Do, don't think, just get it done!

Produce, Produce, don't think, do... Faster! Our modern lifestyle is slowly consuming the need for critical thought. In many of our schools systems it doesn't seem to matter how anyone thinks through point 'A' to get to point 'B' so long as the correct bubble is shaded. In many work places quantity is far more important than quality. Even our personal interactions have become thoughtless connections.

Facebook connects the world in a way that is so much more convenient than ever. It is genius, it is easy, but it kills critical thinking.




The pyramids above divide critical thinking into six crucial groups. If we were to compare an everyday technology, such as facebook, to the various ways of critically thinking how do you think they would compare? When we use facebook do we have to remember anything? No, we don't. Every thing is posted: All our event dates, the times, all of our comments, all of our conversations, and even our memories are documented through pictures. What is to understand on Facebook? If you want to comment, Facebook says "comment," there is not much understanding needed. You don't even need to create. If you want to tell someone you like something,you don't even need to type " I like this." You press a thumps up.

As convenient as new technology is, it destroys the need to think critically. New technology caters to our fast pass go, go, go society. It caters to our desire not to have to think, and to simply do. Is it fair to say that if technological advances, such as Facebook, actually encouraged critical thinking that they would never become popular?

Photo: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy

Cyber-us

You might be an American, you might have Serbian family lines, or you might be half Italian-half Russian. On Christmas Eve you might tell your kids that Santa is on his way, or perhaps you do not celebrate Christmas. Regardless, your traditions, and your beliefs, have been influenced by your culture. So, what if I told you that by reading this blog you were part of a culture more populous than the United States?

This culture is called cyberculture. Until reading "Why Cyberculture?" by David Bell, it never occurred to me that the cyber world, and the way it influences us, and we change it, really is culture.

Prior to reading this article I would have defined cyberculture as all cyber media. Frow and Morris were quoted in the article for defining culture as "a network of embedded practices, and representation that shapes every aspect of social life." This being said, cyberculture is far more than what is written. It is also how we influence the cyberworld, and how we are influenced by it.

Later, the article explains that understanding material culture is also more than the item or idea itself: "for to understand material culture we must mean to also understand uses, interactions, the thoughts, and feelings that our relationships invoke.

So, being linked to the cyber world, having an email account, shopping online, skyping, surfing the web, makes you a part of cyberculture. Your interactions change, your feelings change, your relationships change, and even your work environment changes. Just think, without cyberculture we wouldn't even have the word 'facebook', or 'youtube'. The expression 'Google-it' would not exist.

Language is part of your culture. The fact that you understand the word 'instant messaging' as it is colloquially understood in cyberculture means that you have been influenced by cyberculture. It is simply who you are. Every American knows what pizza is because they have probably tried it- it is a popular part of the American culture. You know what 'email' is because you have probably tried it- it is a popular part of cyberculture.

Article: Williams, kevin. A media studies reader. Breinigsville: University Readers, 2010. 59-69. Print.
Photo: "http://edc.education.ed.ac.uk/week-by-week/block-1-popular-cyberculture

Let me send my Social Security Number to Facebook too

Cliff Sterns once said " At the bottom, the elimination of spyware and the preservation of privacy for the consumer are critical goals if the Internet is to remain safe and reliable and credible." However, John D. Sutter recently wrote an article about the 'real-time sharing updates on Facbook". It is an app that will post all the music you listen to, the games you play, and the movies you watch so long as they are connected to your facebook account. I think this app is a silly, counter-productive.

First of all, I think this app is silly. The goal of facebook is "to get people to share more and more information about themselves." The movies we watch, the music we listen to, and the games we play do not, by any means, define who we are. This app shares what we have done. They do not explain our motives, our thoughts on the media, or how we feel.




Furthermore, "Why do you share a story, video, or photo? Because you want your friends to see it." If everything you did was posted, and documented nothing would be special anymore.

I think this app is counter-productive. If this app is presented in such a way, that soemone will be able to better know someone else, and they spend hours reading about their online-history sitting idle at their computer, they would have wasted the time reading someone's facebook, when they could have been having lunch with them.

Additionally, I think many people would take advantage of this to mock the system, and their 'friends.' How many times a week do you see so and so "has really bad diareah" because someone hacked someone elses facebook. This app could take that to an entirely different level. What if you saw so and so, your childs baby sitter, was watching something inappropriate last friday 7:45pm.... when they were with YOUR child. A little prank might become a lost job.

The app is silly, and counter-productive. Do you really care about every single song your fellow employee listens to, or are you just so concedid that you want them to care about every song you listend to?

Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/23/tech/social-media/facebook-real-time/index.html?hpt=hp_bn6">