Living in a informational age

After reading the articles it left me a bit unsure as to how to write about what it means to say we live in the “information age”. However, Manuel Castells says, “a central feature of the network society is the transformation of the realm of communication, including media. In this regard, the information age revolves around communication, largely organized around media business conglomerates that are global and local at the same time, and that includes television, radio, the print press, audiovisual production, book publishing, music recording and distribution, and on line commercial firms” (Castells).

The “information age” allows new forms of technology to become the central role of how consumers are able to attain information and knowledge. There has been sufficient advances and changes in the “information age” over time. For instance, we see many organizations have been integrating new forms of media information around the globe; many organizations have been using Facebook and Twitter as tools for advertising and public relations. With today’s technology we see that many firms are forming alliances with each other to heighten new media streams for their consumers. One example is Verizon Mobile’s alliance with the National Football League (NFL). Through this partnership, Verizon was able to produce a new NFL mobile app where fans are able to watch games and view highlights as they happen on the field, including a “side-by-side whip-around action from all of the games” (Braff, 2010). This app enables sports fans to feel more attached to their favorite game, team, and players. As well, it produces new streams of revenues to the two organizations because they are able to target more customers.

In this regard of comparing the information age of the past to our current generation, who would have thought fifty years ago that a fan could watch a replay on their phone, or see what goes on inside the locker room? In my opinion, I am thinking this is already amazing but…… what is next??

References
The Network Society:From Knowledge to Policy by Manuel Castels (chapter 1) (pg 3 – 21)

Click to access JF_NetworkSociety.pdf

The social community; have we lost touch of our true selves?

As I have been reading some of the articles. I have been thinking about the many challenges of social networking, such as privacy, surveillance, and identity within the cyberspace community. Throughout these weeks I have been focusing more on the themes/issues relating to censoring information that people post or upload via Facebook and Twitter. For instance, I mentioned in my minor blog post about Facebook that users should ensure that what they post or upload will not hurt them down the road. However, I don’t think that censoring/surveillance of personal information is as important as people may think. For instance, I feel if we do not change our dependence on and habits with these online environments, we can never express to be our true selves in our society.

Two articles written by Sherry Turkle, The Flight From Conversation and Places We Don’t Want to Go, focus on the problem of technology within a new generation. One of the topics Turkle writes about is the dependence on technology. She mentions in her article about a 16 year old she interviewed who told her, “maybe someday, someday I’d like to learn how to have a conversation” (Turkle, 2012).  This suggests that these online habits (Facebook, Twitter, BBM, texting, emailing) are making us feel that conversations are difficult because we don’t have the ability to edit as we talk. Mitchellian Riposte writes that the “concept of being ’alone together’ reinforces innate desires within us for mere connection, sacrificing conversation in the process. If surveillance was truly a concern to a large proportion of the population, such flight from conversation would not exist”.

In high school and college, English wasn’t my strongest subject; sure, I could write a story or a screenplay. But, when it came down to writing academic papers, I would be stuck. I sometimes get mixed up with my words, especially, ‘there’ vs ‘their.’ Or, when expressing my thoughts out loud I tend to ramble. I feel that sometimes this gives a lot of people the impression that I am not knowledgeable, am inadequate, or am not capable of doing a great job. Meanwhile, I am actually very dedicated, goal-oriented, and a hard working individual. If I put my mind to something I would kill any job!

People tend to be very judgmental in our society, and so I can see why nowadays teenagers and young adults tend to have a hard time engaging in conversation. Texting, e-mailing, and posting allow us to present the self we want to be within the social community (Turkle, 2012).  At least online we have spell check and grammar check – (or a story editor to edit our papers). ”This means we can edit. And if we wish to, we can press delete” (Turkle, 2012).

The question remains: are we so attached to our keyboards and touch screens that we have lost touch with ourselves and our true identity? Are we afraid to be ourselves in public, or is cyberspace just easier? It is true what Turkle says that these, “little devices in our pockets are so psychologically powerful that they don’t even change what we do, they change who we are” (2012). That question is still up for debate.

References

Sherry Turkle. The Flight From Conversation. New York Times Sunday Review. April 21, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?pagewanted=all

Places we don’t want to go: Sherry Turkle at TED2012
http://blog.ted.com/2012/03/01/places-we-dont-want-to-go-sherry-turkle-at-ted2012/

Considerations of Social Media…the Public…the Private…the Personal.

