week 11

Flexibility, Ubiquity, Fragmentation

Technology is everywhere. we are using it without even thinking about it. We cant imagine our every day routine without it. Since our phones became "smart" they do alot of things for us. And i will tell you how i use it.

I wake up from the alarm on my phone, while im having breakfast im checking Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler, Mail. I text people, i post stuff on every media platform im in, in order to connect with people. I use Trip View to check my trains, I use weather app, even have done the course evaluation today via my phone and UNSW app. What would have i done without it?

Apps are everywhere , they are so ubiquitous. Apps are applied to almost anything. It gives the ability to network and view information in a carefree way. We are so used to them, that now cant even imagine our live without it.

However, with this ubiquitous computing becoming more and more important in our lives, there is an issue of security. McCullough says that "as information becomes more and more abundant , clear views through it become less and less possible", which means that our personal security is more likely to be compromised because of the large amount of information going through networks we use

week 8

The Fate of the State

This week i would like to talk about metadata and privacy. 

Anything that has ever been typed on the Internet will stay there forever. You can delete it any times you want, but that information is there in a form of metadata, and it will be there. Which makes us question the concept of privacy on Internet.

Daniel Solove states that metadata is "envelope information because it is akin to an envelope we send a letter in - and the letter itself is the content information". Metadata is very important as it contains every single part of the shared data. 

Metadata allows us to see inexplicit information explicitly, the prevalence of metadata allows people and organisations to view private information and use that information to their own advantages. This is clearly seen in the documents Edward Snowden has shown in the relation to the NSA. That documents included recording telephone conversations, monitoring users of social media, tracking people's locations. Nothing is no longer private over the Internet.

With the merge of new technologies such as google glass or even updating old media , it creates more issues than solving them. It allows us to track others and we are being tracked as well. Evgeny Morozov in his paper states "citizens take on the role of information machines that feed the techno-bureaucratic complex with our data" . Everything we put online is constantly traced.

week 9

New Communities

Micropolitics

Well, this week topic will be micropilitcs, and new communities it is creating.

Living in the world where technology is everything, new media platforms are the ones that create new communities. It gives us opportunity to explore new ways to communicate online and to explore new areas of effectiveness of it.

File sharing is one of the current new micropolitical organisations.  Thomas Jellis staes that micropolitics are "creation of techniques for collaboration, involve experimentation and an openness to be experimental...[it] offers apoint of departure for a new kind of politics". One of the examples of that wold be ThePirateBay. It emphasize the idea of collaboration, as ussers are able to download media through the metadata of other users . However, at the same time it is very rebellious against macropolitics, enhances global cooperation as the Internet connects a huge ammount of users and information.

Douglas Rushkoff brings a very interesting point , he states that government is able to control Internet and can "turn it off", he brings examples of the "corporate-government banishment of Wikileaks last year...[the] Egypt[ian government]shutting off its networks to stave off revolution...the Obama administration seeking the ability to do pretty much the same thing n the US, Facebook's "sponsored stories", and the pending loss of net neutrality". This brings the idea that Internet is a part of macropolitics, the existance of it and its growth depends on the government. However, in my opinion, no matter how many online communities will be "turn off" , the new ones will appear instantly.

week 10

Media Affect

This week i would like to talk about in what ways media affects us. 

We see media, we use media, we think we create media. But its media that influences us. For example advertisement. Advertisement is a brilliant thing to manipulate people. Making people buy what they might not even want, make people want ,even if they dont need it. The simplest example would be, have you ever seen a child in a store... and how he/she wants every candy because it is all shiny and colourful and because all the kids in the playgroud are eating these candies... well that is excactly what is happening to us. We see big , bright ads on tv, or billboards and we want it. we want it because it gives us an idea that if we buy this car, we will be just as happy family as the family that was shown on tv, everyone is happy , going on the road trips with the whole family and with a dog. 

Or ... i love ads like this one. The man deodorant that "attracts" women. After that advertisement almost every man with low self esteem was wearing that deodorant. They hoped to get more attention from the women, unfortunately its not a love potion. Samson clearly stated in his writing that "the way [we] use y[our] product is more and more oriented towards relationship’ (Samson 2012, p. 226). 

However, any advertisement ( well not any, but a successful ones) are not something that came up within 5 minutes in a head of one man. It is a very hard and professional work that has been done by a group of people, professional marketing people that know how to persuade people into buying things. The "viral marketing" explores our "effective attachment" to a product.   

Lets talk a bit more about "viral marketing" . "Viral marketing" is very effective and successful as it reaches a huge number of consumers internationally. The same concept is in viral videos. The reason why videos become so viral these days is because of their "thisness". Some of them are done by a phone camera which gives more personal attach to it. And that's the difference between viral youtube videos and for example news. Its way more recent, it can come up withing hours after the event. ta the same time it connects us as well. We all see the video, we all talk about it, we share it, we connect

Week 7

Framing

This week's lecture was about framing, hacking and vectors.

However, i would like to focus more on the idea of framing  and how it is broadly used in media.

Starting with framing. Framing in my opinion is like the way you see things. almost like a concept of biasedness ( if thats a word). We see stuff in the way we want. It can depend on our education, family values, morality, religion or even the society you live in. And that all create our view on things, however at the same time it makes us biased. Everyone is biased because we all have very personal view and opinion.

And it is similar to media. The content of it depends on the people who own it. Thats why i dont think documentary, or even news show a full story, it always has some people standing besides it that want to show a specific view point, and its not being true for both sides at the same time.

