Ancestry.com

Philip and I presented on Ancestry.com in class. This technology allows for a user to search through their family lineage by entering information of relatives like birthday and place of birth. Ancestry.com then checks this information with their very large databases that can encompass information from all over the world. Ancestry.com also checks family trees made between one another as to connect the information input together. There are a few very good pros about this technology and about Ancestry.com specifically. I have personally had to use online family tree makers in order to make a family tree for a study. It was much easier than starting from scratch in paint or word. The databases that Ancestry.com have the ability to cross check are also a major pro for this website in particular. The cons about this technology is the fact that it charges money for information that is public record. Even if a person would opt for the free trial, the first question asked is the person's credit card number. This technology can connect to two of the texts. Parallels can be drawn to compare Ancestry.com to Chapter 8 of "The Shallows" by Carr. In this chapter, Carr discusses the development and power the search engine Google. This technology can also be compared to Turkle's key point in "Alone Together." As we look to technology for more and more information, we isolate ourselves from other people. This technology, in my mind, stops conversations between parents and children about nationality and family lineage. Now, the children just need to search the internet and no conversation is needed or, in most cases, wanted.

InfraScanner

The InfraScanner presents an interesting new technology developed in order to have a portable brain scanner to use in the detection of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).  TBIs are the leading cause of death and disability every year. These individuals range from sports players to military servicemen children falling to ordinary  people in car accidents.  InfraScan, Inc. created this technology based on near-infrared wavelengths, which penetrate skull and show the tissues of the brain. The largest downside to the InfraScanner is the accuracy, as the device shows different areas of the brain rather than a complete brain image, as a traditional CT would.  The InfraScanner's portability is a huge draw.  The size allows for the device to be carried to patients that are far from hospitals or the importable CT scanners, such as comatose patients and soldiers. The device also allows for patients to be scanned quickly, which is a benefit for children, as well as pregnant mothers who could not have a CT due to the radiation affecting the fetus but can have a brain scan through this method.  Educationally, Carr presents a history of technology and how people throughout history, such as Socrates, believed that the brain was suffering for this ideal.  Likewise, Rosen presents disorders that can root from the dependence on technology and the effects of the technologies.   Aldous Huxley presents a similar view, stating "Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."  All three of these authors present valid points pertaining to the derelict state of the mind due to technology but I believe this InfraScanner presents a new technology in a way that the human mind alone could not function; therefore, this technology presents a innovative mean of saving lives, cutting down costs, and providing brain imaging , despite the flaws.

Facebook

Elaina & Jocelyn's Social Network Presentation on Facebook!

Facebook is a social networking site launched in February of 2004, that currently has over 900 million users. Members can create a profile, upload and share pictures and other media, post statuses, view and comment on friends' statuses, and play simple online games.

Cool - Elaina

Facebook helps people reconnect and stay in touch with friends and/or acquaintances by way of status updates, comments, pictures, messages, and even video chat. Facebook can help people maintain a sense of community with people who are important to them regardless of whether or not they can physically come together. This can help ease the transition of moving away from someone's hometown for school or a job opportunity, or even separation caused by a military deployment or severe medical needs. 


In Rewired, Rosen talks about how the iGeneration thrives on multi-tasking. Facebook is the perfect outlet for multi-taskers, especially with the addition of their new side feature that constantly updates and shows friends' actions occurring in real time. To most teens today, the idea of completing one task at a time is unimaginable and a waste of time (pages 32-34), and Facebook has adapted to fit with this generation. While most people didn't like the new Timeline layout at first, many are coming to realize the potential it has to become a new way to document our lives. Where people used to write private journals, most people use Facebook as their outlet for expression. Having access to millions of people's 'journals' will potentially provide future generations with the largest cumulative memoir ever recorded in human history.

Not Cool - Jocelyn

I managed to find an entire Wiki page dedicated to the criticisms of Facebook
As always, there are the technical problems. Facebook surpassed Myspace years ago, yet it still doesn't support the same level of customization. Timeline helps a little by allowing you a second photo (the cover photo) on your wall, but you can still only use plain text and you’re pretty much stuck with Facebook’s default layout.

