Tag Archives: internet

Evaluating the Internet Information

quy_luu

When I need to know new things, Internet search engines are the tools that I use to answer my questions right away. Today, there are so many search website such as Wikipedia, WorldCat as the library database and Google. The only remaining thing that I have to concern is about the credibility and reliability of this new information. That’s exactly how we have evaluating standards nowadays. For the Wikipedia, it gives me quick views of the information because all the data follow the same pattern; the definitions of the term of information always go on the top. That way, you can directly get the idea without reading the rest of the source. However, Wikipedia doesn’t have any credibility for academic writing assignment and this is the huge difference between Wikipedia and the library database. For the WorldCat, there are lots reliabilities and it is pretty to get citation from this source. Besides, I have to read the entire article to get the idea of the information, plus, some articles doesn’t seems to be accurate for what I look for even though their key words are matched. Additionally, the difference between WorldCat and Leonardo Electronic Almanac is the image that have been attached to each article on Leonardo website. With this advantage, researchers easily recognize how close their key words with the found related articles without reading them; it is a part of assisting method for the convenience of the researchers. In my opinion, Leonardo website has more reliabilities and credibility than Wikipedia; however, some articles will be hard to cite for academic writing assignments.

Locative art

@PerrinKyla

When searching “locative art” on the three sites I found that each one had very different results. Wikipedia didn’t have a page strictly for locative art, but they did have a page for locative media and then listed locative art as a subcategory for locative media. In the Leonardo Electronic Almanac there are articles or books done on topics related to locative media and when clicked on they give an abstract or the information needed to go find the article. Similarly in WorldCat there are scholarly or peer reviewed articles and books that the school has put together for students and professors at WSU to use. The information on Worldcat seems like it would be more credible then both of the other sites because the information on Wikipedia could be misinformation or disinformation since it is a site that can be edited by anyone and the information on the Leonardo Electronic Almanac could contain some propaganda. I suppose that some of the articles on the WorldCat search could contain propaganda because there are many articles that contain bias. However, after reading “Evaluating Information Found on the Internet,” I can see how easily people just go to a site like Wikipedia because it is the first one that shows up on a Google search. Most people just want information fast pertaining to whatever it is that they are looking up and they don’t bother to take the time to search through several sites to see what is and is not credible.

Blog 12: No internet!

@kylemcgee77

Although I found going one day without using the internet quite easy, I don’t think I could go without it too much longer. There are definitely some things I could go longer without using the internet for than others. Facebook is something I could go longer than a day without using. Although Facebook keeps me connected to my friends quickly and efficiently, there is nothing on Facebook that requires attention 24/7. Youtube is another site that I could give up for awhile. It is one of my favorite sites, but it’s only for entertainment. One problem I would eventually have if I gave up internet access is accessing homework for my college classes. In today’s world, I internet access has become a necessity for most people. It’s how we apply for jobs. It’s how we find housing. It’s how we book vacations! Communication is also a critical part of the internet. Without internet, most of these tasks would have to be completed through the use of a telephone or by mail. While these solutions aren’t difficult or inefficient, they are becoming more obsolete as time goes by. Having no access to internet would be labeled as a “first world problem.” We as a Americans that thrive in an industrialized nation would probably fall off the deep end if the internet was cut off for good, but developing nations that don’t have internet access wouldn’t be affected at all. I think it would be interesting how America would react if there was no internet access for one day.

#dtcv

Blog Post 12: No… Technology?!?!??!

@DTC_AlexTDTran

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I COULDN’T DO IT. Just kidding. To be honest, I didn’t think that it was all that difficult. Personally I have a good divide myself between technology and reality in which I do not rely completely on wasting time on the internet or texting friends, etc. What I would typically do on the internet I would instead spend doing other hobbies such as solving puzzles or walking my dogs. This is what I feel when it comes to the digital divide for younger generations. Karen Mossberger and Caroline Tolbert mention that there is more to the digital divide than just the access divide and that it is divided into more categories (Pg 207). I can understand that the digital divide in a problem in a ever growing digital world but I can’t help but think about the fact that this ever growing digital world forces those who want to continue on in this world to learn and use media and that because of the rapid growth of technology in modernized countries that those in 3rd world countries were unable to catch up and those who were content with what they already had would be left behind and ridiculed to “get with the times”. Furthermore, it does not help that this new technology keeps remediating itself and so requires knowledge of the previous versions in order to full understand it. I believe that the only solution to the digital divide is to slow technological growth and give time for people to learn and adapt to this new technology but also to make this technology available to everyone.

