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.