Summary Part Two of "Here Comes Everybody"

Wikipedia has millions of articles in
many different languages.  

In the book, Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky takes a look at how social media is revolutionizing our world and how powerful social media truly is.  Shirky first examines the concept of the popular website  Wikipedia.  Wikipedia, "the online encyclopedia", is a website where anyone can create and add to millions of topics.   This collaborative website allows people to find information about almost any topic along with a list of links to other websites with additional information about the topic.  Shirky notes that even though there are many people that contribute to the articles, the majority of the articles are written by just a few.  He then relates this back to Flickr.  For example, The Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2005 had about three thousand uploaded pictures.  Two hundred and thirty eight photos were posted by Czarina, the next largest sum of photos posted by one person was one hundred and twenty eight.  The average number of photos uploaded was twenty six.  As the number of photos increase the number of people who post lots of pictures decrease.  Shirky also mentions the rapidness in which information is spread.  In this modern age of media, people are able to receive news instantly on news websites, blogs, and other forms of social media.  Information spreads like wild fire and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.  It is difficult for people who do not want their issue shared with the world to keep it private because there is so many ways stories are shared.  Shirky next explores the new fad of flash mobs.  The first flash mob took place in 2003 inside of a Macy's.  Flash mobs are often just for fun but sometimes they are a form of protest.  At first, the government was not sure how to handle flash mobs.  They were peaceful so there was no reason to take action however, it was still a form of protesting so they felt that addressing the matter was needed.  Similar to flash mobs, the government was unsure how to deal with posts placed on social media.  Social media is new to everyone and society as a whole needs to decide how to handle the power of it.

Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Essential Blog Post

Topic: Social Media

Essential Question: Has social media negatively effected society?

Claim: Social media has taken over people's lives and effected our society as a whole in a negative          way.  

Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have changed
how people write the English language.

Reason: Social media was created as an easier way to communicate with people.  Now people have created an almost entirely new language used on social media often referred to as "text talk".  Abbreviations such as "LOL", laughing out loud, and "BRB, be right back, have become common instead of typing out the words themselves.  This has also shown up in some students writing.  They write the number two instead of writing to and type "u" instead of you.  Text talk has expanded from social media sites and cell phones to everyday lives which is effecting us negatively.  

Summary of Part One of "Here Comes Everybody"

Flickr enables people to post and see
photos faster than ever.

In the book, Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky takes a look at how social media is revolutionizing our world and how situations are resolved using social media.  Shirky starts the book by telling a story of a woman named Ivanna in New York City that left her phone in the back seat of a taxi.  The person who found the phone refused to return it.  Through social media Ivanna and her friend were able to raise awareness about the situation and generate a big enough following to catch the eye of the New York City Police Department which resulted in the arrest of the thief.  Shirky points out that without Social Media Ivanna may have never recovered her phone.  Shirky next examines the concept of Flickr and weblogs.  Before Flickr people would share their photos with  family and friends for their own personal enjoyment.  When Flickr was created in 2005 people were able to instantly share their photos with millions of people.  Flickr is used for both fun and serious events.  Shirky mentions the London Transport Bombings and how in addition to the news sources there were citizens photographing these scenes who had access to parts of the incident the professionals did not and published thousands of pictures online.  A similar case happened in Thailand on a woman's weblog.  In 2006 during Thailand's military coup the Thai government banned the media from reporting on the incident.  However, the government could not stop the people from posting photos and information on their blogs depicting what was happening in Thailand which took away some of the government's power. Shirky addressees how social media is increasing the number of people who can post their opinions and pictures online.  Before social media only professional journalists and photographers were given the opportunity to share their stories with the world.  Modern technology makes it possible for anyone to share and inform the population about anything they want.  Shirky concludes the section by stating that the internet has created a world where even though we are not professionals in the media industry, we can spread information just as well.

Click here for the link to the New York Times story of the woman who left her phone in the back seat of a taxi.

Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Tech Friday Survey Results

Today we conducted a survey on the topic social media.  We asked questions such as what social media cite to you prefer and these were our results.  Majority of people have three or four social media sites and spend roughly an hour on those sites.  The most popular social media site was twitter with Instagram in second then snapchat.  When majority of people create their social media sites they make them private so not everyone can see what they post providing more security.  Our most shocking statistic came from this question, Do you treat people differently on social media then in person? The result of this question was fifty-fifty which is unfortunate.  You should always post on social media like you were talking to the person face to face.

Tech Friday 3/21/14

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSXCZCV

Discuss Emma's decision to change her future.

In the novel, The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, Emma makes bad decisions in order to change her future.  In the suburb of Lakeforest, Emma receives a computer from her dad and her best friend Josh brings over an AOL disc he got in the mail so she can access e-mail.  When Emma logs onto AOL she sees a blue tab that reads, Facebook.  Emma has no idea what this is because it is 1996 and Facebook has not even been invented yet!  Naturally she clicks on it and her Facebook page appears fifteen years in the future.  Next she discovers that multiple friends and family of hers have Facebook pages too, including Josh.  As Josh and Emma continue to pry through Facebook they are able to view their lives fifteen years in the future including details such as their jobs, who they marry, and where they went to college.  Knowledge of the future comes at a cost as Emma and Josh struggle to not use what they know about their futures in their everyday lives.  Emma cannot resist the urge to change her future.  Emma learns that her husband is gone for long periods of time and does not have a stable job.  Emma panics about her dreadful future and plots to do something drastic to avoid it.  She decides to call her future husband Jordan Jones Junior to guarantee they will never meet.  "Just like that, the future is changed forever.  Fifteen years of history-future history-is changed because Emma didn't like the guy she married...any person who was impacted by their relationship, even in the slightest way, will be twisted in countless new directions"(132).  Emma made a permanent change in her future even though she did not know that much about it.  She jumped to conclusions and immediately thought her life was awful from a few notes her future self posted on Facebook.  Emma continues to be disappointed with her future and adjusts her life in the future every time she is unhappy.  She never gives any new version of her life a chance to show how it really is.  Emma ends up regretting the choice she made to change her future life. She realizes that instead of worrying about her life fifteen years from now, she should have focused on the decisions she is making now so she can have a good future.  Adjusting the future was a poor decision by Emma and the risks she took resulted in serious consequences.

To learn more about the effects of social media and how it is revolutionizing society watch the video below:

Click here to learn more about social media!

Compare and Contrast future Emma to present Emma and future Josh to present Josh

In the novel, The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, future Emma and Josh appear to be much different then Emma and Josh are now.  As Josh and Emma live their present lives in high school their personalities are quite different from one another even though they are such good friends.  Emma is more confident then Josh and will go and talk to new people where Josh would not.  Though Josh is shyer he is much more personable with people.  Emma has a lot going for her because she is talented, smart, good at track, and plays the saxophone in the band.  Someone like that would not expect to have a bad future.  Josh on the other hand is very average.  He rides a skateboard, does well in school, and draws.  When they accidentally log onto Facebook in 1996 and view their lives fifteen years in the future, the tables turn and Josh is the one that has things going for him.  Josh has a high paying job working at a graphic design company, has a beautiful house on the lake in their home town, and has a sweet family with a wife, and three kids. Josh is delighted with how his future life is going but, Emma is highly upset with how hers is looking.  Emma has no kids, a husband who spends a lot of time away, and does not have a stable job.  Due to her frustration she makes alterations to her future, trying to make it better, when really she is making it worse.  She never is content with what her future life looks like.  "Maybe Josh was right and I shouldn't have gotten rid of Jordan Jones so quickly.  Or maybe I should have stuck it out with Kevin.  It wasn't perfect, but every couple has hard times.  Now I'm married to Isaac Rawlings, and we're already getting a divorced"(264).  In order to control her destiny, Emma changes her husband and other aspects of her life if she has the smallest concern about something she posted on Facebook in the future.  Now she regrets all those changes she made and is feeling awful about the risks that she took.  Future Emma's life is worse then it is now where Josh appears to have a better life in the future.  Always be cautious about the decisions you make now because your future is not set in stone and a major mistake could drastically change it.

