Shirky 3

For groups to have good interaction three main things are needed: reason, tools, and bargain. These are not just about groups of a person’s closets friends, but also about online social groups such as a blog for stay-at-home moms, groups for single people to meet others, etc. Groups can’t come together just for the sole-purpose of being together, but because of the complexity of the interaction of the group. Everything today, in terms of technology, is customizable which makes it slightly easier to use in group settings. For better group interactions, these technologies are customizable to the interest of the group as a whole. The interaction of the group is very important because it is, essentially, what keeps the group together. Of course every group has their fair share of issues. In some cases a stay-at-home mom may no longer be considered part of that group because she began working, so would she no longer be a part of this group? Dilemmas such as this arise constantly in all groups, but just because one out of many end up leaving the group does not mean failure for the entire group as a whole.

Technology of all kinds bring a wide array of people together through a common interest of the people. Everyone tends to desire to be a part of something, especially if a common interest is shared. A “healthy” group tends to be able to stick together, and thus forming more social groups through the use of or current technology.

Shirky 2

We have now, according to Shirky, become a world of “amateur” works for entertainment. Because of all the technology that we are now in possession of gives us all access to the wide array of social media that’s been created: Xanga, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Due to these social media forms caused us to “gorge on junk [rather than] starve”. It also created a generation that is more interested in being a part of the bigger group rather than alone or in a smaller group. For example, on YouTube, certain amateur videos can have as many views as a few million but on others there are as little as twelve views. The chances are that the video with the millions of viewers all probably do not know each other but instead a random gathering of people all sharing interest in a particular topic. As for the video with the small number of viewers are most likely friends of the person who posted that particular video. It seems that the population share a greater interest in what the majority of people are interested in rather than being a part from the “greater” group.

Today’s generation, due to social media and technology, have a greater need to be part of society rather than out of it. Due to this need, the greater population has become a lot more comfortable with sharing certain personal information such as their daily routines or items they own to the world. It seems that the need to be “in-with-the-crowd” has decreased the need that people have for privacy.

Shirky 1

As an individual standing up for what one believes in tends to not get heard. But when it comes to a vast group of people standing up for an idea will most likely get heard which leads to action. This is exactly what happened with a man named Evan when trying to get his friend’s phone back. Alone, he got nothing except for a few threats from the person who had it. Due to this person’s refusal, he went public with his story which gained a large group of viewers who stood beside him to right this “wrong”.  It wasn’t because of the phone, per say, that got the audience so heated. Instead it was the response of the person who found the phone and refused to return it. As a result, due to the great public outcry, the “wrong” was corrected.

As we can learn through this experience, a group that stands together receives more of a response. Not only did these results come from a group standing together, but also from the use of technology. If it the social media didn’t exist, a group with a common feeling would not have occurred. Technology created a way for people to stand together-no matter if the reasons and methhods are justifiable. Technology has made our world become a group oriented society and standing alone (solidarity) is not favored.

Tapscott 3

Realize it or not we are the "net generation". Internet connectivity is almost everywhere and readily available at, literally, everyone's fingertips. We are also called the Me Generation. Why? Because we only care about ourselves and our own self interests. Anything that doesn't have anything directly related to me, I don't have to care about. Although this is a generally a stereotype associated with our generation, and this may not be as true as years ago, we do now pay attention to politics, community and national issues. But the inherent problem I feel is that we do not pay enough attention to international and global issues. Sure there are the select few who travel around the globe to help different cultures, but the majority of Americans are not aware of many international issues at all. Even with the inter-connectivity provided by the internet, we rarely pay attention to the issues outside of our country.

From someone that immigrated here from China, the overall culture is very different. And I'm talking about international awareness. Newspapers and news stations not only report news within its own country, but extremely often talk about international issues, from Africa to Europe to the Americas. But as i moved here in the US, where are not as many international awareness unless specific research is needed for a class or something. The only global issues fall through this wall of ignorance is the major news that the impact cannot be ignored, such as the Japanese tsunami or the Egypt uprising. This awareness is definitely increasing with everyone connected on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, where news can be instantly delivered in a way that is very personal. This is great and i would like to see where this technology takes our Net Generation in the next decade or two, as this sharing of the wealth of information can only lead to prosperity, as we are, after all, a global community, now more than ever before.

