WEEK 4 "The Allegory of the Cave"

For the required readings for this week, I've attempted to read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". At first it was quite confusing until I found this video that made me understand it a bit more.

However, after understanding it I questioned my self if Plato’s allegory is still relevant to today’s society? I think it is. Specifically, when the prisoners believe that the shadows that they see and the echoes that they hear are real. And once a prisoner is freed, it becomes difficult for him to distinct what is real and what isn’t.

To compare it to our society, the shadows that the prisoners see can be a metaphor of the technology, media, and the government. We’ve become the prisoners of these controllers. How much do we really know about what we see and hear from the media, which perhaps is controlled by the government? Therefore, we still believe in what we see on television, what we hear on the radio and what we read on the Internet. And it’s because it’s challenging for us to recognise what is real, what is untold or how they have shaped the truth into a different story. 

Source: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html

WEEK 4 "Cyberpunk"

I have never been a fan of any cyberpunk films or games, perhaps they seemed too unreal and hard to believe. However, after researching about this concept it changed my mind. Cyberpunk is more real than I’ve imagined. The themes of cyberpunk are about the dark issues that surround technology. The particular themes of cyberpunk that I think can easily related to today’s society are the Internet (government) controlling over us and hacktivism.

I think the purpose of cyberpunk is not only about looking at the future of technology but it reflects to us to look at our society today, and see how far we have already came.  

WEEK 3 “How much do we Value the Originality of Art”

As our technology has developed and the use of Internet has became our everyday basis, we now tend to spend more time in front of our computer screens than being outdoor exploring the real world. There’s no doubt that our computers and smartphones have now become our main source of entertainment. Having access to the Internet is like having access to art galleries, concerts, cinemas etc. Weather it’s illegal or not, downloading movies or music on the Internet is cheap or free, easy and convenient. But is there a difference between the original art and the version we watch or listen on our computers?

There definitely is! Live music, movies in the cinema or an original piece of art have significant uniqueness in many ways. However, how much do we value the originality of art? Has our value in it decrease since we have so much access to it online?

For me, it depends on what type of art it is. Paintings, portraits, fine art etc. that are shown in art galleries might not have much value to me since I have seen it on the Internet. Therefore, with music I think it increases my value in it’s originality. After listening to a song that I really like online, encourages me to want to listen to it performed live.Therefore I think it depends on the individual, if you’re passionate in a genre of art I think you will have a higher value in the original piece or performance than the online version.

WEEK 3 "Mind Control and the Internet"

Sue Halpern’s book “Mind Control and the internet” talks about many themes of the Internet and how it has control over us without us even noticing it.

Halpern talks about Google, the searching site that I use everyday. However, I’ve never thought about how it really works.  We actually have our personalised Google that tracks what we have previously search. According to Halpern “The search process, in other words, has become “personalized,” which is to say that instead of being universal, it is idiosyncratic and oddly peremptory”. Furthermore, it impacts on the advertisement that will pop up on your screen.

“Write the word “blender” in an e-mail, and the next set of ads you’re likely to see will be for Waring and Oster. Search for information on bipolar disease, and drug ads will pop up when you’re reading baseball scores. Use Google Translate to read an abstract of a journal article and an ad for Spanish translation software will appear when you are using an online English dictionary.” Halpern, n.d

I’ve also found Michael Chorost’s idea interesting but scary at the same time. I’ve always been open minded to the development of technology, in fact I think it’s amazing. Therefore, I think being a gadget yourself is probably not the best idea for our next generation. However, humans in this generation have become so attached to technology.  We could almost say that technology perhaps is already a part of us.

“…the internet would become seamlessly part of us, as natural and simple to use as our own hands.” Michael Chorost

Source http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/?pagination=false

WEEK 2 "Israel and Iran: A Love Story"

Last week I’ve talked about how social media may have a negative effect on us (Justin Carter’s case). However, if social media is used wisely it can be an influential implement of bringing people together to bind peace between two countries.

For this weeks tutorial task we looked at videos that are relevant to the study of communication media from http://www.ted.com/talks. The video that I found most interesting was “Israel and Iran: A love story” by Ronny Edry.

I chose this story because I found it not only interesting but also inspirational. Ronny Edry is a graphic designer from Israel who started to connect with people from Iran and began an online movement for peace between the people of two countries. It started by one Facebook post of an image of himself and his daughter with the text “Iranians, we will never bomb your country. We heart you”.

I’ve always been passionate of making a difference in Thailand, my home country but sometimes I doubt myself because it’s a very challenging task.  However, this video has inspired me in many ways not only about peace but it has also reflected to me how much we could do to make a difference in our society, simply by using social media.  Social media can be a cheap, simple yet extremely powerful network that could spread a message to a mass audience.

WEEK 2 "The History of Communication Technology"

This week I’ve looked at the timelines of Communication Technology.I was particularly interested in the technologies that were launch since 1995 the year I was born. 

1995     America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy begin offering dial-up internet service.   

1995     Microsoft introduces Windows95.
1995     Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com as online book seller.
1995    eBAY, online auction site, begins business.
1995     Craigslist, created by Craig Newmark becomes online service in San Francisco.
1998    Larry Page and Sergey Brin found Google while at Stanford.
1998    PayPal begins business.
1998    Apple’s iMAC computer is first in its line of iProducts.
1999    Peak of the dot.com financial bubble which burst two years later
2000     Computer glitch, Y2K, expected with new millennium.
2000     Google begins selling advertisements based on search words.
2001     Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is launched.
2003     MySpace is created by eUniverse employees; sold to News Corporation in 2005 for $580 million.
2005    Youtube is launched; sold to Google a year later for $1.65 billion.
2007    Apple’s iPHONE is introduced.
2008    Apple launches its iPAD.  


Living in this generation makes me wonder how my parents reacted to these technologies when they were first introduced. For my generation we seem not to be so much surprised anymore. Anything that you could imagine could possibly be generated in a couple of years. For example the IPhones, our expectations rise every year and yet Apple launches a new IPhone every year.

It’s also interesting how ten years ago you would have the technology characterized as The world History Site  for example; photography, telephone, television etc. However, we now bind these technologies all together. Smart phone does not only have one purpose to call or text anymore, but we now use them to take photos, go on the Internet.

You could never guess what will be next.