To learn about some of the negative aspects of Facebook watch this video:

If you would like to learn more about The Future of Us click here to read more!

Tech Friday 3/7/2014

Discuss if the discovery of Facebook was beneficial or unfortunate for Emma and Josh.

In the novel The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, the discovery of Facebook is unfortunate for Emma and Josh because it enabled them to see what their lives are like fifteen years in the future, both the good and the bad.  When Emma receives a new computer Josh decides to give her an AOL disc he gets in the mail.  When Emma puts the disc into her computer and logs on to AOL there is a small blue tab at the top that says Facebook.  Filled with curiosity, she clicks on the tab and her Facebook page appears showing her life fifteen years in the future.  The most peculiar thing about this is that it is the year 1996 and Facebook has not even been invented yet! Knowing both the good and bad things about their futures makes them more cautious of what they are doing now.  Learning about their lives fifteen years later causes Emma and Josh to constantly worry about what they are doing and how that is going to effect their futures.  For example, Emma discovers that she never really has a stable job in the future.  Instead of taking a grade level science class next year, which was her plan, Emma decides to take a much more difficult class at the college. Emma and Josh begin to adjust their futures to their liking.  Though they are trying to make their futures better they are taking a risk of creating unwanted changes to their lives.  Emma is displeased about how her life turns out and it causes her to make the risky decision of calling her future husband, Jordan Jones Junior, to make sure they never meet.  " Josh notices my phone card on the desk, with the silver scratched off the back to reveal the activation code.  His voice is hushed, 'You did it?' I nod slowly.  'You talked to Jordan?' 'It's over,' I say.  'We're never going to meet.' (131). Emma believes that she is just helping her future however, she does not realize the negative impacts of her actions. She needs to step back to have a broader view of life as a whole and not just an upsetting week she looks to be having on Facebook. A few gloried comments on Facebook do not show how someone's life is really going.  There is more to one's life then what is posted on their Facebook.   Knowing the future is perilous and becomes a burden for Josh and Emma.

To learn about the negative and positive effects of Facebook watch the short clip here!

Tech Friday 2/28/14

Facebook

Underneath the Surface

Malcolm Gladwell is not your average speaker.  Most people, asked to speak at a TED talk, would not bring up the subject of spaghetti sauce but that is just the kind of person Malcolm Gladwell is.  He has a different perspective on things then most.  One of the topics he discusses is the Bible Story about David and Goliath.  This story is about two armies who each send one person from their army down to fight.  Goliath represents one army.  He is an extremely tall giant with armor and a sword.  David represents the other army and is merely a shepherd who refuses to wear any armor at all.  The only thing that he has are five small rocks and his shepherd’s stick.  David ends up winning the fight by throwing a stone and hitting Goliath in the forehead with the impact from the stone making Goliath unable to get up.  Everyone takes this story as a tale of the underdog but, Malcolm Gladwell does not.  He believes that David was the favorite all along.  Gladwell’s odd reasoning brings out points that no one has considered before. Malcolm Gladwell takes every basic topic he is given and goes more in depth to find another message.  He looks for the story underneath the story. 

            Malcolm Gladwell takes things that interest him and goes a step farther by looking under the cover story.  A phenomenon, such as the ones Gladwell investigates, that I have observed is why people favor certain color m&m’s others.  To me this is silly because all m&m’s taste the same.  The colored coating is not flavored, it is just a color that surrounds the chocolate.  Maybe some people like certain colors because it’s their favorite color or that color makes them feel a certain way.  For example, maybe the color yellow makes them happy.  Why some of these phenomenons exist is a mystery but, looking a little deeper may reveal the answer.  

If you would like to see TED talks by Malcolm Gladwell and others here is a hyperlink to the TED talk website:

http://www.ted.com/talks