Tapscott 2

With the digital age deeply entrenched in our everyday lives, people constantly strive to seek out ways to stand out, be an individual. This is because the digital age on the internet almost everyone is anonymous, and with that, everybody is the same. So to break that thought, technologies today is giving us more ability to create custom designs and customization. Customization is actually a large part of today’s society. Everybody wants to be individuals, especially in our individualistic society such as in the United States, where individual personality stands out far above. We customize our clothing, buy different cases for our phones, we tune and customize just about every aspect of our cars to show our personality, creativity, and most importantly, our individuality. Customization is a part of almost everything in our lives. Our rooms, laptops, PCs, apartments. Everything needs to be customized.

But what about the other side of the coin? If we are so concerned with being an individual, why do we stick to the “norms”? People all buy iPhones because everyone else is also getting them. We all try to live in the same community, dress all similar to each other. There are social norms which be may push but not exceed or we will be seen as outcasts. So even though we try to individualize almost every aspect of our lives, on a macro scale we try to be just like everybody else. This is because we want to belong to something, maybe something that is much bigger than ourselves, a community. So in a sense we try to be both individualistic and at the same time gravitate around the limits or social norms that society lays upon us. Anything that breaks the outer limits of this norm will be seen as very out of place. For example, we all want to look good when we dress. Men all wear formal tuxedos to formal events while women wear dresses. We may all have different designs or colors, but the fact that we all have either tuxes or dresses show that we do want to belong. Although there are people who comfortably step outside these bounds of customization such as the musician Lady Gaga, who wears literally pieces of bacon as her attire to award shows. So the bigger question is: do we seek more to be an individual or do we seek to belong to a community more?

Tapscott 1

The rise of the technology of the computer is astounding. This is also true for the rapid and exponential growth in the ownership of computers. Back in 1983 there was only a small percentage of people whose households owned a computer. This number was only 7%.  In a span of about 20 years this number increased to about 44% of households now have a computer.  This is the same with the rise of the World Wide Web.  In the year 1994 only 35% of schools provided internet access inside their campuses. Now a complete 100% of schools in America provide internet access. That’s right, within a span of about 10-15 years every single school in the United States provides internet access.

Another stunning statistic is that fact that we are the first global generation. With major globalization changes, everyone is connected. This is done with a majority of the credit going into the World Wide Web. The internet has made a net of connectivity around the entire globe and it’s all thanks to this connectivity that we now live. With it can social networks and such where we can keep up to date with our friends and family members no matter where they are on the planet. This is the digital age of technology, where connectivity with anyone and everyone else is the priority. Digital technology is changing how we live. We wake up to surf the web for news and current events whereas before we read the morning newspaper or watch TV. As a matter of fact newspaper sales have diminished so drastically that most newspaper organizations have switched to online formats almost 100% and leaving only a miniscule amount o physical subscription based systems. Online is where we chat, hangout and socialize instead of face to face communication. We can now request movies to be played at our local theatre by voting online. This is creating a sort of online social unity, where anyone and everyone can be a part of a much larger community, an example would be the “like” system on Facebook. In the end, there seems to be no way of knowing where technology would end up because of how fast it is evolving, and all anyone can do is just to try to keep up with it, and hopefully, adapt to it.

Baron 2

In my previous blog entry I stated that people use writing and print to legitimize something, to make something official you sign your name in signature for to show your approval and also to have that as backup because your writing is physically on that piece of paper. But now a new paradigm is coming about and that is that maybe now even something that is physically written down can be untrustworthy. This is an interesting contrast because writing is the norm now to be legitimate information. But when writing was first invented, or still in its infancy, there was an outcry of mistrust with writing. This is shown in many older texts and especially when printing technology was invented, duplication was at another level. And so another level, or an increased level of mistrust in writing and especially print technology was formed. And so the early days of Europe when something was printed it was actually designed to look like illuminated manuscripts to make people have more trust in it. It is a different form of writing and people are slow to adapt to it and to even trust it. They hired artists to design prints that looked like old illuminated texts to make it seem more trustworthy.

This is even the same today as authenticity does not necessarily mean on paper. With today’s technology and its abilities to duplicate, replicate and even change forms is astounding. And so today’s texts are being examined or even produced in multiple layers of anti-duplication techniques. One of the best examples of this is the dollar bill. There are many things on a dollar bill that distinguishes itself from counterfeits. It has multiple layers of information and text to prevent, or hopefully prevent any armature to be able to duplicate that. In this sense, writing is both a gift and a curse. Writing is what makes the dollar bill authentic, but it is also giving a way for counterfeiters.