The Great Seduction Questions

The Great Seduction Questions

1.) How does Keen define Democratized media, and what are his main issues with this trend? Use examples from the web in the form of links

            Democratized media offers many new voices, stories and perspectives within the Internet. This allows people to create and view any kind of media they choose. A lot of people like democratized media because it allows everyone to share their ideas with anyone who has access to the digital world. Andrew Keen is not a big fan of democratized media. He says that the Internet is “destroying culture as we know it.”   He goes on to say that he is “dismayed by what he has seen.” Another way that Keen defines democratized media is by saying that it undermines truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent. Keen says that it is threatening the very future of our cultural institutions. An important point that Keen brings up to help establish his point by saying that “Web 2.0 revolution has peddled the promise of bringing more truth to more people, more depth of information, more global perspective, more unbiased opinion from dispassionate observers. But this is all a smokescreen. What Web 2.0 revolution is delivering is superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.” One link that I have found from the web that shows this point is Wikipedia.com.

2.) Compare and contrast Keens take on Social Media with Douglas Rushkoff’s. Which one peaks to you and your own experiences and why?

           

            Andrew Keen and Douglas Rushkoff have very different views on social media. Keen seems to only point out the negative. Even though there are a lot of websites out there that have been altered, there is also information on the Web that is valid and true. The Internet allows people all around the country to read important materials that they don’t have access to physically. Rushkoff portrays the Internet differently from Keen. He sees it as more of a positive source.

            I tend to agree more with Rushkoff. The web opens up a lot of possibilities for many people. Rushkoff believes that Web 2.0 is on the brink of taking over and a result will be that our lives are going to change. I agree with he’s statement of the Web taking over but I don’t think that our lives are going to change entirely. 

Responding to Alexa Cupo

Digital Nation- The Mob

Digital Nation- The Mob

         Our society’s connectedness to the virtual world has unleashed both negative and positive outcomes. Today everyone is much more connected then they used to be. It has become something that we as a population have become so dependent on. We use the virtual world for multiple sources like; connecting with friends, researching information, booking travel plans, reading digital books, and a wide variety of other methods. Without the internet I think people would be stuck and not know what to do. People our age and younger have developed extreme internet addictions. One article that I found online was about how there is a thin line for teens and adolescents between casual internet use and addiction. They define internet addiction as “compulsive use that interferes with the natural flow of one’s daily life.” Some form of internet addiction affects most people today. Now a day we can use the internet to take college, high school and elementary level courses, and have office meetings without physically being in the office. Developing some kind of internet addiction is much easier then it used to be because of everything that is possible from the internet.

            Internet is not just an addiction but also harbors negative aspects that are affecting society today. The internet is the source for social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. All of these allow other ways for people to communicate. Even though it gives other ways to connect with one another Facebook is one of the causes for the elimination of the face-to-face interactions that there once was. Some wonder if Facebook has made us less human. An article by Amar Toor asks if the rise of social networking signal the end of Western civilization, as we know it? One aspect that he says we do know is that Facebook has definitely put us in situations that would have never been possible before the creation of the Facebook era. Facebook today has infested virtually every facet of our lives. Today it can make us paranoid, or be the source of illegally information. Facebook or the fact that most people are connected to the virtual world can make a criminal’s job easier. There is a lot of information online that sex offenders, stalkers and hackers can see. I know that I am constantly hearing how someone’s Facebook was hacked into or how some feel they have stalkers because what is written to them by unknown people. Even though there are all these risks to being so connected to the virtual world, it doesn’t seem to stop or slow down anyone. We are all warned of the risks of the cyber world but we still choose to share information and pictures. Why is it that we know these risks but don’t choose to listen?

            I don’t think that anonymity plus connectedness always equals misbehavior and cruelty. The development and the widespread use of the internet unfortunately have just made it easier for people to be cruel to one another. People were cruel and mean way before the internet was developed. The development of the internet I feel has just fueled the anger and hate some people have. Today I have heard a lot of stories of how internet cruelty has caused many young people to commit suicide. If you Google “suicide deaths by internet bullying” hundreds of stories come up from across the country.  Unfortunately as much as people love the virtual world it is also a harmful place that many people choose to take part in. I don’t think that the collective anger online is there because of the internet. The internet wasn’t developed as a way for people to by mean to one another instead it was developed for government departments to research and work from any location. It is what some people have made the internet into and how some choose to use it today that have unleashed these negative thoughts about what the internet truly is.