Are technologies here to improve and ease life in a way that benefits the user? One may look at this question and rush to say yes, of course they do. I couldn't fully disagree, but many of the things that are supposed to improve our life also harm us at the same time. Social Networks, GPS, video games, computers, and internet are just a few of these technologies that seem so wonderful. What is it about all of these that improves or eases your life? Social Networks connect you to your friends and family, so that is unarguably a benefit. With GPS you will never be lost again because your GPS will find you where ever you are. You don't have to make friends or see your family anymore because now you can have friends and family in a video game. Computers can do anything from adding to guiding a space ship. And with the internet, all computers can be connected. All of these benefits for something that I could consider harmful. So we will take a look at each of these technologies one at a time to find what could possibly be so aweful about them.
The number one social network, myspace, became popular about five years ago. It attracted people from all over the world, partly because you can change your myspace page to anything you want and it's free. As of 2006, myspace had over 100,000,000 active users. That's a lot of people on a website that's free. To run a site like that, it would cost 10,000's if not 100,000's of dollars a month. So they have to be making money somehow to run this site. This is what makes myspace so harmful. You may first go on myspace and want to talk with your friends or family, that helps myspace a little bit because now they have a large group coming to their site. But you're only going to stay so long on their site. It will end up being just like e-mail, so they allow you to customize your myspace in so many ways that you spend even more time on the site. Then they add all sorts of features such as blogs, forums, music, video clips the list goes on. Each of these different features attracts more and more people and it gets you to sit on myspace even longer. America is already suffering from an obesity problem and this doesn't help. People get trapped on myspace and now they don't have to hang out with their friends because they can go on myspace. Then myspace makes money from this at the same time.
Myspace have so many people on their site all the time that advertisers are willing to pay really high prices to put any ads on the site. Another way they can make money is from all the information you are required to provide when you sign up for a myspace. With this information, they can find out what kind of things you look at and then categorize you based on location, age group, and gender. That seems kinda scary that they could collect all that information about you, but myspace would tell you if they were going to do something with your information, so you don't have to worry. It even says it in the privacy policy, "MySpace will get your permission before we use the PII you provide to us in a way that is inconsistent with the purpose for which it was submitted or share your PII with third parties that are not affiliated with MySpace"(PII is personally identifiable information). It says right there that they can't give away your information without your permission, but there is one word in there which changes everything, "affiliated". So, the information can be given away to other third parties, as long as they are affiliated with myspace. When myspace puts someones ads on their site, they become an affiliate of that advertiser, so does that mean myspace can potentially sell your information to that advertiser? It is a risk you have to take if you want to apply to myspace. There are other problems with myspace, but lets take a look at how video games have major downfalls, some of which are related to myspace.
Many video games have a very addictive component to them. Just like myspace, they show you tons of flashing lights, give you more features than you could ever possibly need, and you're hooked. The problems with video games though, are by far worst than myspace's. One such example is the addiction problem people have with mmorpg(massively multiplayer online role playing game). I've seen people addicted to myspace so badly that they were on most of the day, but that is nothing in comparison to what mmorpg players do. Some of my friends were addicted to one and they were on from the time they woke up, until the time the went to sleep. They might take a break to get something to eat, but they'd bring it make to their computer and eat while they played. They would even skip class because they couldn't stop playing the game. I've even read stories about people getting a divorce because one of the spouses could no longer put up with the addiction.
This seems crazy that someone could be so addicted to a video game. But is it really that much different from any of the other things in which people become addicted? Video games put the user into a "virtual reality" where they can do things that aren't possible in the real world. It numbs reality so you don't have to deal with your problems in life because you take on the identity of the video game characters. Its easier to get friends because you can talk to anyone in the game without any feelings of nervousness. If they don't want to talk to you, then their's no real rejection because they don't actually see or know you and you can always talk to someone else, just like myspace.
Even though there are several disadvantages to using certain technologies, people will continue to use them. Just like cigarettes, people know they'll suffer an agonizing death from smoking, but the continue to do so anyways.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I completely agree with you that we are too reliant on technology. We do not want to think anymore, we do not want to memorize anything anymore. Also it is true that sites like MySpace and video games can be addicting and are purposefully made to be so. However, can we really blame the technology or people who provide it for u? It is true that designers of MySpace or Facebook add all the extra features so that people spend more time on their site, so that they can earn money, it is also true about games, computers, cell phones, and other devises. On the other hand, no one is holding the gun to our head and forcing us to stop thinking. It is our choice to use GPS only when we need it or turn it on every time you get behind the wheel because you simply do not feel like paying attention to where you are going, or trying to remember which turn to take. It is also our choice to not memorize important numbers because they are stored in the cell phone. You make a choice how much time you should spend on MySpace or internet in general. It is human nature to make mistakes and blame it on something else; technology was designed to make people’s lives easier but most people are overusing it. So is technology really that bad, or are we simply relying on it too much?
You certainly cover a significant amount of ground in this post. Actually, each paragraph could be developed further into a separate post. I realize the temptation, maybe even particularly in this medium, is to cover the many different topics we have already broached in this class; however, I want to push you to narrow the topic so that you can dig in more deeply on each one. For example, I really appreciated and enjoyed the slight hint of sarcasm or your use of humor in the first paragraph, such as “You don't have to make friends or see your family anymore because now you can have friends and family in a video game.” I also liked the point about GPS: we need not worry because the satellites will find us! I would have liked you to analyze these virtual—pun intended—ironies a bit more. Your analysis of MySpace and the link you include are great because you have a keen sense of the ways in which this medium is deeply and intelligently embedded in capitalism. Finally, I also like your question about addictions to virtual media. Your pausing here, rather than simply making a judgment that appears to be about “values” or “morality,” is very good and important. Again, I would have liked to see this more fully developed because the various points you raise are very interesting.
Post a Comment