The social media I currently use is Facebook (more recently I have been getting into Twitter). However, when using Facebook you should consider whether what you post or upload will hurt you down the road, whether your post could embarrass someone, or more importantly, could someone see your posts/photos that should not see it (parents, co-workers, boss)?

For instance, a friend of mine got fired from work because her boss saw pictures of her partying, drinking, and doing keg stands on Facebook. He told her that, “in the interview you told me you were a go getter, a responsible and reliable individual. But, after seeing those pictures it makes me think otherwise”. The keg stand photos left a bad impression of her and he fired her. I guess he didn’t approve of the idea that performing keg stands is an art form and you have to be a ”go getter” by chugging as much beer upside down as you can!

Some of us reading this paragraph could think why didn’t she put her privacy settings on? If her boss was a prude and if she knew he had Facebook, why didn’t she block him?

Who would have thought that a fun night out with the girls and uploading mobile pictures would result in someone getting fired from their job? The next day they might regret a hard night of drinking, but, you don’t tend to think “crap, my boss is going to see this”.

Personally, I don’t have privacy settings on my Facebook, nor do I ”censor” what I post or upload. But, after reading these articles, I should really consider who is going to see/view my personal and private information.

The Empowerment of Technology

As I sit here in front of my computer screen (well, iPad) taking the GO train home to Toronto to see my family for Thanksgiving, I think to myself, “what would I do without technology at my fingertips?” I couldn’t be streaming movies on Netflix, writing my blog piece, or checking my emails on my phone.

Reading over Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron’s The Californian Ideology and Rethinking Convergence/Culture written by James Hay and Nick Couldry, I would like to discuss the pros and cons of the convergence of technology. Specifically, I would like to discuss the impact and empowerment technology has had on me, and society, in the last decade.

Integrating and converging different technologies is transforming the way in which we work, play, and live together (Barbrook & Cameron, 1996). We see this in how we communicate to each other on a daily basis via text messaging. My dad is always asking me, “Why don’t you just call your friends?” But, I reply by telling him, “It’s so much easier to text a bunch of your friends at once rather than having a single conversation over and over again.” Whereas ten years ago we had to call our friends individually to plan a night out, now we can just do a mass text message to everyone. Just by asking different generations their spin on communication, you’ll find different people associate with the level of technology that was most prevalent in their own youth years.

Theories of Marshall McLuhan claim, that “the convergence of media, computing and telecommunication would inevitably create a virtual place where everyone would be able to express their opinions free of censorship” (Barbrook & Cameron, 1996, p. 48.) Today, virtual media sites have been created such as Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook, but with conflicting evidence, I question whether they should be censor free.

Chris Poelker, whose recent blog launched discussions on how integrating YouTube and Twitter has impacted politicians, mentions the scandal of how an anti-Islamic YouTube video prompted the death of the U.S. Ambassador in Libya. McLuhan mentions how the convergence of media allows people to express their opinions free of censorship yet, as this example demonstrates, YouTube and Twitter can be tools used by individuals as a means of encouraging terrorist acts! In this instance, anyone could argue that censorship of Internet communication outlets is vitally important. On another spectrum of interest in censorship, many people censor their use of Internet websites because employers screen their prospective employees. Now, any person using Facebook knows they have to think about the pictures they upload. A friend of mine got fired from her job because her employer found pictures on Facebook of her partying. McLuhans’ theories suggest that advances in electronic media will bring back small village life in a virtual manner. Does this mean the creation of social media such as, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, IChat, and BBM enable us to have our own virtual village? To me this is a kind of creepy theory, don’t you think?

Tim Martell’s blog comments, “Facebook has hit another incredible milestone yesterday; the social network now has over a billion active monthly users”. Could you ever imagine that a billion people could actually be connected? This has its upsides though; for example, Facebook is a beneficial advertising space and allows corporations to learn more about their target markets.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons to the convergence of technology. I feel that social networking is important and positive. However, sometimes we have to take a step back and communicate on a more personal level.

References
Barbrook, R., & Cameron, A. THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGY. Science as Culture (January 1996), 6 (1), pg. 44-72
http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/09505431/v06i0001/44_tci

Hay, J., & Couldry, N. (2011). RETHINKING CONVERGENCE/CULTURE. Cultural Studies, 25(4-5), 473-486.
http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/09502386/v25i4-5/473_rc

Blogs

Chris Poelker
blogs.computerworld.com/…/convergence-technology-and-politics

Tim Martell’s
http://soshable.com/