M4.1

We very much are both enabled and constrained by new mobile communication technology. Just this morning I was reading through a particularly hilarious AskReddit post on instances of extreme laziness and many of them involved use of mobile technology. For example, searching for an online textbook instead of getting the same textbook from the next room and downloading a movie that is on dvd in the basement, instead of actually going to get it. In a strange and funny way access to cellphones, laptops and wifi enable us to be that much more “effective”. I believe the constraint comes with time, when such behaviors become chronic for instance one extreme case in the same string of responses on Reddit was someone who spent an entire three day weekend in bed with nothing else but several bags of sour cream and onion chips, only leaving the confines of their bed twice to urinate. Sounds incredibly boring pre 1995, but in this day and age it is clearly plausible. Beyond this instance, behaviors such as this left unchecked can lead to some serious isolation issues. As many of the readings explain, this technology and its usage changes how we interact with each other.

Our access to almost anything online has affected how I communicate. I do my best to maintain a constant persona across all realms of communication, however, the anonymity offered by internet communication has created some foul beasts of men and women. The technology itself lends me to follow a path of least resistance, usually texting and ignoring most calls from strange numbers. Choice in who you communicate with is complicated. Depending on who is on Facebook or not, for me, is a significant factor in keeping in touch with many friends. Using myself as an example, If certain friends of mine do not use Facebook I can expect significant strain on those relationships, while it is much easier to at least maintain a connection via Facebook. Because of this I’ve made an effort to participate in many different social media technologies to keep these connections. Not because I feel a need to be a part of the technology or have that online persona to the world. I just want to maintain connections.

In my youth I was tasked with explaining this phenomenon of texting over calling to a couple senior citizens and we both left the conversation confused. Them still wondering why youth today insists on such a muted method of communication when a call takes a similar amount of effort and I wondering just the same. Yet my cohort still does it, and its even grown in a sense. Facebook and Instagram personas are particularly fascinating and definitely propagate the “need” to communicate and not just through texting, your whole life must now be displayed online and its all very much keeping up with the Joneses. I really do not like it at all yet grossly attached to it like so many others because we’ve all adopted it so wholeheartedly. I want to end saying how strange I think this attachment is, and in the back of my head I want to throw it all out and experience life face-to-face, but I can help but to think what I'd be missing out on.

M3.2

http://www.pinterest.com/ahhsity/what-does-it-mean-to-be-human-in-the-information-a/

I chose my pins from the widest variety of iterations of interpretations of the information age and living in it. From its strengths to its weaknesses. A pin regarding the phenomenon of micro-blogging limiting short bursts of information to 140 characters or less is an interesting one, one I think is neither a good or bad thing, merely a product of the information age's evolution, there is clearly more in store here. A clear weakness would be misuse of this same widespread and interconnected micro-blogging platform that lends itself to misinformation that can spread like wild fire and leave real social issues in the dust and priorities misplaced. Ethics is an issue in the information ages they is rarely mentioned, however, one I believe needs much more attention and implementation into how we conduct ourselves online should we continue to move towards heavy communication in digital media and information. In telling this story of kinds of right and wrongs in our journey through the information age it is nice to be grounded in some humor, so I included the following comic strip.

Which I thinks paints a funny yet frightening and accurate picture of how wrapped up we can get in these technologies that affect how we live our lives. An interesting emergence of the information age has been the spawn of its own currency, the Bitcoin. How it works exactly is still very shrouded, however the pin does provide some background. More good sides I've pinned are the gamification of learning, the impact of visual representations over textual and the hashtag which all lend to a positive future. But, I contrast this with two more pins stating a wariness over one's online identity and it permanence as well as a lag in businesses adoption of new means of interaction with its customer bases... which maybe isn't all that bad.

M3.1

The information age, coming after the industrial age, moves value in real (manual) labour and real products having real value into an age where information and knowledge is commodified. In the reading the information in education is under attack. What was once a basic human right like clean drinking water is now being commodified and privatized. In this age labour is centered around information as well, while most industrial tasks not yet overcome by technology by means of robotics and other automation are sent overseas to less developed nations. Labour remaining in North America comprises mostly of tasks in management, marketing, and others in the realm of ICT. This age is not without its downfalls, specifically leaving behind those without access or training to participate using ICT.

Technology largely serves the political economy’s of governments and multinational corporations to maintain a hegemony. Just like anything else these technologies can be bought and sold and can generate income. Although not always electronic or digital, throughout the ages this has been the case when it comes to technology that its owners or controllers are at the throne of massive influence. So it is clear, the power is in the ownership here, usually the ones first up to bat as technology emerges. A companies like Microsoft and Google influence the political economy greatly as they are key in the shift from a point in history of an age of manufacturing to a post-industrial society. They emerged to fill technological requirements, and this is true of all technology. Most all technologies emerge as solutions to issues within a political economy, from the discovery of fire to the iPhone. Not all emerging technology has to be sold or used in some political or economic fashion. Fredrick Banting who discovered insulin as a treatment of diabetes gave it away freely to the world, even when he was entitled to patenting his discovery and charging a premium on its use.

Considering control and ICTs, it's clear they've been come major socializing agents but who is their master? Are we, the people, in control of technology as it emerges? Shaping it and bending it to our will? Or, is there a puppet master behind the curtain? Much like news media and its ever-controversial biases I believe ICTs are subject to the same fate. They are all in fact owned by someone or some business entity. And, each and all of them have their own vision for the future of technology and the age of man. Usually involving them making a buck or two in the process.

Wrapping things up here, its clear ICTs have a massive influence over society and CAN alter the future, however, emerging ICTs are as we all know, largely social. In a sense, this leaves the power in the hands of the collective users. We have a choice to step back and not be marketed to. What is particularly insane are the measures one has to go through to obtain such technological freedom of influence.Take the TOR network for example, which has received some media attention lately. The TOR network is like the underground railroad of the internet, and was created by some to escape much of the surveillance of the so-called “surface level” of the internet. Such as Facebook, Google, etc. Remember what I said before about technology emerging as necessary, to fill some type of need? The very fact that the TOR network exists is testament to the control of modern day ICTs.