After this long scary weekend of doctors offices and tests after tests, I never would have thought reading this book would have given me some peace of mind....but it did. The whole concept that Jaron Lanier a dreadlocked out dude from cali was trying to get across was the idea of all the changes that the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. He takes time explaining how the Web is transforming our lives, in both the good and the bad ways.
On part of the first section of this book that particularly caught my eye was the section titled "Facebook Is Similar to No Child Left Behind". This section really made me think about life as we know it. One paragraph that I think properly summed up this entire section was the paragraph...
"What computerized analysis of all the country's school tests has done to education is exactly what Facebook has done to friendships. In both cases, life is turned into a database. Both degradations are cased on the same philosophical mistake, which is the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships. These are things computers cannot currently do."
This paragraph made me deeply think about what computers are actually becoming. The line that says "Both degradations are cased on the same philosophical mistake, which is the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships." is the line that explains to the readers what computers are doing to society. But can they truly represent human thought or human relationships? I believe that the answer to that question is no they cannot.
Computers are truly evolving the way the humans interact and receive all sorts of pleasure, information, and all kinds of data, but can they represent our thoughts and relationships. Even though social networking sites such as twitter and facebook do get across peoples thoughts. However, do you believe everything you see on the internet? I don't believe 50% of the tweets professional athletes post not to mention the things my friends say. For instance do you believe that girls are dating other girls just because that is what their facebook relationship status says? The computer is a vehicle for our information that is easily molded and changed all with the intent of the human using that computer.
I think that the idea of computers representing human thought and relationships is not realistic. Like I previously explained it all depends on the intent of the human behind the screen and you cannot believe everything you see on the internet.
Just something for everyone out there to think about...
interesting post--hope you are feeling better
ReplyDeleteI was going to post the same quote in my blog post, I was struck by the Facebook comparison to No Child Left Behind, as well. It is a valid point but I also don't know if I agree with Lanier's point that computers are beginning to represent human thought fully; however to his point of the internet's effect on human relationships, I agree on some level that there are people within this world that feel that they can better connect with others when there is a computer in between them. In that respect, I agree that human relationships are completely transformed by the internet. Otherwise, good post Ryan.
ReplyDelete