Example about the biased news could be the recent political event. As some of you might know Ukraine is going throught a revolution, where politicians dont do anything , and where their own army is shooting their own people. since i can understand Ukranian and Russian and English i watch 3 sides of the news, the ones that America shows, Russia and Ukraine. Maybe im being biased but Russian news showing footage that others dont show... well US isnt showing them , and Ukranian news ( eg with the army shooting their own ppl) saying that army is shooting terrorists , not civil people. And thats how framing works. It shows you only what someone wants you to see.

Week 5

So, this week's topic is Interaction.
Its importance in our life, its significance and it's future possibilities.

In my opinion, i think the whole idea of virtual reality that can interact with our mind is so so crazy, as in a good and bad way.

Starting with a good way. It gives so much opportunities for people, that it blows my mind. It makes life easier. for, example, Google Glasses, we no longer need to hold something in our hand to take a picture, or to check our emails. We say it, and the magic glasses do it for us. But i guess, even smart phones have a some sort of a similar idea, called the "Voice control', you tell you phone what to search on the Internet, or to call someone.. it is doing what it was told to do. Plus,  it gives a good idea for home videos, you can film from your point of view. People can experience whatever you have experienced.

The other good thing, is the learning outcomes from the virtual realities. We can learn how to drive, fly, etc. Which reminds me of the episode of Big Bang Theory, when one of the main characters was learning how to drive . The same thing happens in the video games, when the virtual reality interacts with your minds. The other day i went to the Event cinema, while we were waiting for a movie, we decided to play on one of the games in Galaxy world. We play a 4D zombie killing game. First of all, it was isolated, we had to wear 3D glasses, the seats and the guns were shaking as we were shooting zombies and the cold air was blowing into our face, unbelievable experience, very real, gives you goosebumps. Extremely realistic.


Now, the negative. I believe that, as soon as we will experience, virtual reality as something normal, we will loose sense of actual reality. For instance, we might loose sense of fear. As the virtual reality does not hurt, for example the virtual driving , if you crash you can start all over again, but if you crash in real life, it will hurt...alot. Or for examples if we will play video games all the time. Killing others wont be as horrible thing to us, as we know that it is not real-real. So, when a kid loses his sense of reality and starts stabbing people, he will not feel guilty or immoral  because in virtual reality he does not really kill anyone, so it must be same with the other reality.

Another issue with virtual space , is that people can get even more isolated. But this more relates to the robots, and cyber-humans. A few months ago, i was watching a documentary, how now there are more people who do not have time for normal relationships, having family or just a partner, because it is complicated. If Cyber-Humans will became more and more accessible some people might loose any connections with real people, as humans have their own problems , views and opinions, they can not be programmed in order to pleasure or satisfy another person. Robots will make relationships easier, no problems, it will do what ever the person wants, it will say whatever that person wants to hear. Crazy. Which reminds me of an episode of Futurama, when it explains what would happen if real people will date robots.
DONT DATE THE ROBOT

week 4

This week's lecture was based on the models, extended mind and how we see the world itself.



So, in my opinion , our world is an extension of our mind. We create things, we agree on naming them, giving them some abilities. However, the world itself exists no matter what. For example, there is a car, and i know it is a car, and everyone else knows its a car, than it is a car. But, a blind person might  see ( imagine) it differently, therefore his world would be completely different, based on his other senses such as touch, hear, etc. We see things in the way we as a society, community decide on.

In my opinion , most of the general things are the same for most of the people like objects, coulrs, but people see things differently, blind people will have a different view on what non blind people see, color blind people would see colors differently, and they will believe that they way they see the world is the right on. And what about people who have mental problems and they hallucinate? They see thing we do not see, but because they believe it is true in their mind, it is true, just as true as that we do not see ( the hallucination) is true as well.

Talking about the general world we are all live in, that we are all agreed on. It is fully designed by us, for us ( physically speaking). Our world is what we want it to be. We get the news we want to hear ( the more scandalistic, the better). If we want more communication media we get it. Straight after my space emerged the popularity, Facebook, twitter, tumbler and instagram appeared, just because we wanted it so much.

However, in terms of technologies and communication we get hooked on it as Natasha Dow Schull says “addiction by design”. Yes, we have created the media communication tools, but it was to please our addiction for feedback that continues to push technological progress more for emergence of more and more devices and apps.

I think the idea of behaviorism is very interesting. The concept of the feedback is completely amazing and true. We are all addicted to something, but to be honest i do not think that addictions are always bad. Every one is addicted to something. Some are addicted to drugs, others to social media . It is part of our lives. We enjoy it when we have it. So , returning to the feedback , thats one of the main reasons why we have medias such as tumbler, instagram and twitter. It is not really about communicatio ( at least Facebook has a chat option). You post only to get feedback, you share your life, which sometimes is not how it is, and you count how many thumbs up or likes you get ( on Instagram i count the likes) .

I think with the emerge of all these social medias, people have got very low self esteem, thats the reason why we are so addicted to the likes, and comment. We want to be heard, we want to show how good we are, we want to be heard, so we can get attention. The reason why we have got this low self steam is because of the media . It allows us to see what celebrities are up to, and some of them are the same age as we are. And we feel bad for not establishing and reaching the same as they are. We all want to own a big house, fly on a private jet, wear brands cloths and date a famous super model... but we are stuck in our normal life, where we have to pay bills, take public transport and date an ordinary person just like you are.