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.

HTML Project

For my project, I am going to talk about how, "You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer." Google, as well as the world, is becoming more and more mobil. We no longer have time to sit at a desk and scroll through our desktop computer to find an answer to that puzzling question we have. These questions come to us when we are all over the world, so why not make the answers accessible to us where ever we are.

I believe Google is doing this. We have access to Google anywhere we are, assuming we always have service. But now with the introduction of how they want to put balloons in the sky that distribute service, and even the Google Car, where ever we are Google will be there.

This reminds me of religion because religion is something that is always around you, even if you can't see it. Google is slowly becoming that. We can hardly tell that these Google Glasses are connected to Google. A car is just an everyday thing, but now to have it hooked up to Google is a crazy thought. These balloons are going to give us service, and we won't be able to tell they exist because we can't see them. Religion is something you believe in, even if you don't see it, and this is what Google is becoming.

Free Blog Week 7

While reading the chapters for today, I was struck by the whole 9/11 debacle. I understand the longer they leave the ribbon up, the more awkward it would be when they took it down, but this was a HUGE event that affected everyone. Google is a page most people use regularly and people want to be reminded that the world still cares about what happened. By seeing the page up longer, it shows that people still care.

I personally think this was blown up so much because Edwards worries too much. He mentioned this earlier in the book, but now I see what he means. Google is more of a laid back company, few rules and a relaxed atmosphere. They have a massage therapist there for goodness sake. It really interests me to see how Edwards deals with this with the rest of his time there. It sounds like he is trying to keep his head above water, it's going to be interesting to see how he survived.

Another example of Edwards worrying too much is the Google Doodles. He thought it was an awful idea, but now it is extremely successful. I think Edwards is too afraid to stray away from the norm. That is a huge issue with Google, because Google likes to be creative.

Google and Self

I think one of the problems with Doug is that he had a hard time establishing a sense of Self within Google. I feel like he always compared himself to everyone else and pointed out the differences. Not being freshly out of college and being older than a lot of people who work there. This added with the unique environment in which Google had, created a confusion for Self within Google.

A good example of how Doug is unsure of his sense of Self is on page 14, when he says, "I was ready, but not sure for what." Throughout most of the first part of the book, he is not sure where he stands as an employee, as a person inside of Google. He never really knows what he should be working on, and he was not used to a company working like that.

I don't believe it wasn't until the hundred banners project when Doug finally felt like he had something to do, like he found his place in this office. After this project, he started to bring his children to work on the weekend. I believe this meant he finally felt like part of Google because he was comfortable with this community by bringing his children to work, merging the two parts of his life. I think between having an important project to work on, and bringing his family to work, he finally found his Self within Google, and knew where he stood.

Week Five Extra Post

During class, the discussion of how Google gives you suggestions about what you are going to type came up. How this is based on elements of trust and neutrality. The more I was thinking about that, the more I agreed with it. I have always thought it was odd that Google would guess what I was thinking, but I never thought about how offensive it could be, if Google guessed wrong.

We also trust that Google will be correct in what they guess, and most of the time they are. Google isn't bias about what we like. They don't care about what side we agree on with controversial topics, they just give us what they know we would like. It is crazy that someone can come up with this algorithm, it blows my mind.

Google as a Medium

To begin with, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what was meant by Google being a medium. So what did I do? I Googled medium to make sure I fully understood what the word meant. Google functions as a medium because a medium is the method of doing something. To understand this prompt, as well as every word I have ever questions the definition on, Google has always been the method of choice I use to find out what it means.

Also, that I even used the word 'Googled,' transforming a proper noun into a verb, shows that this is a medium, you can Google something. Going back 20 years, if you told someone you were going to Google something, they would look at you crazy. But today, this is a normal thing, almost everyone knows that you are doing if you tell them you Googled something.

Finally, Google is also a medium because Google can be the method of doing pretty much anything. Need directions? Google can help you. Need an image of cute puppies to cheer your roommate up after a bad day? Google again can help you. Need to purchase a house and want to find a good Realtor? Google will be helpful. Google is a medium to so many thing, without Google, most of us would be lost, literally and figuratively. 

