Ever since I was thoroughly introduced to Podcasts a few months ago in this class, I’ve been hooked on them. They have really changed the way I now view radio shows. I used Microsoft Publisher to create this e-book. The process was much harder than when I used Apple Pages, so the design looks quite terrible, but I hope you won’t think too badly of it.
Here it is:
Over the course of my life, the list of “My Favorite Top 5 Most Important Things Ever” hasn’t changed much. The top 4 things has always been the same:
Entry number 5, despite its lower ranking of importance, is actually unique from all others. Because it is the only one that’s changing, it sort of serves as an indicator of what phase my life is in.
But the internet is a strange thing. I can’t think of a specific phase I’m going through that can be described by my internet obsession. If anything, I’d say that it combines the variations of my past phases into one. Let’s analyze it one by one.
Maybe I’m analyzing needless things. I’m actually digressing too much from what I originally wanted to talk about. All I wanted to say was that I love the internet. So no matter what I say from now on, just remember: I’m not hating.
All that aside, I HATE the internet. I hate that I can’t live without it. I hate that internet has become an irreplaceable part of my life. But what I hate the most is that my life has become a part of the internet. You know what I mean. So much of our lives are recorded on the internet, and whether we like it or not, those information is there to stay. The worst part is, a lot of this information is public. Which means that if someone wants to dig up some embarrassing moments from your past, they probably will be able to find something. Just imagine the presidential campaigns in a few decades. Instead of debating the candidates’ political stances, they’ll probably be busy asking each other why there is a picture of them holding a can of beer when they were under 21.
I know there are some people that support such transparency, and I understand their reasoning. But I still cannot bring myself to expose my vulnerabilities to the world. It’s not like I have full control of everything that’s posted online about me. What if my friend’s friend posted a picture that I’m in, but wouldn’t want to share. There’s a possibility that I would never know that picture is online for people to see. It’s not that I care about what strangers think about me after looking through my photos (okay, maybe I do a little bit), but if that picture comes to bite me in the ass later on, obviously I would be angry.
So one of the two things need to happen. We need to increase privacy of someone’s online identity, or we need to grow as a society and accept that everyone’s going to have an embarrassing or vulgar moment recorded in the eternal time-space of the internet. Personally, I rather not wait and go with the former.
“How did YouTube change your life?”
If you had asked me that question a few months ago, my answer would have been “not at all.”
I mean, even if it had, I certainly didn’t notice it. But I was sure that YouTube didn’t affect me as much as it did my peers. To begin with, I barely watched anything, whether it be television or movies.
I always wasn’t like that. As a kid, I used to be an avid cable TV audience. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Before school I would watch cartoons while eating breakfast. After school I would go to my friend’s house and watch more cartoons (unless we were playing video games, but we were still sitting in front of the TV). When I got home I would watch even more cartoons before dinner (the best shows were broadcast during these slots). After dinner I would watch whatever my parents were watching (usually Korean dramas or variety shows). And after all that, I watched the 10 o’clock news until I fell asleep.
Of course, I frequently participated in other activities (sports, playing with Lego, other typical child activities), but it wouldn’t have been a stretch to claim that watching TV was my primary activity. Obviously, it didn’t my too long for my parents to start frowning upon my TV viewing habits. So at the risk of not being able to watch most of their favorite shows, they canceled our subscription to cable television. Surprisingly, I wasn’t too upset about it. I was a kid. Everything was amusing. I learned to live with the ten basic channels (which I barely watched) and moved on with my life.
My family’s ban on cable television lasted until I graduated high school. By then, I probably spent less than an hour per week watching TV. Needless to say, I had lost all interest in television. But it wasn’t just television. My disinterest had grown to span all types of film: movies, documentaries, and of course, YouTube.
The only times I’d ever watch YouTube videos were when within a week, three or more friends strongly insisted that I had to watch it. As if the content of the video was a centerpiece of my very own existence. Sure, I was reluctant to watch these videos, but it’s not like I didn’t enjoy them. I just didn’t want to watch them. It’s hard to explain, but I just didn’t.
So what changed my opinion of YouTube? Nothing less than a broken washing machine.
I’m serious. When my family’s washing machine broke down last December, my father and I decided to attempt fixing it ourselves before calling for a repairman. Internet had numerous written manuals for us to follow, but as anyone can tell, it’s really hard to fix something after simply reading about it. Pictures helped, but they weren’t enough. Luckily we found a instructional video on YouTube. Having a video demonstration was just as effective as having a professional right in front you. And voila, we fixed it in a matter of few hours.
This experience reminded me of when I was a Boy Scout in 5th grade. We were learning to tie knots from pictures in a booklet, but I couldn’t follow the instruction for the love of my life. Only if YouTube existed back then…I wouldn’t have looked like such an incapable idiot.
