blackboard scanning vs. discussions

I really didn't enjoy our last class nearly as much as the one before. I thought the long discussion really got a lot of people involved and answered a lot of our questions. This "scanning" the blackboard for ideas and interests just did not work at all for me. I thought 2 classes ago was great. We really got into some good stuff thagt people were passionate about and I was quite dissapointed that we did not do that again. I bet that if we discussed each chapter as a group everyone would have learned WAY more...but thats just me
-Matt

Delete Cyberbullying

Delete cyberbullying. It's just like regular bullying, but with more transaction fees.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1831186

Class quote of the day:

If I want you to know what I'm doing in my home...I'll invite you over -James Gibney

GMail and such

So I found out (through Google) that Google does in fact read your emails on Gmail, but not the way you might think. You could imagine the logistical problem of hiring enough staff to read all those emails productively. Google uses an extremely advanced supercomputer-esq software program. It goes through all Gmails and chooses keywords that are advertising friendly. If you tell your friend your going to Vegas this weekend you'll get a how to play poker advertisement because the software program picked out the keywords "going to Vegas." For me this is not as bad as what I originally thought. It is a mindless computer picking out keywords, not Dale sitting there with a Mountain Dew and a chew going through my life story. The potential for abuse is still there, but I mean, what doesn't have the potential for abuse online anymore? If I sound apathetic to this whole situation of privacy let me assure you I am not. I am pissed that all this information is out and about.
The "What do you have to hide?---So what do you care" argument is so silly. The poeple who say it aren't silly (I tottally see where your coming from), but it's just a little ignorant. Just because you don't care doesn't mean otheres wont. Who are you to tell people how to feel about their privacy? Maybe it doesn't make a difference if they have this info, but maybe it does. Peoples privacy is a very touchy subject, and its something that America prides itself on. We have privacy, i.e. freedom in this country. You must respect a persons right to feel upset or violated, because if you get real....they are being violated in a way, we all are. It just depends on how much it offends you.

Here is Googles explanation (Type in "Does Google read your mail?" into Google)
"Privacy is an issue we take very seriously. Gmail is a technology-based program, so advertising and related information are shown using a completely automated process. Ads are selected for relevance and served by Google computers using the same contextual advertising technology that powers our AdSense program. This technology lets Google target dynamically changing content such as email or daily news stories.
Because the ads and related pages are matched to information that is already of interest to you, we hope you'll find them relevant and useful.------Wow!

9/2 class notes

9/9
Politics and the Internet

-We recognize that the problems and issues we face with computers and the internet are not
new. They had to figure out how to carry a pencil and not lose it.
-Recognize the inextricability of the human and the technological.
-No separation between the human and the technological.
-Artificiality is natural to humans. Humans are not 100% determined by the environment
-No such thing as a pre human being that is later determined by technology.
-Visual organization of space is determined by culture
-Humans are inextricable from technology not simply an effect.
-What matters for analysts and critiques of digital media (our class), is not the question of is technology good or bad, right or wrong, but: how does it work, what does it do, what does it entail. What is it making how is it making, how is it making us, is it making us?

Ong
-Primary frame of reference is to distinguish between oral cultures and literate cultures
-Radically different worlds
-Secondary orality
-Oral cultures characterized by a sort of impermanence, as so as my word is said, it’s gone.
-Experience the word as an event, it stops
-Writing tends to pin things down
-Just because something is penned down doesn’t mean it’s certain or clear
-Enables abstraction,
-Oral combat


McClullan
-Acoustic mode/space (orality) established through speaking or yelling
-Radio and TV create new type of acoustic space
-You can stop reading if you close your eyes
-Acoustic space more immersive, harder to avoid even if you don’t want it there



Levinson
-Jodi Dean on acoustic space: When thinking about acoustic space think about
-amplification-
-Storage
-Transmitted
-4 Types of acoustic spaces
-Unmediated hearing (radio, TV, cyberspace)

Criticisms of Levinson
-Pg. 6 “We create and remake cyberspace by using it...Physical bodies play no role”
-In some ways that’s true (facebook) on the other hand there are aspects of the internet now that are
simply delivery systems
-Pornography means bodies play a role
-Pg. 7 “The online villager can live anywhere in the world, engage in dialogue and exchange information across the world
-False, we don’t speak/read every language
-Few of us are comfortable trying to do things in other languages
-Stay within own language groups
-Denies existence of firewalls (youTube in Turkey)
-Not every place in the world has electricity
-“Myth of accessibility”
-Less corporate gate-keeping of news
-Not true
-Anyone can be an author
-Expert knowledge is available to anyone
-How do you know?

Second Assignment

               I believe we are shaped incredibly by technology, but we still have some say. We pick and choose technologies based on our interests, how do we get those interests is hard to say, was it the chicken or the egg? This word, technology, I believe, needs some clarifying. I don't consider language or the pencil part of my meaning of "technology. I know that at some point it was, and the argument is there that it still is, but I just don't mean any of that stuff when i say technology and I believe many agree with me. 

               I like this idea of secondary orality. Stories, ideas and news are now passed face to face (sort-of) through applications like youTube. Im gonna pretend I'm from the 50's for a second and say that this is pretty neat. Stories, news and ideas are absolutely better expressed and enthusiasm mirrored when you can see a talking real live person expressing something. Reading can lay the fundamentals and the data, but the face is a timeless story teller that is respected in countless cultures as the only means of communication. Even when these cultures acquired writing skills stories were still passed orally because of the impact they have and the traditions that they hold as a daughter learns a folk story from her gramma.

        In closing, I underrepresented our obsession with technology, and there is an obsession. We are our own person but are extremely influenced by technology. I would say you are shaped incredibly if you are an avid CNN watcher, this means that you are heavily shaped by using technology, the television.

Face to Face

         Why face to face? Might as well ask why even live? From a freshman anthro class I took I learned that something like 80% of what we say to each other is non-verbal, and often we are unaware that we are projecting these hidden voices. To me, this says that there is so much more to human interaction than simply writing/reading and talking/listening that I don't want to miss. Why come to college when you could easily listen to the professor over the phone and submit papers online. Why have a drink with your buddy at his house when you could each sit at your own house with drinks respectively and video chat. 

           I think anyone with half a brain should conclude that there is a huge difference between face-to-face interactions as opposed to using other means of communication. The genuine human interaction is lost in translation. Our first class was incredibly different from every single other class I've had this first week precisely because Dr. Dean was there via URL. Class ended early, there was an initial awkward weirdness a drift in the air that we eventually overcame, but what I realized is that people that are used to direction look for direction. Pretty clever of me to figure that one out I know, but what I mean is that when direction is not there, they could take charge, but they would rather not. Even when students were indeed looking for direction, and received it from the web page, there were still hesitant tendencies sprinkled in to what normally may have been confident voices.

         In closing, think about this: Would you rather meet your future wife for the first time in person, or through the Internet? You will love her the same either way, but which would you chose?