How has technollgy affected literature?

The other day, acclaimed author, William Fiennes, lectured to my English class about his experience as a writer and composing his most recent work, "The Music Room". Similarly, I attend a writing seminar with Fiennes every Tuesday night. Finnes always prefers we hand write all of our pieces (up to the final draft). For a while, I was confused as to why this was necessary, however his most recent discussion regarding his novel has shed some light on the topic. Fiennes even spoke of one author that wrote out his entire novel on post it notes, stuck to a wall. Because hand writing is a significantly longer process (for most people) than typing, it causes the writer to take time and thoughtfully consider what they are writing, whereas on the computer, one can mindlessly ramble with ease. I have recognized my prices that are hand written, have been held to a much higher standard than my typed pieces. Technology has sped up many functions for the better, but perhaps in regards to writing, taking more time out wouldn't be so bad. Similarly, since we as people learned to write before type, writing is a thought process that is innate to us, in a way that typing can't be. Also with typing, the ability to move bits around cant actually be detrimental. When you hand write, moving bits must be considered since it is such a hassle, so they must truly improving the piece. On the computer, one also has a bevy of distractions to deter the person from focusing on their writing. i have also noticed that people that type tend to look up words on online thesauruses to beef up their pieces, often causing awkward word choice and weakening the piece. In regards to publishing, it is easier to publish a book or piece than ever before, meaning the standard for a piece is now, unfortunately, lower. Overall, I think technology has kept literature from reaching a higher standard.

Staying Safe on Facebook

Internet safety is a pretty broad topic that requires a lot of attention to fully address, and too difficult to even skim the surface on in one blog entry, so I will address one specific issue that many teenagers face; facebook privacy. I was inspired by a New York Times article that outlined these steps:

1) Make Friend Lists: This allows you to separate groups of people that you may want to with-hold information from (for instance, a "work" group could all be set on limited profile).

2) Who Can See Your Profile: This is quite similar to the above, however this allows exceptions, so when someone requests your friendship you can put them in a group AND decide whether or not they have a greater or fewer number of priviledges

3) Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number: (I believe this may be the most vital of all) Again under the privacy settings on the homepage, one can handpick who may or may not see this information, if any at all. While it did not say this in the article, I do not really believe either of these things should be listed on facebook at all, open to ANY user, especially address. most of the other things (such as pictures) people can see might be reputation damaging, or too personal, but publishing one's address can potentially lead to a breach to their safety.

4) Change Who Can Find You on Facebook Via Search: This is one of the most helpful tools on facebook, and I didn't even know it existed! Under privacy settings, you can go to "search" and actually filter WHO can find you on facbeook (friends of friends, people in your network, JUST your friends, if you don't want anyone to find you, etc). This is such a useful tool, not just for safety purposes, but also to keep prevent certain groups of people from friending you, that you may not want to connect with, or have access to your facebook.

5) Stop Sharing Personal Info With Unknown Applications: For some, this may be a "duh", but making things like PERSONAL quizzes, and giving application owners access to this information, while also exposing potentially unsafe details about your life. I think its just generally a good rule of thumb to be extrodinarily cautious about what you put up on facebook at all, one fullproof way to keep people from knowing things about you that you don't want them to know, is simply just not to put that information up!

In conclusion, these are important concepts to consider, and we can all learn from them.

Sergey Brin and Google

Above is an extremely interesting interview between and Israeli tv interviewer and one of the co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin. It might be worth noting, that Brin is also Jewish, which I believe was one catalyst of such and interesting conversation. Firstly, I also would like to point out that the interviewer said that google was bigger than GM, Disney, and McDonalds COMBINED, without physically producing anything. The interviewer also raised some really challenging moral questions, somewhat direct at both of their jewish heritage. The interviewer alluded to the need to filter the results that google's algorithms spit out, because some of the websites were inaccurate (regarding the holocaust), and the interviewer stated that he would feel tempted to rid the search of these results, but Brin, with aplomb, responded that it was Google's duty to give people the unbiased results, it was not Google's responsibility to pass judgement on the site themselves. I found this so interesting because when you think about it, Google is incredibly powerful, and at some point their actions as a company do have legitimize themselves morally. I never believed Google could be possess a multi-faceted and complex ethical issues. Similarly, the interviewer discussed safety with Google Earth, because one can see so much, and this could potentially threaten the safety of some. Brin answers this question, and many others with eloquence, so check out the video, it is defiantly worth a watch!

