Final Assignment Update III

After countless revisions, I finally believe I tailored the paper to make it clear that higher education systems are a Technopoly. I seemed to gone out of order with this paper, constructing my body paragraphs first. It turned out that one of my body's went off topic, sort of introducing what I was going to write about, therefore, made that part the intro.

I did not end up using a lot of outside sources besides my own experiences, mainly because I've come across a lot of Technopolist illustrations during my time here at Rutgers. Coincidentally, as I was studying for one of my other exams, they actually quoted Postman on how Technology is transforming the way we organize our information. I somewhat quoted him in the paper, which brought up the information management process example.

There are a couple messages coming out of this paper that I included in my conclusion. One, technology will never stop growing. Students of this generation make it a necessity to use technology, and that has grown onto education systems as well. Colleges and high schools use computers and their applications just as much as students use technology to entertain themselves. I have not gone to a class lecture in which the professor or teacher(in high school) has not used Powerpoint. Secondly, I've learned that a Technopoly is not necessarily the worst for society, which I had put in my conclusion. Computers, machinery in general might be more worth than the human body, but it's creating a very efficient environment, but also creating a very inefficient environment. It has its upsides and downsides, but Technology advancements is putting everything to obsolete.

Final Assignment Update II

I finally had the chance to get back to this paper after taking two finals today (Thursday). Progression seems to be going well with 4 pages of good content, and still looking for some good supports for quotes taken out of Postman's book. My ultimate argument states that higher education institutions are Technopolies because of the way information is managed and organized. Specifically, college catalogues like Webreg demonstrate how a vast amount of information needs to be electronically managed. Though, the important part about this argument is that technological advancements attract us, giving us the option to either use technology to organize the flow of information, or keep traditional ways.

Another part of my essay I just started developing was how students have first inherited Technopoly characteristics, where students took those characteristics and made education institutions adapt to these characteristics as well. It's difficult to summarize, but it's still in the work, and should all make sense when the final product is done. I also plan on stating how dominant technology is over print material on a college campus. Because I'm in the library almost every day, I rarely see people constructing research papers using reference books, they're using the Internet, and that is why you see more computers occupied than reference books.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the way the paper is turning out, although, it still needs an intro, I constructed my body paragraphs first to see what arguments I could develop.

Final Assignment Update I

After reading the potential Final Assignment topics over and over, I finally chose to do the first one related to Neil Postman's "Technopoly". I came to the conclusion that "Made To Break" was an interesting book, but I would not enjoy writing about the environmental movement in this country as much as I would enjoy writing about how colleges are indeed Technopolies.

Unfortunately, it was tough for me to start out this paper. The question is a little unclear to me, somewhat vague, but I believe I started out with some good points based on how much Technology is used within a college campus. The question asks to consider the intent and role of higher education in this country and how higher education actually works and functions, however, it's tough to go beyond our borders of Rutgers University, we haven't experienced the life of another college campus. That's how I look at it.

One of my first examples was to define Technopoly with Postman's words, and support it with a lab research study I participated in. The study revealed how college students are stuck in the Technopoly's "state of mind," forgetting about the consequences the Internet has with so much information. Moreover, I used the example of how computers have made print material on paper obsolete, making us resort to computers for everything. Specifically, the school newspaper is being replaced by Campus notices through e-mail, since no one reads the newspaper.

I would like to write about how college students of a college campus make the higher education a Technopoly. Though, I'm unsure of the way it'll relate to the "role of higher education." By writing about how college students make a college campus a Technopoly, I want to exemplify how students run the educational system, transforming schools into a Technopoly along their actions. It's complicated, but I believe it will turn out well.

The Facebook Effect: Critical Analysis (pp. 214-333)

Without a doubt, Facebook is on a distinguished path to completely dominating the sharing of information. Everything on Facebook is "relevant news" and Facebook continues to capitalize on each new innovation they come up with. The remaining portion of this astonishing story reveals the evolution of Facebook's success and growth as a "company that is connecting the world."

