Digitalized Lives - Reed (Part 1)

          It was very interesting thinking of how the Internet became what it is now. What was the necessity for which Internet was created? Has it been always as social as it is now? As we think about these questions, we need to start from the fist Internet generation. After reading this first part, specially the second chapter, I started thinking of Internet as a process of continuous change and development. Just like Reed explains, it all started by being a military and academic source during the ‘70s and ‘80s. At this point it would be extremity rare, with the only purpose of helping the military and educational system. As everything, it was not as popular in the beginning, as it is now. In the late ‘80s Internet was continuously used for educational, but now also was valuable in the scientific world. In the early ‘90s, as Reed says, the “avant-garde countercultural internet appeared and started the big change to the personal and social world. In the middle of the ‘90s, “an emergent public internet” came to life, and brought more popularity than it had ever had. The commercial internet appeared in the late ’90s and showed to the industrial world how beneficial it can be. After this, and progressively, the domesticated internet started showing up, and now a day, in a lot of culture, this is a normal and essential thing to have. In the early 2000s the interactive internet came along and since then it has become an indispensable function to have in our homes, and even on our mobile phones everywhere we go. This progression is huge and coming from helping military service and education, to being a vital function of every device we own, is more than a simple purpose/function shift.  

          I started thinking about how obvious this changes are and how easily we can notice them around us. Watching different TV shows from the ‘70s to now a day shows, can show us how the “entertainment” changed along the year, and how we can’t live without internet anymore. Even shows that are long can be great example, the famous FRIENDS are great for this, because at the beginning having access to internet was a privilege, while at the end was much easier.

          Creating the internet and keeping it “up to date” with all the new stuff coming up is a hard function, but people have figured it out how to manage it and we can never rely on staying on this “phase” of the internet, because as I said earlier, it is a process, so it is going to change for sure.

Big Data and Privacy Group Presentation

         This was the scariest presentation I have ever heard in my life. The topic this group had was very interesting and funny in a sense that teaches us things that I would never think of. This topic makes me think that technology bring more damage than help. Basically they started by saying that because of the Web, and all sites in it, a lot of people can access to all the information about us, no matter how personal it is. I think this is so scary. Having access to all of our information or our conversations, and the people we have them with, is enough for someone to stalk us, to access personal accounts, bank accounts, and do whatever they want. I liked the presentation because it was very open to examples and discussions with the entire class. I talked about how, by accessing to personal information and familiar detail, it had happened before for my granddad receive calls, that would tell him that his son had an accident and needed a certain amount of money to pay hospital bills. They gave all the information about my uncle and it was hard not to believe in the phone call. They gave my granddad a bank account number, so he could transfer the money. This is so dangerous, and I am sure that there are people who believed and paid the money.

          My favorite part was when they talked about the little research they made in websites that provide all information about a person, and the fact that there are some that require you to pay This completely shocked me! I don’t think any of us can imagine how much information about us is out there all over the web, or the random people that can have access to it. It was very interesting and important for future references knowing that most companies look for social media posts and personal information out there and that can play a big role on either you get a job or not. From what I understood, the government has access to everything, and that includes messages, calls, internet searches, and everything else you can imagine. This information belongs to them in justice cases for example, and even if it’s not important, they can always reach it. Now a days there are also some apps that allows you to talk to other people without getting “reported” to the government, and that is scary as well for me because that means a lot of illegal things can happen behind the justice.

Tapscott Part 3

           Everyone nowadays is judging and criticizing the negative effects of technology and more specifically social media. This is happening so often that we start believing that there are only negative consequences after all. We forget the reason why they were created in first place, and why are we buying and using them as much as we do. After reading the third part of this book, I put some thinking on what those reasons were. We are the first ones to judge how big of an addiction this is, but we are also the first ones to get addicted. We cannot live without technology anymore. Just think of every simple thing we wont be able to do. Not even communication would be the same. Not even information available for us. The fact that we know what is happening around the globe, is due to technology, and I personally would feel lost if I didn’t know what is happening around me.

            Someone has to provide us the information, someone has to make a statement to all of us, and make us act right? How would we be able to do that, if there is no way of communicating around the world? There is no way, we need Net Geners, and we need them to expose us to all that is wrong, so we can do something about it. Last year a lot of bombing and terrorist attacks happened in Europe, and honestly the way I found out about all of those were by Facebook. Posts and Reposts about children and families that need our help are all over and that is all due to Net Geners. A lot of people talk about how a “LIKE” or “SHARE” is not enough to save them or help them, but in my opinion it does help a little bit. Every “SHARE” or “LIKE” is probably at least one hundred more people that are going to be able to see the Post. Not everybody has the ability to send money, or do something else for the people on difficult situations. If you can’t do anything, at least provide the information to other people that might be able to help. A concern I have is about fake information, because the Web is also full of that, and it can be dangerous sometimes. I have heard of cases where people believe in fake news and loose money, but as in everything, it will always have a negative side.