Week Nine Reading Reaction #3

I was thinking more about the issue of YouTube and how as a forum for receiving information, it is changing the way people receive and process information. After reading the article I tried to see how many times my friends and myself would be going on YouTube or referring to something that we saw on YouTube and the fact remains that we were using and accessing YouTube in numerous ways. Mostly there was an entertainment value associated with the use of the service, but even during moments when we were being entertained, I could see that the way we processed information was different. I was more visually stimulated by the images rather than the talk and I noticed that my friends and I were annoyed with the commentary that people would put up on the video they posted of something that was entertaining. No one was interested in hearing each other, just being entertained. I then began to think about how the want to be entertained could be limiting our ability to actually take in information that is more important for learning sake rather than entertainment. If entertainment is central to being stimulated, there could be some serious issues in the future because most information is not entertainment, but it is still important. There needs to be a balance and each individual should strive to meet that balance by exposing themselves to information that is informative and entertaining, but not necessarily together at all times.  

Week Nine Reading Reaction #2

There has been no shortage of discussion about technology and attention span. The article that we read this week touches on this issue of cognitive perspective, not just by considering the issue of how we regard information distributed by the media, but how the information is presented in various formats that forces our perspective abilities to change in order to understand the information that is being presented. When I think of the amount of information that is presented on a typical news program, it is almost unbelievable how much information is presented in the series of several minuets. When watching CNN, for instance, there is a report being given by a reported, a ticker at the bottom of the screen and information being posted in the corner. The amount of information that we are bombarded with in such a short period of times makes it nearly impossible for us to filter and makes sense of all that information. Our brains are not able to process all of the information in a  reasonable form so that we are able to make sense of the information presented. I feel at times that I am forced to blend ideas together because one story moves so quickly into the other, that I have not even had enough time to truly understand what it is I just was presented. I do not feel this allows any of us to be critically reflective of the information presented. If we are unable to be reflective than what exactly is the point of the information if at cannot make any reasonable impact.  

Week Nine Reading Reaction #1

This week's readings discussed a service that many of us use on a daily basis: YouTube. This form of new media has become the world's leading from of visual communication. Every individual has familiarity with the services provided by YouTube, but few of us really begin to think about the consequences of such a mode of communication. As the reading pointed out, this form of communication has spawned new forms of communication is a radically new manner. People are not simply posting videos or thoughts onto the internet; they are posting positions, theories and perspectives that inevitably travel to every individual with access, thus reaching and affecting people in numerous ways. However, what I find interesting is the idea that people are developing whole new forms of communication as responses to what is being posted on YouTube. People are offering commentary that influences further discussion and new ideas about how to view an incident. Everything that is becoming public is now offering new forms of media communication which create various reactions. Clearly the impact of such postings can have a positive or detrimental effect, but it nonetheless forces a reaction on the part of the viewer.  

Week Eight Reading Reaction #3

I was struck by this term that kept appearing in the reading for the week: "expressive privacy." I was not sure how exactly to take this idea, but apparently it is something that a great meany bloggers value as they post information about themselves on the internet. I was surprised at the level of want of privacy on the internet by bloggers because as an individual who is posting information, i should be prepared for any all all reactions from various people. The idea that the internet is a forum where people can freely express ideas in a manner that is free from invasion is too idealistic. Of course, who would not want to be able to freely express themselves and post pertinent information that is a reflection of their own development? However, people must think of the internet as a public space, just like a park, a street or an open public space. Just because an individual may be in the privacy of their own home, does not mean that their ideas a private. Once a person posts information on the internet, they have exposed themselves to the public and to all the risks that come with such exposure. Clearly having expressive privacy is ideal, but anything that is worth doing always comes at a price.    

Week Eight Reading Reaction #2

In the articles for this week's reading, the question as to privacy, identity and community are all topics that are within the notion of posting ideas on the internet. In most instances, people believe that what they post and the information they share is meant to create a forum where people are able to freely exchange ideas and information. The problem is that too often we are foolish to believe that every online community in which we partake is honest, open and is willing to create a congenial exchange. In some instances people look for ways to exploit information or to use ideas against one another. There does not seem to be a presence of etiquette or at least a sense of what of appropriate for some people. Then again the actions of some in a virtual world are reflective of the same types of action in a virtual world or in other cases because of the lack of consequences in a virtual world, people feel free to behave in various unbecoming fashions. I believe that there is a sense of patrolling that each of us must do but above all to agree to the policies that the internet is a forum of openness and exchange; a place where ideas are meant to flow and people are encouraged to be expressive.

Week Eight Reading Reaction #1

This week one of the readings looks at the issues of blogs. Most of us will recognize the points made in this article as it should be familiar to us since we have done this over the course of the summer. However, I was thinking about the issue of privacy which is pointed out in the article and many of the points that are made I thought brought up a couple of issues for me about blogging. The first issue was the types of rights people have on their blogs when it comes to privacy. In this ever shrinking world where every bit of information is collated, recorded and transferred, there seems to be very little hope of keeping information private. This seems even less so when you decide to put your information out into a public sphere, which I feel should not warrant any sense of privacy. I feel that when you decide to actively put information out into an arena where their is public view, the right to privacy can only be controlled by the person doing the posting. Ultimately it is up to the person to decide what to and what not to post depending on how much they wish to be revealed. The real control rests with the poster of the information.

Week Seven Reading Reaction #3

In thinking about the articles and chapter we read for this week, I am thinking that there needs to be more of a reflection on the role of technology and how technology ultimately never really develops from something completely new, but is merely an improvement from something old. It seems that the most technological or "advanced" pieces of equipment are nothing but the result of common sense and simplicity, which seems to indicate that such achievements are nonetheless the result of natural, evolutionary developments that simply develop because of that which already exists within our own cognition. Consider that whenever a new form of technology develops, it is sometimes referred to as the staff of dreams. Well, if we consider technology to be the stuff of dreams, then that which we use today is nothing but a reflection or an improvement of what was developed in the past, as our dreams are only a reflection of what we know or think to be true.