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.