Finally paper blog 3

After a long period of time including a staring contest between me and my computer screen, frequent Facebook visits, and musical relaxation, I finally finished up my paper. It feels like I just emptied all my knowledge bowels onto a word document about technopolies and modern-day campuses. I used one outside source for a small portion of my paper, and used a few, but long, quotes from Postman's book to backup mine and Postman's argument. I feel like I did good enough providing points in my paper, but I'll wait for my grade to see if I can truly boast about how awesome I am.

final paper blog 2

I'm halfway there with my paper on college campuses being technopolies. I feel my arguments are falling into place perfectly and I am supporting my arguments amply. The only roadblocks I am facing are the quotes to pick from the book to support my arguments thoroughly enough. And it is definitely way too late to write the paper on Made to Break instead of this one. It's hard not to surf the web when I'm stuck at a certain point in my paper since the internet is always at my disposal. Oh snap! I just made another argument while taking a break from writing this paper. Instead of waiting for my train of thought to fully derail, I'm going to continue on with writing this paper.

Final Paper Blog Blah

I just finished reading the details to the final paper in its entirety, and I'm still a little torn between which topic to pick. There are only 2 choices and I have pros and cons for each book. I'm leaning towards Neil Postman's Technopoly book only b/c it relates to me more as a college student. I really did like Giles Slade's Made to Break a lot more than Postman's Technopoly. One reason is that I loved the argument and agreed with it completely. I shared a similar view on technology as it relates to "disposable consumerism" through daily observations that accumulate over a lifetime.

Chances are that I will pick the topic which is the easiest since it's finals time, but the difficult part for me is to differ between what makes each topic unique. I don't want to write a paper for the sake of writing a paper. I rather already have some opinion about which ever one I decide to write about. That's why I feel Postman's book would be ideal for a final paper.

The Facebook Effect (p. 214-333)

Finally, this book and semester are coming to a close. I thought the pictures in this book added something that's usually missing from books when they talk about certain figures in history, no matter how recent the history may be. Seeing all the faces behind thefacebook was refreshing and cool. And the ensuing chapter really gives some visuals inside Zuckerberg's mind about how he wanted facebook to turn out. Though some of the facts that Sean Parker brings up may not be accurate in terms of how Zuckerberg saw Facebook.

"What he meant was that he wanted his nascent service to be a place where others could deploy software, much as Microsoft's Windows or the Apple Macintosh were platforms for applications created by others." (p.215)

The way the book lays out how Facebook would generate money through advertisements was very interesting to read. It showed that although this site was to help connect almost everyone together, this could not be done without generating money. Who else but Google to help bring in the revenue through ads on Facebook which Zuckerberg only accepted to finance his plan to keep his Facebook empire. Before I read this book, I figured Zuckerberg was in it for the cash by any means.

"While Zuckerberg had been forced by circumstances to accept advertising, he did so only so he could pay the bills. Whenever anyone asked about his priorities, he was unequivocal - growth and continued improvement in the customer experience were more important than monetization." (p. 258)

After finishing up the book, I still wasn't very impressed but I do think it surpassed my expectations after reading the first section of the book. I was really looking for some type of psychological analysis into the minds of real Facebook users and not just the brains behind the operation. Getting an inside look into the decisions that were made and the obstacles Zuckerberg had to overcome were humbling, but I really didn't care for a whole book on it, which in my opinion, thought that what it was if I had to summarize it in a sentence.

I'd give this book a 3.8/5.0. Also, I'm glad this was the last book we had to read to close out the semester. I just wish the book reflected the user way more. It was still an interesting read overall.

the facebook effect (part 2) (p107-214)

As the book continues, the idea of being intriguing fades pretty fast for me with every page. I really don't care about Zuckerberg, but once it started talking about how he got into the start of the actual business as an entity, it got a little more readable. It was kind of interesting to read the development of a website created by a Harvard nerd and how he turned it into a bazillion (est.) dollar company. Within chapters 5-11, I felt the story  getting a little bit more intimate wit facebook users from other people's perspectives.

However, I did enjoy seeing the "now" pieces of Facebook falling in place throughout the book like in Chapter 9. Zuckerberg discusses the news feed and its impact in the 2006 chapter. "It's not a new feature, it's a major product revolution." (p. 182). Also, the fact that Zuckerberg really didn't want to sell the company unless he heard a bid for 1 billion dollars was really interesting and something to think about. He had, in his own mind, already figured this site would generate an enormous amount of attention and revenue. To pick 1 billion dollars as a starting bid for considering to sell the site was extremely smart on his part. He knew the potential this site had, and today we can see the impact it has over many of our lives.

Ben Parr, who launched "Students Against Facebook news feed" had a great quote which I would say sums up what most of Facebook users think. "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).

I went from not liking this book very much to becoming a little bit more interested in it because of the perspectives of others outside of the company. Hopefully, the last section is worthwhile.

the facebook effect (part 1)

Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect already sounded more promising than the rest of the readings in my opinion. I only feel that way because it's the most current topic circulating my life at least. Of course, the story of Mark Zuckerberg's vagillion dollar website begins the book. I haven't seen the movie so I can't compare the book to "The Social Network."

I never knew about Facemash (p. 23) and how this was sort of a precursor to the ever popular social media website controlling how we live our lives. "He didn't ask permission before proceeding. It's not that he sets out to break the rules; he just doesn't pay much attention to them." (p. 24). I feel that Kirkpatrick paints Zuckerberg fairly throughout the book. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a rebel of the internet, or at least Harvard.

I honestly thought the book was going to be some psychosocial analysis of how Facebook users are affected by immersing their lives from reality to a virtual world and that virtual world becomes their new reality. I would have definitely enjoyed a book like more than one about how it got started. Simply reading about the origins of Facebook can get really boring. The behind-the-scenes look at how it was created was a little interesting, but it got redundant which I felt about most of the books we read in class so far. I going to stay optimistic about the last 2 sections we have to read for The Facebook Effect.

Group Blog Entry

Based off of our assigned topic, I would say that the Wikipedia page is a viable source of information if you wanted to know about Polygamy in North America. The strengths of the source would be the actual cases of polygamy they give on the page. Also, they give a nice history of polygamy in NA from the perspective of the LDS church. The weakness I found was that the page focused a lot on just Mormon polygamy although, judging from the source, Mormon polygamy seems to be the most popular in North America. Black Muslims are briefly mentioned, with a valid source, but the info is very almost non-existent.

The strengths of the article will be able to inform readers about Mormon polygamy in America. The weakness of the article may not answer all the questions a particular person may seek which is why the article isn't that great.

I learned that there are a lot of cases of bias in the other presentations, but in ours, not so much. The only thing is that some facts and information may not be mentioned leaving people interested in the topic unfulfilled. What I'm taking away from this project is that I won't solely search wikipedia for information, but some of the information they do provide is accurate, for the most part. My overall assessment is that wikipedia should even be allowed as a source for projects just as long as the students who use it double-check and verify what they read.