Abundance of "worthless" content on the web...

After our New Telecom Technologies class last week when we virtually experienced Brian Reich talk about the abundance of “worthless” content (an excellent virtual experience, by the way), I have thought a lot about this is true statement and just how we as a population should handle the problem (if we need to “handle” it at all). In class last night, we watched a video by Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law, which addressed similar issues (again, this too was interesting).

My opinion is much like Reich’s in that yes, there is a lot of junk out there now, but I believe it will eventually take care of itself. It is a typical routine we go through with many things that are new to us, especially technology, as history has shown us in the past. Since the technology is fairly new to us, we don’t know how to use it to our full advantage yet, and therefore it is chaotic now. Eventually, however, we, as a population, culture, whatever you want to call it, will weed through the mess and only watch or see only what we want to see eliminating the rest of the junk out there just as we did with many technological gadgets that were all the craze. Television was similar when it first came out and even now. There is a lot of garbage on TV, but we only watch what we want eventually eliminating the bad. We buy into the hype of new things at first, and then eventually it dies down.

I also feel like right now with so much stuff on the Internet, it is an opportunity to allow people to gain their voice, if you will. Allowing people to do whatever they want creatively (which some of it is extremely creative and good in my opinion) now when we are experimenting is an opportunity for those who have some creativity to let it out and share it with us. It is art that right now everyone wants to express in his or her own way.

Should this be allowed? Should people be allowed to create music on their own without record companies and the like regardless of the quality? Sure. Why not? What will happen? We won’t listen to it or we will because it is so terrible. If it doesn’t hurt anyone, why should we care? This is a great way to see if audiences are interested in your music before you leave your day job, right?

What about porn and other things that our kids can look at when we aren’t watching, some even becoming addicted to it? Sure, this is not good and I certainly don’t condone it. However, I feel it is the parent’s responsibility to know what your kids are doing, not the government’s, FCC’s, or anybody else’s for that matter. Parents are responsible for their children. If they can’t watch them every second of the day, then talk to them about the problems and issues out there on the web. Being aware of what they can do and then talking about it openly is half the battle. Kids are going to do what they want when they want it no matter what. It’s like sex. The best one can do is talk to them about their responsibility. After that, it’s up to them.

To sum up my beliefs, I believe we should leave what we have now alone. It will take care of itself without the help from government officials or anyone else. Too often we ask the government to help us out on issues that they really have no business in because we are scared of what could happen. In this case, I agree with Reich and Lessig that things are crazy right now, but we as a culture will clean it up on our own. Once restrictions are in place, we will loose so much creativity and art. Free speech is what we as a country are all about. Let our voices be heard. Leave this alone for once. Eventually things will take care of themselves.

2nd post - New Social Networking Tool: Gypsii

Oh my gosh. I have just read about a new service that allows a person to track where their friends are through their cell phones. It is a new social network site that was just released in Barcellona, Spain and is called “Gypsii”. So, you could be in California and your friend, Sam, could be in New York. You could then track him on a little map on your cell phone. The map they showed on the article had a bunch of pins pointing to where the “friends” were at that time. It looked as if when you scrolled over the pin, the name of the friend would pop up as well as their location. This information could also be transferred to your facebook or myspace page to share with other friends if one was so inclined.

The article, “'Friend locator' could become next craze for social networkers,” said that Gypsii was only available for “top-end phones,” which I assume to be the blackberries and iphones. In any case, one can be pretty sure that it won’t be long before this technology will be available to every kind of phone and eventually become affordable.

My thing that I love is new technology. Social networking is a newer technology that has its benefits. What I love about this Gypsii software is that it allows people to see where their friends are, say, if one is going out on the town and wants to meet up with their peeps. They can just view their map and see that everyone is at the local pub or that Nick is having an impromptu party at his house (hopefully you were invited or they just forgot!).

I thought this was a pretty cool article. Here is the link if you want to check it out for yourself.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080213/tc_afp/lifestyleinternettelecomsocial2_080213172258

First post

Hey out there,

This is my very first blog. I am in a very interesting class that has me learning to blog once a week or so for one hour. This class is learning about personal web spaces. I hope to use this to my benefit for my IDT degree. I hope that it will help me understand better how Generation M (people between the ages of 15 and 25) use their computer and network with each other. This should help me in my field after I graduate.

Just a note: I had another blog up here before, but am going to change it a little per the guidelines of the class requirements.

So, here it goes. I will be blogging about new social networking technologies or things of that nature. This can be anything that is new out there technology-wise or some fun blogs that I find interesting because of my interests that will help me social network with people I don’t know, but who also have the same interests. It may also contain information about new technology in general and where that is going (which I believe is up, up, and farther up as the future unfolds).

Just for your information, I love technology, especially new technology. I have a strong desire to learn how to use much of what is offered out there today and express a real love for anything new in this area (like faster computers, iphones, digital cameras, etc.). If it is out there, I would love to get my hands on it and try it out, even new software.

With that said, I am off and running to find new social networking tools. I hope you enjoy my blog!