Blog #3

·       How did the Internet originate? What role did the government play?

The Internet has increased with interaction by the 1990s, which allowed immediate two-way communication and one-to-many communication. The Internet has originated as a military-government project, with computer time-sharing as one of its goals. The ARPA, Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, had developed a solution to enable the researchers to share computer processing time starting in the late 1960s. The ARPAnet enabled the military and academic researchers to communicate on a distributed network system.

·       Why did Google become such a force in Web searching?

Google was released in 1998, which became a major success since it introduced a new algorithm that mathematically ranked a page’s popularity on the basis of how many other pages linked to it. Google is the most popular search engine. Google maintains its search dominance with Google Voice Search and Google Goggles apps, which allow smartphone users to conduct searches by voicing search terms or by taking a photo. The Google market in 2012, shares accounted for 66.5 percent of searches in the United States.

·       What are the democratic possibilities of social media? How can social media aid political repression? Provide a current example in your answer.

The way we consume and relate to media and the way we communicate with others has changed with social media. With social media we can share our thoughts and opinions, write or update an encyclopedia entry, start a petition or fund-raising campaign, post a video, and create and explore virtual worlds. Social media has proven to be a tool for democracy, and for undermining repressive regimes that thrive on serving up propaganda and hiding their atrocities from view. In the Middle East in the year 2010, a man named Mohamed Bouazizi had a vegetable cart, which was confiscated by police. He was humiliated and set himself on fire, the stories in Tunisia never communicated widely so this time protesters posted videos on Facebook, and satellite news networks spread the story with reports based on those videos. By January 2011, Tunisia’s dictator of nearly twenty-four years fled the country. In the United States, social media has helped call attention to issues that might not have received any media attention otherwise. Protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 and 2012, in New York and at hundreds of sites across the country took to Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and Facebook to point out the inequalities of the economy and the income disparity between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of the population- 99 percent.

·       Google’s corporate motto is “Don’t be evil.” Which of the four major digital corporations (Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook) seems to have the greatest tendency for evil? Why? Which seems to do the most good why?

In my opinion, I feel like Facebook seems to have the greatest tendency for evil. Facebook is one of the stickiest with Americans staying on the social networking site, about 20 percent of their overall time online. Facebook has the most immense, socially dynamic audience, just like Google, but it has become a data processor as much as a social media service, collecting every tidbit of information about its users-what we like, where we live, what we read, and what we want and selling this information to advertisers. Facebook viewers reveal so much about themselves in their profiles and the messages they share with others, Facebook can offer advertisers exceptionally tailored ads. So people think that even if their profile is private, it really isn’t because Facebook has all the information and can sell it to make a profit. I just seem that facebook has the greatest tendency for evil because what we think is private really isn’t. It is put on the internet and can be seen be thousands of viewers even if you are not friends with people. For example a user who just got engaged gets ads like “Impress your Valentine.” In my opinion I think that Google seems to be the most good because it has branched out into a number of other Internet offerings, including shopping (Froogle), mapping (Google Maps), e-mail (Gmail), blogging (Blogger), browsing (Chrome), books (Google Book Search), and video (YouTube). Everyone turns to Google for answers, it is one of the most searched engines on the Internet. Google bought the Android operating system, mobile phone ad placement company AdMob and mobile phone software developer Motorola Mobility. Google helps people who have trouble with homework or need to search for many things. It helps lead to branch off into other websites and is quick and easy to access.

·                           As we move from a print-oriented Industrial Age to a digitally based Information Age, how do you think individuals, communities, and nations have been affected positively? How have they been affected negatively? Why?

The Internet has grown and increased communication so much. Nowadays it is easy to access information faster, like sending emails, chats, pictures, etc. On page 73, it says that the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act cleared the way for cable TV systems, computer firms, and telephone companies to merge their interests and become even larger commercial powers. I think that individuals, communities and nations have been affected positively by the growth in technology and communications. Now it is easy to catch up with a friend you haven’t spoken with in a while or learn about what is happening on the other side of the world. It is easy to bring a community together by the power of the media. It has positively affected lives by how new technology keeps rising making it easier for things that were harder back in the day. It has been negatively affected too, by the new technology increasing, kids aren’t as social lately. Some don’t know how to speak properly because they are always texting people instead of having face to face conversations. Now books are being bought on ipads, which in a few years everything will be on devices.

·       Do you have any strong memories from playing early video games? To what extent did these games define your childhood?

I do remember playing video games as a child. It wasn’t my strongest interest because I preferred to play outside more and be active. I loved playing video games with my older brother because when we would play a racing game he would get so into it and right before he won he always let me get 1^st place. He was very supportive letting me win because he didn’t want me to feel bad but when he was with his friends he would get rowdy and competitive. My favorite game was Mario Party because of Princess Peach and all the different levels and adventures you had to face. It kept me so intrigued because you never knew what was coming next. My next door neighbor was my brothers age and he would always invite us over to play and I remember him having an arcade basement with pin ball machines and every video game you that was released. We would play video games all the time but I never had the attention span to stay there for long. Growing up my parents never monitored how long we played video games because they knew how hyper we were so we wouldn’t play for long because our minds would wander and in the next second we would be playing hop-scotch outside or having bike races around the block. I don’t think the games really defined my childhood because I never understand really how to play them; I just liked it because it got people together and we enjoyed each other’s company.  I never liked the violent games because of the shooting involved so I never got interested in it.

·       What have you learned about video games?

I learned a lot about video games. It keeps you focused on a task and it keeps you determined to finish the level you are on as many times as you can until you succeed with flying colors. Playing video games takes technique and hand eye coordination. I learned that there sometimes is a moral at the end of a video game.  I learned that some video games have more violence than others because sometimes you can get way to caught up in a game and you can’t control your reality to your fantasy. Video games have taught me that there will always be obstacles in your life and you just have to learn to work your way through it and once you succeed, you are rewarded. Even though some video games aren’t the best, they do teach you right and wrong about life. It makes you want goals and teaches you teamwork.

·       Why do video games play such a large role in society? Are they good or bad for society? Please provide examples.

Video games have been around for a while. They are very popular now and I know that more guys prefer to play video games than girls. If you start playing video games at a young age it can go either way. Some video games are very violent, which make children to believe that shooting people is ok and they will go out in the real world and shot a person dead. Grand Theft Auto is a very violent game and Mario Brothers is more fun and adventurous. Video games can get into a persons head very easily and it’s very common that a child becomes more aggressive because of it. However a character acts in a video game, a child can learn to model their behavior. Video games aren’t necessarily good or bad I just think that parents should monitor their child’s games and use of video games so it doesn’t get out of control. Some video games have more fun ideas that don’t lead to aggressive behavior. There are some parents out there that don’t care and will let their kids play video games all day, which effects their social skills and learning because you are sitting at a screen and not going out in the world to explore. Kids nowadays prefer to stay inside and play video games instead of playing outside.