Its my internet. I'll go where I want to.

In Winner's reading "Do artifacts have Politics?" he brings up the idea, in relation to the creation of technology, as having inherent political relation. While I don't dismiss the idea of technology being created to benefit some people more that others I don't think its completely inherent.

For example, not everyone will go out and run to get the latest iPhone just because it is the newest fastest model. Many Existing iPhone owners will be satisfied with their older model and won't have to be forced in the purchasing a more expensive version of what they already have. That is our choice as a consumer. If I enjoy using Google I’ll stick with it no matter how groundbreaking Bing is. This is a point that Wu brings up in his article “Why you should care about network neutrality.”

The article brings up the controversy that is going on surrounding net neutrality and how ISPs are trying to follow the path of cable television. It seems like the issue is not being solved because today the federal appeals court ruled in favor of the FCC not being able to regulate Net Neutrality.

http://news.cnet.com/the-iconoclast/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead

While it seems logical that these ISPs need to make profit somehow, and making a deal with certain companies to be at the forefront of their service it seems wrong and unethical to us the consumer. The World Wide Web is comparable to the encyclopedia and should not be controlled by the library or ISP in this case. This issue feels like the consumer is being cheated as nowhere in the contract does it say that the ISP can have control on where or how the consumer chooses to access content on the Internet. It is a violation and going in the direction of authoritarian. As a consumer it is in our best interest to monitor the happenings of net neutrality because it can end up more freedom and money than we ever thought.

SO RIGHT.

I can relate to the database being the new and improved narrative structure. In most types of databases, key words are used to link one like category to the next. Like the example we used in class, Wikipedia, key words are hyper linked to other pages that once taken out of context have no actual relation to the original topic that was being viewed. I think a lot of our minds work this way. For example, I'll be thinking about something then seeing a certain color will trigger another thought in my mind that seemingly could be linked to what i was originally thinking about, even though one thought being linked to the other is completely random, it does relate in concordance to memory. This idea reminds me of tree diagrams we used to have to draw in elementary school. One key word would stem many ideas that would ultimately have stemmed from one key concept.

However, in the grand scheme of things, to effectively communicate a feeling or idea to others, it is key for us as a society to be able to keep with the traditional structure of narrative. There is more of a reward for us in the end. Clicking around someones flickr account sure is fun but not really so helpful in concocting an actual narrative about the person who owns the particular flickr.

I think I'm also having a hard time differentiating the two things because in reality they are both quite different from one another. They work together well if you know how to use both forms of media in the right way. Like for example reading a book then writing a critique on a blog for others to read and engage.

One thing is for sure: Databases have made doing research and essentially the whole college experience a lot more bearable.

Us vs. The Culture Industry

In Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's essay The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception (1944), they present an argument of the status of culture that is still very relevant to us as a society today. They theorize that there is a mass audience in the world that most simply put, is being dumbed down by a capitalist society. In turn this mass audience has a hard time distinguishing the real world from a world that has been created by the culture industry.

For a long time I never associated the word culture with the word industry. I always thought of each part of the culture industry separate (ie. film industry, technology industry etc), never as a whole.
In reading Adorno and Horkheimer's essay, it became clear to me the every part of the culture industry is being molded with the intent of presenting a nice pretty package to its consumers. Very little effort is being required on behalf of the consumer if they choose to accept and enjoy so to speak what is being offered to them.  This is especially relevant today with the emergence of the internet and the monumental impact it has had on society and the cultural industry overall.

I believe that in relation to a modern digital media that allows for user response- blogs, forums and other forms of online dialogue  our status as media consumers has definitely changed on the surface but ultimately it has just made it easier for the culture industry to dominate and feed its audience with even more formulaic media and entertainment. Not to say that all that has come about because of modern digital media is a bad/ un-useful happening ,but as a consumer and individual we have to be careful to still keep true to real life and not some world that only revolves about being on a computer.
Adorno and Horkheimer keep in  tune in their essay with relating that they believe that the culture industry is all standardization and while its very true even today, because of the digital media availiable to us it also provides us with the characteristic/option of being diversifided to a certain extent. With blogs,online discussion boards,forums etc, we are given the ability to express our opinions with millions of people around the world about almost absolutetly anything. That is extremely liberating to think about and the possibilities are endless. Although it is also becoming extremely standarized since just about anyone can create a blog/facebook/twitter. It is not all that unique anymore. Since so much content from the culture industry is always being thrown at us, it is our job as individuals to filter out what is not suitible/ useful to our overall growth of intellect and personality.

Open Wide 2008