Holiday Shopping and Twitter

I recently read an article on the New York Times web page that discussed the explosion of Twitter in the commercial market. Stores have begun publicizing sales and deals on their twitter pages which has been miraculously successful. This past week Black Friday kicked off the holiday season, and twitter played a crucial role. Unlike facebook, twitter is concise and to the point; it does not get hung up on pictures and videos. Some stories, like best buy, have even started using it as a way to field questions potential customers might have. Similarly, some establishments used Twitter on Black Friday to direct customers to open parking lots. I was pleasantly surprised by all this helpfulness, as I have been reluctant to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, but now it does seem to have many practical purposes. Also, the article used examples of the buyers that were using Twitter, and I was interested to see that they were all adults! I usually brand adults as being tech-reluctant, but it seems this was a gross underestimation. I personally know no one my age with a twitter account, however I predict that it will gather speed amongst the adolescence.

Tom Anderson and MySpace

In the video above, Tom Anderson, the founder of MySpace, is talking to a tv show host about his "creation". While a lot of the interview is general MySpace information, I was surprised by a few main discussion topics. Anderson speaks on how MySpace differs from Facebook, and one of the key distinguishing factors, he identifies, is the element of music and video. MySpace has clearly had a massive effect on the interconnectedness of media. It has also made it considerably easier for emerging artists and bands to get noticed. If one was to look at the date of the interview, they'd notice it took place in 2007; far before presidential election last year. In the video, Anderson foreshadowed the key role myspace and other social networking sites would play in this election, noting that every single one of the candidates already had myspaces in 2007. We all know how important this tech-savvy element was to the election as well, having seen the outcome, thus epitomizing how central technology has become to our lives.

MySpaceDeath

I recently watched this video in my Tech and Culture class. The video is discussing the website known as MyDeathSpace.com. On this site, users can submit pages to represent deaths of myspace users. Firstly, let me be blunt, I find this very, very strange. However, can we write it off so quickly? Everyone deals with death differently, perhaps being able to write on a loved one's wall, allows some to grieve. In addition, the site owner will take any post down at the request of a family member, so if the page makes a relative uncomfortable, it can be removed. Some have argued against this site, saying the dead has no say in their page, however, do they have a say in anything anyone says about them after they are dead? Some assume that this is just more disrespect-able because words are put into writing, but how is this different from perhaps a memorial service address? The dead has no say is what their speaker says there either. I think all must be hesitant to judge this site, despite how it looks at the quick glance.

Timothy Leary, "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out"

I recently learned about the Harvard psychology professor that promoted LSD and drug use in the 1960s, known as Timothy Leary. Leary coined the phrase "turn on, tune in, drop out", to endorse LSD, and demonstrate how turning on one's brain to the hallucinating properties of the drug and tuning into its religious component, allowed one to "drop out" of the physical meaninglessness of reality. Regardless of my opinion regarding this marketing technique or even what it represented (I am repulsed that an educated man could dismiss the health side-effects of drugs in addition to their addictive qualities), in a way, this concept reminded me a bit the dichotomy of technology. Technology is great because of the information it can provide us, however are we not "tuning out" because of it, and perhaps disregarding the reality of our own environments? For instance, take video games, or sims, are we not living the lives we wish we could, rather than living them ourselves? Another example is TV. I believe something can be gained or learned from about 5% of the stuff that is on the tv, which means the vast majority of the time we watch TV we are not gaining anything from watching it, so why do we do it? Because we do not want to work on out lives, we want to see someone elses, or live vicariously through them. Isn't that why girls like romantic comedies ? They desperately want to believe men are as charming and good looking as they are in the movies, they want to essentially live through the movies. Sometimes, we utilize technology in the same way Leary was utilizing LSD and drugs; using it to escape the reality of our environments, despite the fact that its main function is to educate us on the reality of our situations.