I had never been so reluctant to visit a website in my life. Until tonight, I had never willingly visited a “women’s” website. But I also just finished reading a seven-page article about Bustle.com, so I wasn’t about to let my sense of masculinity stop me now.
This was too much for me
I instinctively cringed as the website opened. I could only imagine a pink background with pictures of flowers, celebrities, cute animals, and red velvet cakes. Even though I’d just read a quote of Bryan Goldberg, the website’s creator, saying that “We didn’t want pink everywhere,” I couldn’t help but think that way. All because some time ago, I stumbled upon Perez Hilton’s website, mistaking it for something related Paris Hilton. And that image became stuck in my head. So forgive me if I thought that all female-oriented websites were flooded with pink and sparkles.
But I was pleasantly surprised by Bustle’s layout. It’s simple, sleek, and doesn’t even have the slightest trace of pink in it. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell that it was geared toward women until you read some of the headlines:
None of them piqued my interest until I saw the article titled, “15 Things Only First Generation Americans Can Truly Understand.” I may not be a true first generation American since I was born Korea, but since I moved here at a young age, I can closely relate to Americans whose parents are foreign. And the article proved me right. I could relate to about 13 to 14 out of the 15 things the author listed. But after I finished reading it, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. To me, the article seemed more like “15 Things That Only First Generation Asian Americans Can Truly Understand.” So it made perfect sense when I found out the author was Filipino. It’s not that I was offended or anything by the contents of the article, but I really didn’t like how she would generalize her personal experience into a global experience. A first generation American with British or Australian heritage is not going to have the same experience of those from Chinese or Sudanese heritage.
It seemed that I’d gotten off to a bad start with Bustle, but if Bustle was supposed to be anything like Bleacher Report, I knew that there would be a plethora of mediocre and non-credible articles. As stated in Lizzie Widdicombe’s article, “From Mars,” it really is impossible for a general sports fan to not have read an piece from Bleacher Report in the recent years, unless he or she doesn’t use the internet as a source of information. Unfortunately, it’s an expected consequence when most of your writers are your average sports fans. But at the same time, it’s what makes me enjoy frequenting Bleacher Report so much. User generated content makes is comforting in a way. It’s almost like talking about the playoffs with your friends at a bar; everyone shares their opinions and thinks of their own as a professional one. If someone doesn’t agree with you, their opinion is trash. If someone agrees with you, they’re a fellow genius sports analyst. Sometimes you can find a middle ground, but a truce satisfies no one.
Maybe I constantly go on Bleacher Report to find articles that will validate my opinions. Maybe I’m psychoanalyzing myself too much.
Regardless of my true reasoning for visiting Bleacher Report, the most important truth is that Bryan Goldberg’s business model works. I’ll probably never visit Bustle again (I actually went back to look for a better article, but I honestly couldn’t find one that I wanted to read), but many women will. Well, at least I think they will. That’s what Goldberg’s thinking too. But no man has ever completely understood women, and neither has Goldberg.
Foundations of Crowdsourcing
The internet is amazing to say the least. Personally, I think it is the greatest wonder of the world for numerous reasons. But I think the greatest reason is the things that the internet allows to happen, such as crowdsourcing. Of course, just a quick visit to its Wikipedia page shows that the idea and practice of crowdsourcing were in existence before the creation of the internet (although the term wasn’t coined until 2005). However, it has never been utilized in such a massive (global, really) scale until the internet integrated to become an essential part of our society.
But the internet wasn’t the sole reason for the rise of crowdsourcing. All it did was provide the medium for the transactions between producers and consumers. The most important part of crowdsourcing is the large number of producers, and this is only made possible by advancements in technology. Think about it. Whenever new technology comes out (it doesn’t necessarily have to be electronics, but I’m going to use it as a primary example) it is usually expensive. I still remember when USB flash drives first came out, ones with 256MB capacities costed at least $50. Nowadays they virtually worthless. Heck, I just found one on Amazon for $3.15. I’ve even received a 2GB one for free just for attending an hour long conference.
Now, the reason for this is because when new inventions are made, they are highly inefficient. Combined with the lack of initial competition, the prices of the products are bound to be relatively high. But as time goes on and technology improves, the products not only get better, but are also easier to produce as well. And if there is a market, other companies will join in the competition, thus driving the price of the products down. Finally, once the cost is low enough, the item becomes affordable for almost anyone that wants it. So it’s safe to say that more people will be using the product than when it used to be expensive. And when there is more people using it, there is bound to be more people that excel at using it. This is why crowdsourcing is possible. The ever-improving technologies empowers the ordinary to do things that only the privileged could do in the past.
What Does That Say About Talent?
