new media

The main thing I learned from the article is how personal computers came to be. There came a time when it was time to find a way for everyone to have access to a computer. It shows how all the technology we have now got created. It was similar to the invention of television. It was out of necessity. I thought the article did a good job forecasting the advantages that personal computers can provide for a person.
I found the idea of Smalltalk to be interesting because it shows how a computer can run complex programs. The fact that a language was created specifically for computers shows how advanced this creation was. This is why we depend on computers for everything. Anyone who has had a computer crash knows how important they are in our everyday lives. A person can take that a step further and wonder what our lives would be like if we didn't have computers.
I never really pictured a computer being able to advance a persdon's skills but I guess it does have the capability to do that. For example, a person who can't draw will find drawing much easier on a computer. This shows how computers are not only for storing information. They can actually be used as a tool to improve a skill that a person wants to improve.

reason vs. computers

The main thing I learned from the article is that computers may be able to calculate things quicker and more effeciently than humans but they have no emotion or wisdom. This is why the idea that machines and/or computers will take over is a very scary thing. Since computers have no emotion they will make decisions that are not what is in our best interest. Although, on teh surface it may appear so. For example, what if computers begin to dictate what patients get opetrated on and what type pf prcedure is used. A computer will only use facts when making their decision. They will not base their decision on what is in the best interest of that person.

That is the scary thing about computers. They lack reason. Our reason is what some people see as our essence for existing. That is also the scary thing about the program called "Doctor". Weizenbaum belives that when people see this program in action they will make the mistake to assume that a machine can really replace a doctor. A doctor knows a patient personally and most of the time makes his or her decisions based on that. Leaving it up to a machine to decide what is the appropriate step to take, in Weizenbaum's opinion this isn'e the wise thing to do.

Does the Internet give you ADD?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/16/internet.brain.carr/index.html


I found this article that talks about how the Internet may make it hard for people to keep a long attention span. Nicholas Carr has writtten a book on teh subject. The book is called, The Shallows: What the Interent is doing to our brains. Carr explains, "I fear that we have been too quick to assume that computers and the 'net are good for students." This made me reflect on my INterent use and it makes sense to me. When I was constantly going online I could only write short stories. However, whenever I work on my longer stories I have to stop gping online completely. This may be in part to my need to stay focused on my story but it may also be because breaking away from the Internet is the only way for my brain to get in the right frame of mind. When we are on the Internet we process small bits of information really fast. Carr believes that most people don't see a problem with this because it reflects the way they live their life. However, if you are a person who values things like creativity and attentiveness then the Internet may be doing more harm than good.

They are in the process of doing a study that is going to research the effects that the Intenrnet has. It will either prove Carr's hypothesis right or wrong. From a personal point of view I already agree with him. Most people don't really care about what the Internet does to them. They value things like fast and readliy available information.

TV and its invention

One of the main things I learned from the article is how television was created out of necessity and it was a progression of the other technological devices that had come before it. This was mainly the radio and the telegraph. I also learned that the invention of television was delayed by war. Televsion should have came tio be in the late 1930s or early 1940s but sinxce wat broke out it didn't come to be until the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The article also talked about broadcasting and the role it played in forming the programming on television we see now. People needed a quicker and more effective way to transmit stories and current events. The radio and telegram were very limited in this capacity. This is when television came in to play. It was a way for people to send and receive images and messages at a greater rate. The book explains, "there was an evident need for a new form, which largely traditional institutions of church and school could not meet." (296) This led to the eventual formation of the press. This is why people now go to the press for their news. It was how the press came to be.

What I also found interesting in the article is something I have felt for a long time. That being the idea that television is, "an inferior kind of cinema." (299) Raymond Williams thinks that people began watching television because it was the easy thing to do. People were craving a medium that provided them with instant access to current events. This realization came thanks to teh invention of the television. He describes it was an ,"inferior immediate technology." (299) It may have been readily availabe but it was still an inferior kind of technology.

requiem for the media

The main point I got from Jean Baudrillard's article is that we must not look at the media as a process of consumers and producers. Baufrillard believes that only through interaction can the media truly become the entity it was originated to be. Baudrillard wants the media to become a tool for socialism. He mentions how the Left wing people are creating a paraniod vision of the media. The Left wing people want us to believe that the media kas kind of a mind control over us.

Baudrillard talks about how owning a camera or TV doesn't mean a person is communicating. This is where Baudrilard sees the problem in how the media is represented. Baudrillard explains, "We must understand communication as something other than the simple transmission-reception of a message." (280) From this perspective it's clear that Baudrillard doesn't believe the media is communicating effectively with us.

Baudrillard makes the interesing point that, "Even God would approve of socialism." (282). If Baudrillard stance is unclear it should be clear after reading this quote. Baudrillard doesn't agree with our friend McLuhan when he says that the medium is the message. Baudrillard believes there should be more to it than that. Baudrillard thinks that this perspective gives the media too much powe. The way he sees in correcting the problem is to strip the media of all its power and give it back to the people. His article is a call for socialism.

man vs. machine

At first the thought of man-computer symbiosis sounded intmidating to me. Then after I read the article it actually didn't sound as bad of an idea as I first thought. It's different when you have facts to help shape your view. My first reaction was fear that computers will take over the planet and the world would be run by a bunch of machines with no human emotion. However, the article explains how man and computer can each do things that may work better if they can be merged. For example, a computer can process information much faster than a human but it has no rationale behind its decisions. This is when a human being can come in and help. Many things have already been replaced by machines. They seem to be taking jobs thta shouod be done by people. However, we live in a world that depends on technology and getting done things the quickest and easiest ways possible. Therefore, this idea of man-computer symbiosis seems to be a very real thing.
The artcile uses the example of the insect Blastophaga grossorum. It explains how the insect lives together with the fig tree and one can't live without the other. Together they form a partnership. This is similar in how computer and man can also form a relationship that creates something productive. It sounds intimidating to think that computers can outhink humans since humans were the ones that created them, but it shows how computers have evolved into something else. They are now the main tool that most business' use. This is why it's not unlikely for this type of symbiosis to occur. If people can find a way to get past all the language and other problems facing ths issue it really can be a relationship that will be productive and thrive.

the medium is the message

Before there was television people used to get their news from the radio. Now television uses images in order to get a news story across. However, just like television is a medium that delivers a specific type of message other news media sources also deliver a pecific type of message. Therefore, I believe McLuhan idea has evolved since radio and television were the primary forms of media. Nowadays, newspaper, television newscasts, and magazines have more power over what types of messages they can give a person. This makes it a person's job to decipher between the different types of media and know which ones are credible and which ones are less credible.

McLuhan's idea seems accurate in that most of the time people know which types of media to avoid. For example, an article in Star Magazine will not have the same journalistic integrity that an article in Newsweek will have. McLuhan believed that television changed the way messages could be sent and also what messages could be sent. Nowadays, news sources know the power that images have. This is why they always flock to things like accidents and robberies. They meant to get the shot that will make a great top story. Unfortuntaley, some news sources also know how dependent people are on their stories. Some of those news sources try and take advantage of that.