This past week of finals has been rough an tiring...and it took a lot of time out of leisure to study. So, with my busy schedule, I decided to deactivate my facebook account to buy myself some more time for studying. Good idea? Not really.
Day 1.
The first day I went off of facebook, I felt free. Free from communication, free from status updates, and free from the troubles of my friends. I actually liked being off of facebook. It provided me with a lot more time for studying and for myself to just enjoy the sweeter things in life.
Day 2.
I started to feel lonelier and more nosy. I found myself wondering what so and so was up to, and what they were thinking, what they looked like, if they put those pictures of that party up yet, etc...This derived my first thought. I feel that a deactivation of facebook results in an isolation from the rest of the world. You no longer feel like you have a place in the world. You no longer feel like people are curious about what you are doing or what you are about. With this, day 2 felt like I didn't have friends.
Day 3.
Day 3 started out fine. I actually had stuff I needed to take care of and so I didn't notice my deprivation of facebook like usual. However, it was mid day when one of my friends asked me what I've been up to. they had said I hadn't seen you in days. I thought to myself...I hadn't seen this girl for months! Then I realized that she was referring to facebook. At that point in time, I felt like I had a genuine attachment to the website. With this website I create presence. People knew what I was doing when I was doing it, and why.
Undeniably, facebook has become a social tool in our lives; much like cell phones, instant messenger, and emails. If you are not on facebook, you are a no body...I found this out the hard way.
One of the most fascinating things I discovered about this class was my addiction to facebook. Had it not been for this class, I probably wouldn't have given my usage a second thought. Now, I see that facebook can be very dangerous and a clear breech of privacy.
Its been a great semester. I've learn a lot about the technology used in the past, present and the future. I really enjoyed listening to professor ferguson's perspective on a more diligent theory on our consumption and use of technology.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Final Paper...part 1
So for my final paper, I'm choosing to write on the second topic where I will have to use Giles Slade's book, "Made to Break" to answer the following question: “With the recent rise of the environmental movement in this country, will America continue on the path of a disposable society described in Slade’s work or finally turn to the path of going green?” I choose this topic because I honestly think that it was a lot of substance to it. In today's day and age, we are evolving from a once wasteful society to a more 'go green' attitude. I feel that I can tie this movement in perfectly with Slade's work using ample sources from the media and latest technologies made today.
To answer the question without any research conducted thus far, I'm going to hypothesize that America is on a path of going green, and that Slade's vision of America as a disposable society is slowly deteriorating. Of course there will be debate and differences in my paper. I will undoubtedly find conflict in the financial and social interests of Americans when evaluating current society. But in terms of how Americans choose to live, and how necessary technology is to the individual; I will certainly find a lot of good juicy information with plenty of fuel to make this paper both interesting and enlightening to both myself and my reader.
I'll keep yall posted on the research...
To answer the question without any research conducted thus far, I'm going to hypothesize that America is on a path of going green, and that Slade's vision of America as a disposable society is slowly deteriorating. Of course there will be debate and differences in my paper. I will undoubtedly find conflict in the financial and social interests of Americans when evaluating current society. But in terms of how Americans choose to live, and how necessary technology is to the individual; I will certainly find a lot of good juicy information with plenty of fuel to make this paper both interesting and enlightening to both myself and my reader.
I'll keep yall posted on the research...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Facebook Effect Part 3
Kirkpatrick beings the third and final part of his book by discussing platforms. Platforms, as he describes opens facebook up to hundreds and thousands of programmers to develop their ideas into a UGI based library with tons of potential for all types of applications. Kirkpatrick mentions several of which that are actually used today including Causes, Chat, and photos. While he goes on to describe this unique aspect of facebook, what I really found interesting in the third part of the reading was his input on advertisement.
“It is merely a useful shorthand, as in the Sandberg sessions, to refer to a process in which companies spend money to get people more interested in their products.” (Kirkpatrick 245) In my opinion, facebook has a huge advantage in the advertising world. Usually, the case is that producers have to aim their advertisements to a certain group of consumers looking for a certain type of product. However, using facebook profiles, that list “activities” “interests” “movies” ”music” etc…facebook now has identified its users to producers. Generally speaking…producers no longer have to “shop” for their consumers or make their ads extensively broad, instead, they can gear their ads to a select group of individuals. For example, in my facebook profile, I listed tennis as one of my activities and interests. So, essentially a company such as tenniswarehouse could offer its ads to my margin as oppose to someone who has no interest in tennis at all! What is driving facebook’s powerful advertising dominancy is its gigantic user base. The problem with a lot of adware agencies is that it’s tough to get the attention of everyone! With billboards and newspaper ads, it’s more of a hit or miss kind of thing. But with facebook profiles, producers can now hit who they want to hit every time. The algorithm is similar to that Amazon’s in that it memorizes what users want to see and keeps feeding them with relevant or similar products; its actually quite revolutionizing from the paper coupon books, flyers, and other now primal ways to get people’s attention. (Kirkpatrick 264)
Not only are computers generating these specified ads, but also now users can specify exactly what they want to see. When you close one of the ads generated by the algorithm, it will ask you why you don’t want it: “You have removed this ad. Why didn't you like it? Uninteresting, Misleading, Offensive, Repetitive, Other.” I find it amazing that this is where the future of advertising is going, and I am very curious to see what it is going to look like in about ten years or less! As Dave Tapscott noted, “this is not about friendships, this is changing the way we orchestrate capabilities in society to innovate and to created goods and services.” (Kirkpatrick 265)
“It is merely a useful shorthand, as in the Sandberg sessions, to refer to a process in which companies spend money to get people more interested in their products.” (Kirkpatrick 245) In my opinion, facebook has a huge advantage in the advertising world. Usually, the case is that producers have to aim their advertisements to a certain group of consumers looking for a certain type of product. However, using facebook profiles, that list “activities” “interests” “movies” ”music” etc…facebook now has identified its users to producers. Generally speaking…producers no longer have to “shop” for their consumers or make their ads extensively broad, instead, they can gear their ads to a select group of individuals. For example, in my facebook profile, I listed tennis as one of my activities and interests. So, essentially a company such as tenniswarehouse could offer its ads to my margin as oppose to someone who has no interest in tennis at all! What is driving facebook’s powerful advertising dominancy is its gigantic user base. The problem with a lot of adware agencies is that it’s tough to get the attention of everyone! With billboards and newspaper ads, it’s more of a hit or miss kind of thing. But with facebook profiles, producers can now hit who they want to hit every time. The algorithm is similar to that Amazon’s in that it memorizes what users want to see and keeps feeding them with relevant or similar products; its actually quite revolutionizing from the paper coupon books, flyers, and other now primal ways to get people’s attention. (Kirkpatrick 264)
Not only are computers generating these specified ads, but also now users can specify exactly what they want to see. When you close one of the ads generated by the algorithm, it will ask you why you don’t want it: “You have removed this ad. Why didn't you like it? Uninteresting, Misleading, Offensive, Repetitive, Other.” I find it amazing that this is where the future of advertising is going, and I am very curious to see what it is going to look like in about ten years or less! As Dave Tapscott noted, “this is not about friendships, this is changing the way we orchestrate capabilities in society to innovate and to created goods and services.” (Kirkpatrick 265)
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