Facebook commenced its dominance by integrating multiple tools/applications all onto Facebook. Consumers across America are attracted to the most simplistic, yet most entertaining ways of accomplishing their goal, or to keep them busy, and Facebook perfected that by creating the "platform". While members of Facebook are busy keeping up with friends, the "platform" allowed members to use applications that were entertaining to them like "graffiti" or games like Farmville. This I find why Facebook has become so successful as people across the world join Facebook just to play Farmville.

Moreover, throughout the reading, I found that Zuckerberg was a tease. He enjoyed negotiating, but most of all, enjoyed talking about money. It seemed as if since the creation of Facebook, he teased other companies, venture capitalists in how much Facebook was worth, although in the back of his mind, he never and will ever intend to sell the company. He will always have full authority of it, just like he wants it. However, a chapter describes how the ads within Facebook started. Thanks to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, who invested $15 billion incorporating ads in Facebook, we have ads scattered all over the page, in which I always think are viruses. Though, I found it entertaining that when the new Facebook ad deal started, it ruined relationships. One of the functions of the new Facebook ads published your recent purchases to your news feed, in which somewhat spoiled a surprise present for a Massachusetts man who bought a ring on Overstock.com for over 51% off, where his girlfriend saw the ring on her news feed.

More importantly, I have found Facebook a social networking tool in which you should be careful of what you share. Advertisements were the real beginning of where Facebook analyzed the information you had, in which created these algorithms that popped up all over your page. Personally, as a more reserved person, it's uncomfortable to know that my information is stored somewhere else besides my own brain. Facebook ads have re defined privacy in American culture, and Facebook is gathering all of our information so cleverly, all un-noticed. Because Facebook knows we love the entertainment keeping ourselves busy with the games and thousands applications available to us, they allow these third party advertisers to obtain our information if we agree to a specific agreement before playing the game. These apps do not notify what they're doing with our information, as we are merely ignoring the warning message before the game because we just want to play the game.

On the other hand, Facebook is sitting on top of the internet industry at the moment, and will continue to. It's functionable in over 36 languages, and topping rivals across the world like Orkut and Myspace. Myspace has turned into more of a Music database, as I believe Facebook will one day, conquer the internet music platform. ON a deeper note, Facebook is a "digital democracy" (p. 290). Web 2.0 has enabled from shy/reserved people, to celebrities and more extroverted people to speak out if their voices can not be heard. Ultimately, Zuckerberg has executed Facebook perfectly, an idea that started so small, to a world social networking power that shows no signs of slowing down. It's inspiring to see the smallest ideas can become the biggest things, and that remains my vision towards my ideas. Props to Zuckerberg, he nearly has every college student procrastinating over Facebook.

The Facebook Effect: Critical Analysis pp. 107-214

While reading the second part of The Facebook Effect, I pondered the life of Zuckerberg and his Facebook entourage. Part of the second section reveals the story of how Facebook was funded. These young men, age 21 at the oldest were dealing with venture capitalists, working out deals to evolve Facebook. I could not imagine how promising and exciting it felt to be dealing with billionaires like Don Graham, CEO of The Post. Zuckerberg even had an offer of $75 million in which Viacom, one of the biggest media powerhouses today, to buy out the company. Though, whatever offers that came in to invest, Zuckerberg made the right decisions because, "Thefacebook had plenty of money. Now it could build a real staff. No longer would the servers be strung together with baling wire. The real growth was about to begin" (p. 127). Growth is an understatement when it comes to what Facebook has done to the social networking world today. Recently, Facebook announced that they will be incorporating an e-mail service as a little extension to Facebook messaging...Though, it is quoted by Zuckerberg that this won't put Gmail and Yahoo! obsolete, but I can't doubt that Facebook can someday overpower the e-mailing world with the success they have proven.