Community on the Web Project

Week Four: Extra Post Sheilaism

This is a video on Sheilaism. This video start off by talking about how this religion is a religion based on choice. I think, just like Sheila, this is how I view religion. I don’t know the last time I decided to go to church, but that does not mean I don’t believe in God. I do believe in God, but I don’t think I need to express that in all aspects of my life. I have my own individual system of religion that works best for me. Every person is different, so I think everyone should interpret religion differently, the way that works best for them.

Twitter: Community or a Lifestyle Enclave

I believe that Twitter is both a community and a lifestyle enclave. Yes, this might sound a little weird, how can something be both, but depending on different things, such as your hashtags or your security settings, I believe it can be both. 

If you security setting is on public, it is a community. In this setting, anyone is allowed to follow you, leaving it open for you to be in whatever community your followers want you to be in. You chose to be on Twitter, and because of this setting, you are allowing people to choose to be in your community because you cannot tell them they can not be in your community in this setting.

On the other hand, if you place your twitter account on private, this would be a lifestyle enclave. This is because you choose and decide who will be in your community. In a lifestyle enclave, you choose the people you want to be associate with based on your self image. In the private setting, you are allowed to do this. People who would like to follow you have to get your permission to follow you, allowing you to say no to people you do not want to be affiliated with, making in a lifestyle enclave.

Also trending hashtags on Twitter create lifestyle enclaves. At the current moment #BellLetsTalk is trending. This is an enclave, because if you hashtag this, in which case Bell Canada will donate five cents for every tweet to mental health initiatives and programs in Canada, you are deciding to associate with this group. You are choosing to associate with this hashtag based on the self image you are trying to portray.

In conclusion, Twitter, like most groups online, is what you make it. It can me a community if you decided to open up and let it be. It can be a lifestyle enclave if decided to make it more private or if you hashtag. But regardless, it gives you the choice to decided which you would like to be apart of, so maybe it is just an enclave that tries to portray itself as a community.

Extra Blog Week Three

In class, the discussion about first and second language confused me. How can something be individualistic but collectivist at the same time. This is a very confusing topic for me, being a psych major knowing the two are very different, to understand, but I think I finally understood it. What we share is that we are individuals. We may all be Lawrentians, but each of us is different, but Lawrence is our first language. Our differences is our second language. Like where we are from, who we root for, and so on. Being an individual is a collected thing.

What I thought was interesting was how at one time, our second languages was once a first language to someone. If someone's first language was Islam, once they got to America and had children, it would not be that anymore, moving it's way don the ladder of languages.

Blog Post on Success; Happiness

Last night, two of my roommates decided to watch a movie. We finally came to an agreement and decided to watch Happy. This was a movie about what makes people happy, which I believe can cause people to be and feel successful. In the movie, there was a woman who was one of the 50 most beautiful women in the country. She was happily married, had children and many people admired her. One day, she got into an argument with her sister outside and her sister sped off. This beautiful woman’s hand was stuck in the door and she got dragged along beside truck, until she eventually got free but landed under the truck and her head got ran over. 

Amazingly she survived, but the beautiful face that everyone love was destroyed. She had countless surgeries, but her face will never look the same. About a year after this accident, her husband divorced her, and her popularity dropped, no one wanted to look like her anymore.

This was a turning point in her life, this is when people started to look at her for who she was on the inside, not for what she looked like on the outside. When this started to happen, she finally started to be genuinely happy. She expressed how she has never been this happy before.

I believe this relates to our class and Bellah because this woman used to focus on only the second language, which is what I believe is her looks. This made her different from most people, and separated her from the average person. Once her looks changed, she finally started to focus on her first language, what she had in common with everyone else, what unified her unite with everyone. To her, this was success in happiness. Everyone around her was happy, and when she genuinely became happy, she finally fit into this expression of American culture. To some people success is money and looks, but to her, success was finally being who she was and being happy with that.