I’m honestly not sure. Now that there are so many people that are proficient in certain crafts, a talent in that area may not seem so “valuable.” But this is all relative. There is always a fixed number of talents at a given time, but the number of people that have discovered their talents differs from time to time. And of course, the artist that has dedicated decades into his or her craft is different from a teenager that is good with Photoshop. The problem is, the new technology allow the quality of their products to be very similar, and this creates trouble for people like Mark Harmel as described in Jeff Howe’s article.
What Is The Future Of Crowdsourcing?
Although the surge of crowdsourcing may have negative financial impact on some old craftsmen, I think it is generally a good thing for the society. For every niche of business, it allows for a global competition. Sure, this means that more people will have less opportunities to seize customers, but such intense competition will raise the quality of products, while lowering the prices. Isn’t that what all the consumers want? I think crowdsourcing is the future, and it is here to stay.
Since Richard Berry wrote his article, “Will the iPod Kill the Radio Star?,” back in November of 2005, a lot has changed, such as:
And since podcast is a platform based off the internet, it is quite obvious that its landscape has changed along with the internet culture. Well, the nature of podcast itself hasn’t been changed, but it’s popularity and usage has definitely increased. And it’s easy to understand why. Podcasts are adored by the rising generation of tech savvy for two primary reasons:
Basically, it is the freedom that podcast offers that makes it so much more enticing than the traditional radio. But as Berry asks, will podcast kill the radio?
Absolutely not.
The reason for that is the same reason why the cable TV stations are still used and available. Even though every news is at our fingertips through the internet, people still watch TV because it is live. No matter how fast the news is update on the internet, it will never have the viewers feel like the event is happening at the exact moment. And same for the radio. There are things that can only happen on a medium that’s live, and this is the one feature that podcast lacks.
However, that’s not enough to keep the popularity of the radio afloat. I think that the traditional radio will soon be replaced by podcasts. As a matter of fact, it’s happening right now. If you observe your surroundings and see where the traditional radio is used the most, it’s in cars and office lounges, primarily for music. But now that our cars and the speakers in the lounges are iPod compatible, people won’t have to resort to the cheap radio. Because people want to hear what they want to hear, not what someone else is making you listen to. So once the cost of the new technology stops becoming an issue, which it will, everyone will start using podcasts instead of the traditional radio. But like the radio, podcast isn’t here to stay forever. Just as podcast is a mix of the radio and the internet, something bigger and better will come along as we find ourselves in the future where a new universal medium, like the internet, will be created.
This is the first time in a while that I have felt so rattled after reading an article. Usually when I begin to read a piece concerning the degeneration of our society and people, I tend to not finish the article. And the closer I can relate to the topic, the faster I will stop reading. Because the truth is, I’m scared. I think that everyone is unconsciously aware, if not consciously, of their own faults and weaknesses. I know I am. So it’s quite natural that I don’t want to be confronted of my imperfections by some words written by a stranger, whether it will be beneficial to me or not.
This book was better than crack. But I never tried crack so…I actually don’t know
But, alas, this particular article was assigned as homework, so I couldn’t simply run away from it. And for better or for worse, Nicholas Carr’s article really hit home. When he described the negative consequences the internet has on us, I realized that every single one of those symptoms are very apparent in my life. I used to be an avid reader, but the number of book I read per year has been on a constant decline since middle school. Just ten years ago, I could sit through 500 pages of Harry Potter books with ease. Sure that might have been due to the fun-nature of the Harry Potter series, but now I can’t even finish reading a 500 word blog post without checking Facebook once or twice, regardless of how interesting the post is.
It’s not unusual to begin reading a Wikipedia article then find yourself an hour later with a dozen tabs of unrelated Wikipedia pages open on your internet browser. And how many of these do I read from top to bottom? Zero. I think that our immediate access to the vast pool of information allows for a notion that we don’t have to know how things work, but rather be aware of their existence. Because with the internet, we don’t have to remember how things function; the internet remembers for us. So all the users have to know is what to search for. Unlike the previous generations that knew about things, the current generation only know of things. Probably much more than the people of the past, but we can’t explain one damned thing in detail. And I absolutely agree that this particular change in us have made us more shallow, at least intellectually.
Of course, I can talk about how hopeful I am of the future. That if our brains are malleable for us to regress to this state, restoration and improvements are possible. That if we change our culture to shift away from the current one of internet dominance, we will be able to revert back to the better days. But I won’t say that. I won’t say that because I truly believe that the internet, technology, and “systems” will only grow to be more prevalent in the future. These are some scary thoughts and facts, but they are the ones that people like me need to stop being scared of and start caring about.