Further on, it became more and more evident that Facebook was exponentially growing. By having a "company" label on Facebook, Chapter 6 sums up how Facebook became a company, much of it focusing on recruiting intelligent employees, and the increased demands in having ads on Facebook. One thing that popped out out to me while reading was "Facebook High," a considered extension of Facebook to high school students as Zuckerberg and Moskovitz discussed how to expand Facebook, and what to do with graduates from colleges using Facebook. Though, the meaning of this chapter sparks further discussion. The high school extension was the start of specific privacy's on Facebook, such as networks and limited profiles which have re-defined what "privacy" is today compared to past generations. Privacy was re-defined when the "News Feed" was introduced, allowing each user to stalk your friends on every action they do. Surprisingly, at the time Facebook users were indifferent of Zuckerberg's opionion on the News Feed. Users were not interested in stalking their friends, stating that it's invading privacy which sparked chaos such as protests, large Facebook groups against the News Feed. However, today, the News Feed is the essential and most important aspect of Facebook, and browsing your News Feed is no longer considered invading privacy. On the whole, the News Feed is what makes Facebook dominant, and different from every other social networking website. Privacy has changed and has been brought to a whole new level, and Ben Parr, the student originally against the News Feed sums it up perfectly, "We are more comfortable sharing our lives and thoughts instantly to thousands of people, close friends and strangers alike. The development of new technology and the rocking of the boat by Zuckerberg has led to this change...News Feed truly launched a revolution that requires us to stand back to appreciate. Privacy has not disappeared, but become even easier to control--what I want to share, I can share with everyone. What I want to keep private stays in my head." (p. 214)

For the most part, Facebook was being pursued like a criminal in a car chase. It had seemed like Viacom and Yahoo never stopped offering deals to Zuckerberg to take over the company, but from his CEO lessons and his mindset of having rare ideas, Zuckerberg baited these billionaires until they couldn't offer more and kept the company. Even $1 billion cash did not fully intrigue Zuckerberg, and thankfully it didn't, otherwise the social networking world would not be the same.

Experience of Auditing a Wikipedia Entry

As a Wikipedia auditor, with the responsibility of actually evaluating the references of the NETFLIX article, I was eager to search and find non-legitimate sources or poorly credited information as I knew Wikipedia is not the most legitimate, valid source to use. After reading the Netflix article over a few times, it was interesting, yet tough to determine in separating the strengths and weaknesses of the entry.

After the many presentations presented in class, it seems that the overall consensus of scholarly-ness of Wikipedia is that Wikipedia can be used to obtain shallow or the general/basic information of a topic, though going into details would not be the best way to learn information. As seen in some presentations like Hurricane Katrina and Non-medical Cannabis, there was a lucid difference in the strengths and weaknesses as references directed to unreliable websites and missing information. In my case, Netflix was rather hard to differentiate what was poor information because many references came from reliable technology sources, or the actual Netflix blog. On the whole, Netflix's strength is that a good portion of their information is accurate because the usage of Primary sources instead of Secondary. Two-thirds of the references would be considered "scholarly" and the last 1/3 of the sources was information that could of been cited by a Primary source (i.e., the same exact info could of been found on the Netflix website or blog). On the other hand, the only weakness of the entry is that some minor information references were missing, or the reference link did not exist any more. All in all, the Netflix Wikipedia entry, or any Wiki entry is not scholarly. In my opinion, no Wiki article is scholarly, unless everything is cited from a Primary source. By using Wikipedia, information is relatively bias, has missing information/missing citations, therefore, is not a source to learn all aspects of a topic.

