Technology as the basis for all human activity.

 

 

Technology has become integral part of twenty first century. I believe that contribution technology has made to modern life is mainly positive, though it has come along with several downsides. All in all, the quality of human life has improved with new technology inventions in day to day life. As Adrian pointed out during the symposium that technology has become a part of us” and even it can have control over us whether with the way we travel or the way we commutate, how we approach the creative side of things and i totally agree with this comment.Technological determinists believe that “‘You can’t stop progress’, implying that we are unable to control technology”

Technological determinism share two general ideas:

  • That the development of technology itself follows a predictable, traceable path largely beyond cultural or political influence, and
  • That technology in turn has “effects” on societies that are inherent, rather than socially conditioned or produced because that society organizes itself to support and further develop a technology once it has been introduced.

Today technology has pierced in every aspect of our lives : from entertainment to communications, travel and tourism to nuclear weapons. Modern televisions,electronic game consoles,latest movie theaters have given a whole new dimension to entertainment industry. Communication has become zoom speedy , thanks to latest technology phones,computers and internet services. Emails,text messages have made daily contact with society so easy and feasible. Travel and tourism industry is flourising in this technological era. Jet planes ,automatic cars have made travel around the globe super fast. Believe it or not, health care has improved drastically because of cutting edge technology today. Cures to many diseases like cancer, heart diseases are only being made possible because of latest inventions and equipments.

“Every coin has two sides” ,modern day technology also has created several negative effects in human lives. Many people see technolgy as a force that has escaped from human control. They believe technology has made life very complicated. People fail to enjoy simple pleasures of life like watching a sunrise, hearing birds chirping or smelling fragrant spring flowers. They have become so hooked to latest technology that living. Simple life is almost unimaginable today. Thinking about spending 24 hours without internet or phone makes us feel bored! Hand written letters have become a thing of past, walking and biking is now replaced with running on electronic treadmills in an indoor exercise gym.

I agree that inspite or these downsides of technology and inventions, our lives have become better. I can’t even imagine the life without them without car, airplane or phone and Internet, etc. without their support, I couldn’t be who I am today, I couldn’t be sitting here writing this in another language in a country that 3218.15 miles away from Vietnam. We are more efficient and productive in day to day lives and technology is revolutionary way of improving quality of our lives. It as part of a larger spectrum of human activity, technological determinism sees technology as the basis for all human activity.

 

 

 

 

 

Alone

Have you ever laid in your bed and just cried? Because you think you’re ugly, because you’re not good enough for anyone, you’ve counted all your flaws from head to toe, making you feel worse. Cried because all the comments people blurt out, actually hurt? Cried because your family is not there and no one never understands you, they tell you to stop complaining, that you have so much better than the kids in Africa, even though they don’t understand your life either. You don’t want to seem like an attention seeker, so you bottle everything up. Around friends , you’ve created this lying smile and people believe it but at night, when you’re all alone in bed, the girl who everyone thought was happy so is crying her broken heart out? Ever done that? You’re not alone, it’s happen to me and if you ever wanna talk, I’m always here because I know what it’s like to not have someone.

 

Culture and Technology

Culture and Technology is a comprehensive overview of theoretical developments and debates concerning new media technology. Its emphasis is on the creative uses of new technologies

 

According to Andrew Murphie and John Potts, “Cultural activities from cooking to music making are dependent on technology”. Culture is heavily influenced by religion and technology in an array of aspects.

 

Religion has always been a large dimension of culture, but as religion’s curve fades out it is replaced by technology’s curve. There is a great danger lurking as religion dissipates, as its institutionalization fades.

 

Social construction illustrates innovation as a process of co-construction in our society and relates to how society and technology influence each other. “This discussion has made evident the interaction of culture and technology at all levels. The earliest human societies used technology, in the form of tools and weapons to transform their natural environment. Civilizations are based on, among other things, the technologies of building and writing”

Love <3

A girl asked a boy if she was pretty, he said “No”

She asked him if he wanted to be with her forever, he said “No”

Then she asked him if he would cry if she walked away, he said “No”

She had heard enough; she needed to leave.

As she walked away he grabbed her arm and told her to stay. He said “You’re not pretty, you’re beautiful. I don`t want to be with you forever, I need to be with you forever. And I wouldn’t cry if you walked away, I would die.”

 

Unlecture #8

Although I don’t really understand video game, I was still really interested in the discussion of the difference between hypertext and narrative whether or not a video game could be considered hypertext narrative.

Since the first days of the web people have been talking about hypertext narrative – the ability to tell stories using nonlinear text, linked together and organized through the power of HTML.

In the mid 90′s there were many experiments in hypertext storytelling. Lots of interesting and entertaining work came out of that era, but the technology and user base weren’t mature enough to truly realize the potential of hypertext media for storytelling. Those early experiments led to a deep understanding of nonlinear stories, which we can see manifest in massive video games like Fallout – games that tell a cohesive character driven story while still allowing the player freedom to explore and perform actions in their own way.

While gaming matured and learned how to tell better stories in interactive and nonlinear ways, they are still defined by the concept of competition ( aim of winning) rather than narrative even they can have very cleaver story-lines but there is still the overwhelming desire to win the game.

Gaming is currently being applied to media as Adrian ‘s perspective about reality TV show such as XFactor as ‘games’ bought into reality.

Reading week 8

 

The Rich Get Richer

One of the ways a hub based network can be grown is through “preferential attachment”. When a new node is added to a network, the links from the new node will have a higher likelihood of being attached to nodes that already have many links. For example, if the new node initially starts out with two links, these links will have a higher probability of being attached to nodes with many links. This does not mean that a link will not be attached to a node with only a few existing links, just that it is less probable.

Preferential attachment will favor older nodes, since they will have had an opportunity to collect links. One of the examples of a naturally occurring preferential attachment network in Linked is in networks formed from journal article citations. Early journal articles on a given topic more likely to be cited. Once cited, this material is more likely to be cited again in new articles, so original articles in a field have a higher likelihood of becoming hubs in a network of references.

 

Barabási-Albert network model

Friendship <3

You know what the best feeling in the world is?
Having a best friend, that one person who loves you & never judges you no matter how badly you are. Someone who you have endless conversations with and can communicate by just using your eyes. That one person who just walks in your house, opens the fridge and grabs whatever they want out.

Lastly it’s that person who knows so much about you that they could ruin your life in a second. But you trust them with your life and you know that they will never ever do that no matter what♥