Many users have complained about the lack of live customer support and the faulty automated message system in place to resolve issues. Account deactivation is also a hassle (and somewhat of an emotional roller coaster from what I've heard).

Privacy Concerns:     
Facebook uses tracking cookies to monitor page visits by facebook users and non-members.
Reportedly, 20-33% of divorce suits in the UK cited Facebook as a cause. 
Photo recognition and face tagging: for the past year, Facebook has been making it easier for us to upload every picture on our cameras and tag all our friends and family at once by introducing face recognition. After the first few tags, Facebook will remember the people in your album and other recent photos and suggest them to you while tagging. While the feature can be disabled, many people are concerned about the invasion of privacy that this feature implies. 


Psychological Effects: much of the criticism Facebook receives is from people claiming that it increases stress levels and can even cause depression. Facebook has also been accused of promoting anorexic and bulimic content through advertising.  
Identity Theft and Defamation: like all social sites that allow anyone to create an account, Facebook makes it easy to impersonate others. In July of 2008, the High Court in London passed the first successful invasion of privacy and defamation verdict over a post on a social site against a man who created a false account of a former friend and used it to demean him. 
Even advertisers are wary of Facebook and often have their ads removed when they are shown on the pages of controversial people or groups.

Effects on Education:
Students have faced disciplinary action by their schools for posting inappropriate content on their Facebook. 
Several articles have been published describing the negative effects of using sites like Facebook during class or while studying. 
Most people use Facebook to “stalk” friends and play games (like WWF and Farmville), which has been negatively correlated to student involvement.

Video

As stated in the video, Skype offers many benefits. It offers a safe feeling that comes with online experieces, as described by Turkle (page 249). She describes how online experiences can offer a personal interaction with the safety of distance. Skype offers an even more personal experience by face to face interaction.

Skype can also be said to be a step in the future. Rosen states that messengers like Skype are most used by what he dubs the "iGeneration", a generation he claims can use the site at the age of five. This brings up with question of who a five-year-old skypes. With the modern community becoming less local and more global, it is important to have a means off communication, especially a free one. With Skype offering a free, more personalized interaction, it is easy to see how it has become not only popular but a big step into the future.

Twitter

INTRODUCTION (Jared):

            Twitter is a community of microbloggers. It is a social networking site centered around something known as a tweet. A tweet is a post that must contain less than 140 characters, and can include links to pictures, videos, or other websites. A tweet usually is a statement of what you are doing, or can be a thought, idea, concept, picture, video, news, or topics of interest. Another important part of Twitter is the concept of trending topics. Trending topics are key phrases or words that can be searched and monitored by the Twitter community, and these usually are seen with the pound sign or hash in front of the words with no spaces in between them. Also, using Twitter, you can follow someone, but they do not have to follow you back, which is different from many social networking sites. This allows for the extensive following of celebrities, without celebrities having to follow all of their fans back. You can also private message people who you follow, tag people in your posts, and retweet posts (posting someone else's tweet for all of your followers to see). Twitter is one of the most visited websites in the world, and is a very successful social networking site.

POSITIVES (Tyler):

            Twitter is a level playing field; anyone can communicate with anyone.  For instance, I could follow a sports star and he or she could follow me.  This opens up the flow of ideas, allowing people to obtain many different angles and opinions in order to create a complete idea.  As a result, we are more connected to the world and people around us.

            Due to this expanded channel of communication, we need a valve to limit what we are exposed to, and Twitter provides this control.  Its character limit constrains the size of each message, while each user has the ability to “follow” or “block” other users to define the number of messages that one sees.  Unlike other social media websites, Twitter does not obligate a user to follow another user if a connection is established by the latter.

            Ultimately, I view Twitter as a flat plane in which communication occurs.  We are all easily connected in this plane, with no user having an advantage over another.  In Proust and the Squid, Maryanne Wolf states:

We are only at the beginning of analyzing the cognitive implications of using, for instance, the browser “back” button, URL syntax, … and “pedagogical tags” for enhancing comprehension and memory.  These tools have extremely promising implications for the intellectual development of the users, particularly users with discrete areas of weakness…. (Wolf 220)

For those individuals who have social impurities and struggle with communication, Twitter offers an encouraging medium in which they can connect with others.  These individuals are brought into the plane that is Twitter, while the mental implications of Twitter improve and raise the community as a whole.  As a society with increased mental and social skills, we will create stronger, deeper connections with one another.

