FInal Paper

Hi Professor,

Here is my final paper. I have been working on it for awhile and I cannot get the figures to have the proper figure title below them. They go in order, so that helps. I would suggest to download it to view it better.

Thanks and have a good spring break!
Amanda

Recap

In this class, I learned many things. I learned how Apple, and other products, are expansions of the Self.  The ability to customize your products is something we take for granted. My computer is exactly how I would like it, complete with stickers I specifically place on them. Comparing my computer with the exact same one, say that Ellen has, they are completely different. These differences on the inside are our different ways of expressing ourself. These are out tools for the Self and how we expand off of our preexisting image.

The next thing I learned is how Google, and other search engines, are platforms for the Self. Google is a great tool. With this tool, you can create and build on top of it with whatever you desire. I believe search engines, such as Google, are also a way to expand your Self. Google is the base, and you are allowed to build and create anything you want from this platform.

Finally, I learned how social media, like Facebook, is a container for the Self. This is where you can create yourself any way you would like. The image of yourself you would like to portray. I also believe social medias are platforms as well, in the sense that they give you the base to start, and you have the ability to build and create the type of image you would like. I also see how something like Facebook can be an expansion of the Self. You can customize it however you would like, giving off whatever image of yourself you would like.

Week 9 Extra Post

This week was the first time I ever worked with HTML. I found it very interesting and almost addicting. You have the power to create nothing into anything you could dream of. I have seen what code looks like before, but I have never had the chance to play with it. 

Every web page is created from nothing. Blogger was created by a genius coder and look at everything I can do within this one page. I have the ability to change my font size, change the colors, even put in pictures and links. Someone created this, and as hard as it was for me to understand how to use it, there are people out there every day who create stuff like that. I wish I would have gotten that experience sooner because I would have liked to take a class or two working with it.

You Are Not A Gadget

For my post, I will be talking about a part of the book within the section entitled, "Making People Obsolete So That Computers Seem More Advanced." There is a part in there that says, "Computers will soon get so big and fast and the net so rich with information that people will be obsolete," I found this passage striking, computers are going to become so smart, so powerful, that they will outshine the very things that created them.

That sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? You create this tool, this machine, and it is going to become better than you, at everything. There will be no more use for yourself. So much more better you that there is no more use for you, the creator.

As striking as it it, I would have to agree with this. It does sound a little far off now, but I believe one day, computers will have the answers to everything. Everything could be answered by these computers, every problem could be solved by them. But what is the point to being alive in a life where you do nothing for yourself, you depend of a metal thing for all your answers. As much as I wanted a robot when I was younger, the thought of some thing acting like a human that is not a human, scares me. Humans are amazing creatures, and can accomplish anything they want, but just because they can make this machine, doesn't mean they should.

HTML Project

Here is my Neocities Website

Generation Why Post

While reading the article, I came across one part that I really enjoyed.

"When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility. In a way it’s a transcendent experience: we lose our bodies, our messy feelings, our desires, our fears. It reminds me that those of us who turn in disgust from what we consider an overinflated liberal-bourgeois sense of self should be careful what we wish for: our denuded networked selves don’t look more free, they just look more owned."

This is so true! Being connected to the internet, really anything with technology, makes you lose part of your Self. I know I am addicted to the internet, two weeks ago my roommate and I tried to go the day without Facebook and Twitter, and sadly, that was hard. My individualism is reduced because I do what everyone else my age does, I check Facebook multiple times a day. Conforming, that is what I am doing with Facebook. I conform to what everyone else is doing because I don't want to be left out when it comes to knowing what Sally from home posted as her status.

This also reminds me of the video we watched in class on Ray Kurzwell. He said how he predicts that all of our brains will be backed up onto a hard drive, we will have internet capability in our brains. I want to know what is next then? Having all of our brains on the same networked? Hooked onto the same server? Then there will be hackers who break into where all of your thoughts are stored. From that point forward, nothing will be safe, not even your deepest thoughts and fears. This does not sound like a world I would like to live in. What is the point of living in a world where nothing can be private. Everyone will soon know everything about you, and that is scary. Everything that is said in the paragraph I quoted will be true. We will no longer be free.

Week 8 Extra Post: Facebook as a Presentation of Self

During class on Monday, we talked about how Google is a platform for the choosing self whereas Facebook is a platform for the presenting self. And I totally agree with this. Facebook is what you make it. I choose my profile picture, what part "About Me" gets shared to the public and who my friends are. If someone has statuses or updates that I don't agree with, I can simply unfriend them or delete the post off my timeline. If it comes to it, I can block them from my profile all together.

Facebook gives you a lot of options on how you want to present yourself. Your best friends can be your family members, or even your spouse if you so desire. You can present yourself as a die hard Cubs fan and have your photos and about me all about the Cubs. If you want to show your support for something, say cancer, you can make your profile picture purple. And if you don't want yourself to be found, you can hide your profile, or even hide your name. You even choose who can see your pictures, if you don't want to present an image to yourself to strangers.

I believe that Facebook is what you make it. You literally get out of it everything you put into it. If you don't want something known about you, you don't have to put it on Facebook, you can leave it blank. You even have the capability to take down posts put up by other people. Facebook gives us the power to be who we want to be. If we want to be ourselves or someone else, the choice is ours.