Reflection week two

For my additional blog this week, I want to talk a little more about the book. When I first came to this class, I kept hearing how much of a jerk Jobs was and how he would not be where he is today if it wasn’t because of other people, like Woz. 

First, I disagree with Jobs being a jerk. I think he is not a jerk, I think he is determined. He is determined to change the world and he does not allow people to stand in the way of his dream. Yes, he may be a little harsh to these people standing in his way and not living up to his expectations, but growing up, the world has been harsh to him and this is all he knows. He knows that this will get him perfection and that is what he is looking for. He knows how to get to where he wants to be, so he is going to do it like that.

Finally, for the people who think he couldn’t have changed the world without Woz, which was me only a mer week ago, I would have to say that is not true. Yes, Woz was the brains behind starting Apple, and Jobs was the face of Apple, but I believe even without Apple, Jobs would have found his way to change the world. Pixar changed the world in the movie industry, and Woz had nothing to do with that. Jobs had a great opportunity before him, which he realized, and he capitalized on that. Anything Jobs touched turned to gold. Yes, he might have piggybacked on some of these ideas, but with his perfectionist personality, he is able to make a good idea magnificent, and with these magnificent ideas, he is able to change the world.

The Whole Earth Catalog

Looking through this catalog, that I have never heard of before this class, I was amazed by the plethora of different things they had. They have everything from Trout Fishing in America to Space Structures. When trying to find something in this catalog that is illustrative of religion, the ideas of self or where Jobs is going to go with the future of Personal Computers, I decided to pick the Subject Guide to Books in Print. 

Out of everything in the catalog I picked this one because I think it relates to religion in the sense of community. The first line of the advertisement says, “We use it, maybe you can” which is the vendors way of saying we do this, so you should too. To me, it makes it seem like they want everyone to use this, a common thing that everyone could have in common, which is what a community is.

I also believe it relates to where Jobs is going with the Personal Computer. In the advertisement is says, “Outside of a library, there’s no better way to find out whats available in a particular area,” which reminds me of the internet because the internet can be used to find things. This relates to Jobs because the ‘i’ in iMac stands for internet. These advertisements could have been where he got his first glimpse of what the internet would become, and the importance of it. 

Jobs Commencement Speech

Jobs' speech relates to religion and values in a few ways. Relating it to religion, Jobs tells a story about how he dropped out of college. He says he did not know at the time if it was going to work out, but he had faith that all the dots would connect and he would make something for himself. He had no idea that dropping into a calligraphy class would help him in the future, and in the moment he had no idea how it would, but he believed in himself and had faith it would work out. This relates to religion because you cannot see religion, there is nothing in the current moment that reminds you of religion, or a higher power is there, at least this is true for me. Even though there is no proof, you have to believe that is there. You have faith in it, like Jobs had in himself, even when he had no idea where his life was going to take him.

Relating his speech to values, he values life. He explained how everyday he woke up and asked himself if he happened to die today, would he be happy with how he spent his day, and if he answered no too many days in a row, he would do something to change that. This shows that he valued his life and understood the importance of it. Jobs also valued good work. He explained during his speech that you do good work by doing what you love. If you do not love what you do, you will not be good at it. This shows that he understands accomplishing something wonderful involves passion. Being passionate about something means you must enjoy it. And if you enjoy something, you must be living a good life, and that is what he wanted these students to get from his speech. That life is too short to do something you are not passionate about. He wants these adults to find what the enjoy doing and do it, do it as best as they can. Because if they can do that, they will wake up everyday valuing their lives and the happiness they have around them.

I have never heard this speech before class today, and I think it is extremely powerful. It moved me, as I am sure it moved all the adults there. He explains how their life is in their own hands, and with faith and hard work, they can do anything, but they need to focus on the important things. He mentions how they are not given an infinite amount of time on earth, and I believe that is used to get them motivated to start their futures now, and make the most of it. I know it made me want to.