NEGATIVES (Josh):

            In Alone Together, Turkle writes, “on social networking sites such as Facebook, we think we will be presenting ourselves, but our profile ends up as somebody else – often the fantasy of who we want to be.  Distinctions blur” (153).  This implies that the use of social networking sites, like Twitter, can make the presentation of ourselves more difficult and confusing.  People present themselves in every form of communication, but I think that Turkle is implying here that social networks can make the process of the exploration of identity even more confusing.

            She goes on to write, “Virtual places offer connection with uncertain claims to commitment.  We don’t count on cyberfriends to come by if we are ill, to celebrate our children’s successes, or help us mourn the death of our parents.  People know this, and yet the emotional charge on cyberspace is high” (153).  This applies specifically to Twitter, because of the way that any Twitter user can follow any other Twitter user without being followed in return. Twitter truly offers connection without commitment, and this may lead to confusing attitudes towards connection, commitment, and community in general.

            Finally, Turkle discusses the compulsion that people develop to constantly use the Internet.  She describes a woman in her seventies who has meditated on a biblical reading every morning for years.  Recently, however, this woman has found it difficult to resist the urge to check her e-mail before her spiritual practices.  In fact, her compulsion has become so strong that her resistance to checking her e-mail has become part of her spiritual devotion. While this example deals with e-mail, similar compulsions certainly exist in Twitter users.  It is likely that regular Twitter users will grow strong desires to always stay updated, and will develop a habit of checking their accounts often.  This could be harmful because of the information that is supplied by Twitter, which is more often than not trivial.  Basically, a Twitter account can grow to be a waste of time.

Groupon- Not Cool for Merchants

Groupon is a social way to share coupons online. They negotiate deals with businesses and offer them to their subscribers with the promises that new, previously unreached customers will enjoy their experience and become regulars. One of the main problems is that the company is that they have no way to make sure their promises are held up and that they do not care what happens to the merchants after the daily deal is over. Some of the latest research by ForeSee shows that most of their income comes from a small number of people. This means that a few number of people will use Groupons very often, but they don't normally go back when they have to pay full price. These people are very frugal and are not likely to become regular customers. Also, people that would normally purchase items at full price from a merchant will go in with a Groupon which greatly reduces the merchant's overall revenue. This directly goes against the idea that it helps merchants and supports the local economy.
The social media aspect of Groupon puts unneeded pressure on consumers to purchase deals. Facebook and Twitter "friends" may pressure their followers to purchase unneeded Groupons and ultimately cause their followers to lose money if they never redeem their Groupon. Also, if news feeds are clogged up with advertisements and pleas to friends to purchase the Groupons they have invested money into, it could cause frustration. Sometimes "news feeds" can be so jammed with certain things, it is hard to actually use them for the purpose of seeing different status updates and tweets from more than just their avid Groupon-user friend.
Groupon is also a prefect example of hegemony. The  majority of the people using Groupon are more inclined to purchase those that have more purchases than others. A certain group of people that are regular Groupon users can use their purchasing power to lead others to believe that what they are buying is the right thing to buy. Groupon has a quota that makes sure a certain number of people buy each deal before the deal activates which contributes to the power of a small group of people to convince others that the deal they want is the interest that everyone should share, even if that interest is not actually shared. This can lead to a false sense of shared interests. (Storey, 79-80)
Overall, Groupon has many positive aspects that tend to outweigh the negative aspects for consumers. However, merchants tend to suffer and often regret their use of Groupon. For additional reading on the negative aspects of Groupon for merchants, please visit the reference links shown below.

Reference links:
What Daily Deal Companies Should Do to Help Merchants
10 Reasons Why Groupon is Terrible for Merchants
Groupon's Whale Problem

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-WfiOGSAno