In his article, “Why I Blog,” the author Andrew Sullivan relate the role of a blogger to that of a host at a dinner party (presumably an open dinner party since people on the web are not personally invited to a blog post, as they would be for a formal dinner party). His primary reasoning behind such comparison is the ability of a blogger to facilitate a conversation as a host would at a dinner party. I only agree with this comparison to a certain extent. To be more precise, I think Sullivan’s analogy works only if the blog in question shares the same characteristics as a dinner party. There is no doubt that bloggers are the hosts of of their own blogs, but not every blog is like a dinner party.
A dinner party consists of a host and the invited guests, and together they converse about whatever topic is on hand over a meal. Well, that’s the usual goal of it anyway. But to compare this setting to a blog assumes that a blogger wants to share his or her ideas and demands feedback from the people who were listening to those ideas. Sure, the most prevalent role of blogs may be a convenient medium for facilitating discussions, but what if a blogger doesn’t wish for feedback? What if a blog is used as a medium for self-expression that the author wants to keep private?
Such type of blogs may sound like a personal diary, but there is no reason why a blog cannot be one. As a matter of fact, I think blogs are better than traditional diaries in some aspects. If I have ideas and thoughts that I’m not ready to share with the public yet, I could easily keep the post restricted to the general public, then share it eventually whenever I am ready.
They probably couldn’t care any less.
Or perhaps some bloggers want to state their opinions but stoically refuse to listen to what others may have to say regarding the topic. In this case, the blog can be compared to a speech at a public gathering where the keynote speakers deliver the message they wish to convene, but does not necessarily have to reply to the questions asked by the audience. Politicians do this all the time, so I don’t see why bloggers can’t do the same.
And there are some blogs that serve as showcases for certain projects, whether they are blogger’s personal works or someone else’s that may be relevant to the blog’s theme. Such blogs could be equated to a virtual museum.
However, diaries, speeches, and museums do not encourage bilateral interactions like a dinner party would. And it is quite obvious that people are more likely to be drawn toward social forums where they can be directly involved. So if your blog’s purpose is to bring people together for sake of discussion, then I completely uphold Andrew Sullivan’s sentiments to be true. But this is exactly the reason why I did not enjoy his article on blogging. He treats the blogosphere as a massive popularity contest where the success of a blog is directly related to the number of visitors. From that I would assume that Sullivan consider a dinner party to be more successful as more people show up.
To me, that is not the only type of success. Instead of a lavish dinner party with large number of guests that were not all invited, I would rather much prefer a small discussion of higher quality. Of course, it is unreasonable to compare real dinner guests with people online that leave anonymous comments. But that doesn’t mean that it is a blogger’s duty to facilitate discussions.
Despite disagreeing with several of the author’s viewpoints, I found the article to be generally interesting and informative. Now I know the origin of the term “log,” and why the word “knot” is used as a unit of distance. In the end, I am rather grateful that I had a chance to read this article.
Hi, my name is Timothy Choi and I am a computer science major. I used to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but I transferred to Rutgers at the start of 2013’s spring semester. I am from Paramus of Bergen County in New Jersey and currently commuting from there.
I was born in South Korea and raised there until January 2000, when I immigrated to America. We moved into a house in Paramus and haven’t moved since. Although I barely knew the alphabets when I first arrived, the transition period was quite easy. Apparently the younger you are, the easier it is to adapt to a foreign environment. I assume that is true because my parents had a pretty difficult time compared to me and my sister (3rd and 5th graders respectively).
I attended Paramus High School, where I played tennis and ran track. I also joined the band during my sophomore year just to partake in the annual band trip (it was a 5 day trip to Orlando that year). However, all band members of my school were required to join the marching band also, which was a great hassle. Sure, the trip to Disney World and Universal Studios maybe have been one of the biggest highlights of my time in high school, but I easily concluded that even 5 days at the happiest place in the world was not worth playing instruments outside in the numbing weather of football season for three months. I never picked up my clarinet since then.
Once I graduated high school, I left for Carnegie Mellon with the intention of majoring in electrical engineering, which is considered by many to be one of the most difficult and challenging disciplines in traditional academia. But by the end of my first semester, my plan was already folded. My new found freedom of being 7 hours away from home and constantly surrounded by friends was absolutely detrimental to my work ethic. I completely failed that semester.
During the subsequent semesters, I pursed a degree in chemical engineering, which I began to hate toward the end of my junior year. So I decided to change my major once again, but at that point I could not afford to take out more loans to cover the expensive tuition of a private university. I took a semester off to think about what to do and eventually decided to transfer to Rutgers University, which is much less of a financial strain. I’m really happy about my decision as I am greatly enjoying my time here.
As for taking this course, the truth is that I just needed it to fulfill my SAS core requirements. I thought it would be similar to the creative writing class I took in high school (which I thoroughly enjoyed), but upon hearing the course description today, I realized that I have very little knowledge about the topics that will be taught. However I look forward to learning about them as much as possible!
This is link to a random YouTube video.
Intro. to Multimedia Comp SP14 