Based on the strengths and weaknesses of each topic presented in class, a lot can be determined on how technology has a huge impact on American culture. It was interesting to see how Wikipedia has made information so easily accessible, and that every web user has believed this information is valid and reliable. The strengths have revealed very few things about American culture compared to the weaknesses. For example, in the Netflix entry, a large portion of it was bias for a reason. Because the American culture is about big business, making money and monopolizing industries, it seemed as if the editors and contributors to the entry were leaning in favor of Netflix when it came to sections about competition and legal issues they were involved in. This strength tells us that technology, including unreliable sources like Wikipedia are a great channel for advertising because technology users are looking for the quickest information no matter the validity, which is the weakness of American culture. Weaknesses disclose that the American culture is a culture relying on the easiest and quickest information possible. The evolvement of technology has led us to depend on information that comes through the web, not knowing that a lot of this information can be false. Technology has simplified processes into the fewest steps that we have begun to want information the fastest way we can, sometimes only getting to know the superficial information of a subject. Unfortunately, technology continues to grow, and Wikipedia is just the beginning of how American culture is changing.

From this project, I learned a more in depth perspective on Wikipedia and how American culture is deeply effected by technology, for the good and bad. Wikipedia can be seen as a great development within technology because of its storage of information and how it can be used as a learning tool to an extent. Essentially, technology is freedom. Therefore, freedom within Wikipedia allows anyone to edit, and post anything without the support of reliable sources onto the website. From this project, I'll be using some extra caution with Wikipedia, but I will also notice the changes that technology is causing year by year.

The Facebook Effect: Critical Analysis (pp. 1-106)

As expected, "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick is the most interesting book we have been assigned to read this semester. Because I did not see the movie, "The Social Network" I believe reading this book made it more entertaining to read than for others.

The first half of the making and early developments of Facebook can be summarized as chaotic, brilliant and promising. Beginning with an introduction to Mark Zuckerberg, the main founder of theFacebook, just reading his small biography reflected how smart this kid was and what potential he had as an entrepreneur. His introverted, shy personality, racking up honors in all aspects of his academic education has built him to one of the few youngest billionaires in the world. It was amazing to read how small they began with a tight budget to afford servers and a small operating space of the Harvard dorm room that typically was like every other college dorm room--filled with bottles on desks, clothes on the floor and un-made beds. Believe it or not, theFacebook domain name started at the cost of $35 at register.com that barely had a business plan as Zuckerberg and his colleagues (that do not receive enough credit) were working on other projects that they thought would be more successful than theFacebook. Astonishingly, theFacebook was limited to only Ivy League schools and with the help of Saverin, Moskovitz and Hughes, theFacebook was able to grow exponentially as these intelligent young men took their entrepreneurship to new levels.

I asked myself all along as I was reading the first half, what would be the social networking world be like if Zuckerberg and his colleagues did not focus on theFacebook and focused on the other programs they were developing? Zuckerberg was a man with so many ideas, wanting to create so many programs and then have people run that it almost came real that he could of just abandoned theFacebook. Programs like Coursematch, Facemash, Synapse, Six degrees, Wirehog all developed by Zuckerberg could of influenced him in abandoning Facebook. Moreover, what if Friendster executed the right way, or maybe the Harvard Connection, ConnectU, all developed by others became more popular than Facebook? I certainly believe that the social networking world would not be very much the same.

However, the development of Facebook was not a walk in the park. Not only did the Facebook crew come across money/budget issues, but they were actively dealing with the law, privacy rights, and even the conspiracy of taking theFacebook idea from other students at Harvard. When first starting up the site, Zuckerberg had find different ways to run it because it was invading the servers of the Harvard network as it grew larger and larger. Further, they had Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss and Divya Narendra bring Zuckerberg to court stating that he stole the idea of Facebook from them, which potentially could of made Facebook a complete disaster. Though, decisions like taking the business to Palo Alto at the summer house, introducing advertising through Y2M's agency, abandoning Wirehog and taking in few investments for Facebook allowed these entrepreneurs to become successful and the dominant power in social networking. Because theFacebook is purely not a dating site, mainly to keep track of schoolmates and has useful privacy settings, it separates itself from Myspace (which is on the downfall) and Friendster (which is a complete failure). Without theFacebook crew and the chaotic journey towards success, they sit at the top, owning the most popular social networking site in America. High schoolers, college students, and now even and older population are on Facebook to connect, but most importantly, putting older technologies obsolete like e-mailing.