that the rest of the world began to switch their monetary systems into bit-coin systems. This is quite substantial because there would be no need for currency exchanges, one bit-coin in their country would equal a bit-coin in another.

Everything seems to be working perfectly in this ideal bit-coin centered world, except for one thing. The internet. When the internet crashes, and it inevitably will, there will be no access to the money, there will be no payments from jobs, no payments for pills, bills, gas, child support. The world falls into ruin because the system cannot sustain such prolonged activity. Once this system fails and the world falls into ruin, their only recourse is to return to physical money, to return to the ability to see and feel the money you work for with your blood sweat and tears.

This is what would happen I believe is the world tried to use bit-coins as a method of regular currency. Good thing this is just a story and not possible…hopefully.

Quin.

 

Blog 1-Amst 475:Why Study ‘the Internet’?

Prompt:

In creating a methodology for web sphere analysis, Foot contends the need to archive on the basis of preserving both the “bits of the content” and “also the experiential dimension” of online, specifically site oriented, interactions.  Could we extend this methodology to incorporate analysis of social media sites? What changes would we have to make; is the dynamic nature changed within SNS’s? How does the ‘link’ (“the essence of the Web”) get complicated within SNS’s.

How might a comparative study look between Foot’s web sphere analysis of post-911 production and that of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing? Look at Table 1.1 and hypothesize upon the sites of enabling expression.  How would SNS’s come into play?

Answer: We can most definitely extend this methodology to incorporate social media sites because, for the most part, peoples profiles are public, meaning that anyone with a connection to the internet can view the posted content and replies. This is important for the “bits of content” that are available because these replies include various items like “links, gifs, emoticons, images, and even video clips“ that, for the most part contribute to the initial issue. Even if they don’t contribute, it is easy to see just how the topic “went off track”.

The “link” gets complicated with “SNS” because these sites can be connected with various ways, instead of just going to a page on MSN or CNN to reply to a post or video, now, those sites offer “Like on Facebook”, connecting that article to their facebook page. Ever including more and more people who could have possible never seen or heard that particular article. Then said people reply ever adding to the original discussion.

With the post-911 production of sites enabling expression seemed to fluctuate between 20% to 50% with an extreme of 69% for personal sites. This expression I feel would have jumped so much higher with SMS because once someone posts or replies or includes someone in on their post that person is immediately notified. For example, the Hawks won today, I immediately posted and within seconds I had likes and comments. If I had a massive following of people that post could have been seen my people I don’t even know! the fact that information and opinions can flow from person to person so quickly on social media sites is greatly boosted because of SMS.

To give another example, the Boston bombing, almost instantaneously the site “Reddit” had groups dedicated to gathering all the pictures and information or anything they could gather on potential criminals guilty of the heinous act. Thousands and thousands of people visited that site and those pages to give their input or find out what it was all about. This was also important for these pages because posters and visitors are anonymous. Here, is a post related to that topic!

So you can post, say what you want or feel and leave the page without anyone knowing who you are. This internet “anonymity” gives some people a false feeling of power because they can say what they want and have no repercussions. And In the case of the reddit sleuthing, there was grave consequences for the person reddit wrongfully accused.

Student wrongly tied to Boston bombing found dead
byu/ifartdicks inworldnews

Of course if one says they are a serial murderer, there are ways to see who posted that but for the most part, posts are obnoxious, helpful, insane, radical, or even just down right disturbing. But anonymity is important, so the people who started the search on reddit for the bomber could potentially never be known because of that anonymous posting system. I would not be surprised if the government even looked into the claims on their because the people who posted on there are potentially tech savvy, meaning they could acquire those pictures via illegal means. Meaning that officials would have to wait for warrants, whereas these people could acquire and gather all their info much faster. This is astounding to think about!

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents on the post and and what I think. I hope you didn’t get too bored.

Cordially, Quin.