Social Media Environment

quy_luu

Social media environment has completely changed the society nowadays. For the last years, it has gradually become the public place where people can actually seek for new friends or update their friends’ status. By creating numerous social network websites, the social media has pulled people closer to each other by sharing their online story and status.  That way, the media environment has connected people and helped people understanding more about the others, “Social network gives us unprecedented power share our stories with more people than we ever imagined” (Zandt 159).  Besides, the social media has create the credibility among people by their day by day personal stories and people can absolutely feel same way with these status, “You build trust with other people in your network, and from there you build empathy” (Zandt 159). Facebook and MySpace are two great examples for the social environment; whenever we caught some bad or good stories, we definitely acknowledged what going on what these people and we normally commented and liked on their status to show our empathy. Additionally, there are two types of people who connected to the social media environment; there are strong ties and week ties groups (Zandt 165). Obviously, the strong ties group refers to regular participators for the social websites. They are normally your friends, your family members and your colleague. Oppositely, the weak ties group refers to seldom connectors, who are not interested in these websites. They connect to social network when they have a lot of spare times and they don’t really get addicted like the strong ties group. By connecting to the social media environment, there were a lot of visual positive outcomes that has changed the society in the better ways.

The Freedom of Online Information

quy_luu

20 years ago, if people want to know something, they had to buy books the library and pulled out all the documents in their relevant section. 100 years ago, people had to borrow the books because they were too expensive for most of people to buy. The situation has changed forever because we have online information nowadays. Today, over 2 billions people connect to the Internet and there is no doubt that at least one third of them are searching for information. However, there are some country’s leaders who believe some information are too dangerous for people to know; websites have been removed and people have been punished for freely talking online. Internet should be freedom not repression. People should have control and responsibilities of the content that they post and they should do it without fear and punishing. Besides, the Internet is bigger than newspaper, radio even bigger than television; that’s why it doesn’t allow the government to take control. The Internet was found on the principle of freedom. In other words, it is the right of act, speech or thinks that people want without entrance and restrict. If there are some reason that make the government concern about the Internet will reveal confidential information, they should rather concern about their missions, their duties than the Internet. How do normal civilians get secretly information that has been covered and protected by the government? Obviously, they can’t get into their department to get these documents; besides, they will commit crimes by these activities. Therefore, the information has been revealed into public in the first place by the government and this is totally not the Internet’s fault. The freedom of online information should be concerned as human’s right.

Relying on Technology

@MyDtcAccount – Jonathan Crabtree

 

Back in 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote that “science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race” (Bush 54). This idea is illustrated in the Matrix “Raining Code” scene by the alleged code that is falling from the top of the screen. This seemingly random pattern of letters represents nothing to the untrained eye, but we can assume that what is crossing the screen in front of us is coding that encapsulates all of the audio and visual elements of our day to day lives. While having all this information accessable sounds like a good thing – and it is – he also cautioned against the idea that technology will one day become such an integral part of our society that we will not be able to function without it. I believe that day has arrived.

 

Humans and technology have become inseperable. We can’t live without it, and it can’t exist without us. Even if we really just focused on “new media” as the technology, instead of ALL technology (i.e. the wheel, fire, a hammer, etc.), humans would still struggle to live. Think about it. If computers all of a sudden disappeared, you could no longer read this. Banks (and your money) would be crippled and disappear overnight. Capitalism would grind to a halt. How does water get to your home? Technology. How does your grocery store tell the supplier they need more food? Technology. Obviously there are some people that would be able to survive, but I honestly think a lot of people wouldn’t make it. As a society, we have become too reliant on technology to make things easier for us, that we have no idea how to handle life without them.