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.

Made To Break: (Critical Analysis Part III pp. 187-281)

The last segment of Giles Slade's "Made To Break," continues to focus on technology obsolescence of the American culture, instead of the many daily products that consumers have used and then immediately thrown away, which started the whole concept. Having read "Computers" this portion of the book was not as entertaining as it started, much of it discussing the competition between large technology corporations such as IBM, Microsoft and Apple. If there was a message I got out of reading this last portion, it would of been that competition is key and that the execution of a new product must find some sort of success to compete.

As boring as I made the reading seem, Chapter 7 (Chips), foreshadowed the technology we have today as the "1960s saw the beginning of a shift toward an information society that would reshape the American cultural landscape" (p. 187). More specifically, the developments that IBM came out with in the computer fields, and the chips that were used in calculators all led to the vast videogame industry. Here is what I found fascinating; as a result of technology obsolescence, "games become faithful models in culture. They incorporate both the action and the reaction of whole populations in a single, dynamic image...The games of a people reveal a great deal about them" (p. 216). From pinball machines, to Gameboy, to Atari, to the Nintendo, videogames are a large part of American culture. Americans do not just enjoy the entertainment videogames offer, but some gamers even take their videogame experiences into reality by imitating characters' actions. Moreover, it is seen in a PBS Frontline video (Digital Nation), that even military recruiting bases have incorporated videogames into the process by having young kids play games like Call of Duty to get the experience. One testimonial reveals that a teen male was so into it, that he joined the army to get the real life experience instead of just playing the videogame.

Further on, Chapter 8 is dedicated to the obsolescence of weapons. It is seen that wars have sparked competition between countries to determine whose weapons were more powerful as it's quite apparent that World War II and the Cold War were major factors in the obsolescence of weapons. Though, it was delightful to read about Gus Weiss, who worked for the government, NASA, and the Navy, taught Economics at Harvard, fought through a disease, and most importantly played a major role in learning/observing the weapons of other countries.

Finally, Slade goes into e-waste and the obsolescence of cell phones, which I believe is the most popular product in becoming obsolete. Slade immediately starts the chapter off with what I was thinking when I read the chapter title, "Electronic components have extremely short lives...phones built to last five years are now retired after only eighteen months of use" (p. 261). Everyone in the United States has experienced an electronic device breaking and having to purchase a new one, hoping it would last longer, but actually doesn't. Slade describes what e-waste is and why it occurs, and then narrates how cell phones are another device behind MP3 players and computers that are obsolete products. Slade notes, "As mobile technology settles into place, wristwatch manufactures are making a huge--if largely unnoticed--effort to find new possibilities for extending their line" (p. 275). I find this whole obsolescence concept very clever, yet the most intelligent concept, especially if you're competing and trying to run a business. Tech companies know the process, consumers have demands, and companies want the money. Obsolescence will never die out.

Websites/Apps That Make Our Technology Experience Interesting

Jonathan Zittrain's TED presentation reiterates that the negativity and pessimism behind technology's effects on culture and society hinders the positive effects of what technology has done for us. It is evident that technology has come a long way in enhancing our performance, making daily functions more simple, and even adding some entertainment to our routines. While completing the in class activity, I have identified a few websites and Apple applications that have that positive effect that Zittrain explains. For example;


1. Kik Messenger: a social networking/cross-platform messenging application made for the iPhone and Droid markets. It takes the concept of BBM'ing (Blackberry) and putting that same interface and system for iPhone and Droid users. Once downloaded, contacts (your friends that have Kik) are automatically inputted as it reads your phonebook, and even your Facebook friends. Kik takes texting to a whole new level, making it quick, easy and very similar to instant messaging. You can see when your friend is typing, and can be used over 3g wireless networks.


2. Epocrates: This now Droid and Apple application is useful when it comes to finding out what pill/drug you are dealing with. This app has come very handy when it comes to mixing up your pills in the cabinet or finding pills that are unidentified. Epocrates has a complete database of all possible pills/drugs and makes it easy for a user to identify them by choosing definitive descriptions such as what shape and what color. After determining the drug/pill, Epocrates has a detailed description of the drug, including side effects, dosage and content.


3. Gilt Groupe: If you're someone who likes designer brands, this e-commerce site makes shopping more exciting and affordable for you. Each day, Gilt offers its members a selection of designer and luxury merchandise items. Sales for each brand start noon ET and last only 36 hours, and these prices can be discounted to up to 70%. However, to be a member of this "Groupe" you must be personally invited with a link to get access to Gilt sales.


4. Sound Cloud/Hypetrak: Hypetrak is a music blog that covers a variety of genres. The blog updates us on pop culture, new music, and videos of recent performances of pop stars. Sound Cloud, which is part of Hypetrak, is a blog where all music can be listened to through a user friendly and intriguing designed interface. Sound Cloud's diversity in music introduces new artists and new types of music to viewers, though, not downloadable.


5. Download Helper: Download Helper is an add-on feature for users of the Firefox browser. Downloadable on the Firefox website, this tool allows you to "rip" music off any website (pretty much any website), when there is no download link available. For example, if I went on Sound Cloud, played a song, I would "rip" the song by clicking the DownloadHelper icon at the top of my browser, and saving it as an mp3 file.