Here's what's cool...
Summing up, the cloud allows for a simpler experience for the user. Its convenience presents users with the ability to upload their emails, pictures, and other important files onto the cloud. Cloud computing is cost-effective for both users and companies. Users need only buy a simple computer terminal, as a sophisticated look and hard drive are unnecessary; the cloud provides a standard level of performance to everyone. Therefore, social competition and materialism are reduced among people. Cloud computing is also cost-effective for companies because they can easily save all of their files in a safe location and do not have to worry about paying for hardware for every new computer. The streamlined hardware that the cloud provides runs better and has fewer problems, allowing the computers, their users, and ultimately the company to work more efficiently.
The idea of reduced materialism, along with easy usage, provides mental relief for users. This mental relief can reduce stress and allow for unabated mental growth and development. The wealth of information provided by the cloud makes us more efficient thinkers and data miners. Information floating around in our brains no longer bogs us down; we can resource the cloud whenever data is needed.
And what's not cool...
In summary, the Cloud comes with about as many negatives as it does positives. Because of it's appeal for being user friendly, many of it's users are those who do not know as much about technology. Due to that, safety and privacy can become an issue. By putting all of one's important information, pictures, and private things on to a backup site, he or she is running the risk of having that information hacked or exposed to the public. Furthermore, even tech-savvy users are not safe from hackers. Secondly, as the world turns paperless, especially with help from the Cloud, businesses such as libraries and IT labs will suffer from hurt business. Third, Cloud makes people's lives much less private. The Cloud is just the stepladder to make the world more dependent on technology. People will have the tendency to re-route their days to stay connected to in the internet to back-up their latest pictures and documents to their Cloud.
Regarding human development, the Cloud will hurt children's recognition of property owning. If data and pictures are always saved to a cloud and not tangibly owned, children will have a hard time understanding ownership as their brain's develop. Secondly, as society become more reliant on digital means to back up their information and lives, the necessity for memory will not be as strong. Since our brains have plasticity, we need to keep our brains adapting and growing in a more analytical, stronger way. The Cloud will digress that growth by aiding users in memory loss and reliance on technology.
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ReplyDeleteI think this was a very stimulating argument. Cloud computing has much potential to be a great positive in our society, but there are many drawbacks that also come with it. I agreed with the point that Claire made that the security concerns for cloud computing is huge. Businesses, government organizations, and even hospitals are doing more and more cloud computing which makes obtaining that information more of a reality for hackers. Even in personal use, a hacker could find much more information than you would like them to. Rosen in Rewired was very concerned about privacy, and stated that five hundred district technology directs shared an overwhelming concern for student's privacy (181). I think cloud computing when used safely is a great resource and can improve lives significantly, but more people need to be careful about cloud computing.
ReplyDeleteI think the Cloud poses a major threat to the future generations if it is not controlled properly. Electronic data is growing at a pace faster than the electronic memory space, that holds it, is expanding. As we move away from the physicality of things towards digital "equivalents", we are forced to spend more time on devices, computers, and the internet, further increasing our overdependence on them. This will change the way our brains function as Nicholas Carr says in The Shallows, "It was demanding to be fed the way the Net fed it (his brain)- and the more it was fed, the hungrier it became." (16) I feel the more we uncontrollably rely on technology and the internet, the less cognitive processing and development will occur.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Carr argues in his book, The Shallows, that "the offloading of memory to external data banks doesn't just threaten the depth and distinctiveness of the self. It threatens the depth and distinctiveness of the culture we all share." (Carr 196) He suggests that culture is dissolving due to moving memory from our brain to outside memory sources, like the Cloud. The worry is that people will be culturally dead. Instead of a dense culture being developed in an individual through memory and intellect, today's ideal may be changing. Individuals simply need to plug into a computer to access their vast memory banks that were once stored in the mind. Surely, as Claire says, the Cloud will aid our continuing memory loss and even culture loss.
ReplyDeleteI think there are two issues with the cloud. The first is the fact it makes millions of copies of something and makes it readily available. Back in the day (ok, that made me feel kinda old)what made something, such as a photo, precious? Surely the memory but also the fact that it was one of a kind and therefore very dear to you. You made sure it was protected so that the memory would always be there. Now it's no longer the case as such sentiments have fallen prey to our frivolous society. Sure, the memory is still dear but the object itself has no more sentiment. I think that's more important than memory degradation because, lets face it, such a thing started since man began recording his history and is why photographs exist so it's nothing new.
ReplyDeleteThe other reason can be found in recent memory and in much of the news, hacking. We all remember the Sony hacking and the activities of organizations such as Anonymous. They prove time and time again that while we perceive the cloud to be secure storage it is in fact subject to thieves just like any storage medium, it just takes a certain kind of thief. In Rewired, Rosen suggest secure online usage doesn't lie in technology but in the people monitor the safety and privacy.(pages 181-183) But the cloud as a whole isn't physical and thus hard to be monitored. So the question remains, do we just not use the useful technology of the Cloud or rely on technology and experts.