Tapscott Part Two

Focusing on education, business management, cosumerism and the family, the Net Generation has become efficient and skilled at these cultural institutions. With education comes the value of learning. Today lectures are becoming less effective because students can't pay attention. The thing about education and technology is great but it also has a downfall. I think that with the internet the Net Gen gets instant results and it is instant gratification. Reserach has become simple because research is easier wtih access. We become smarter. And by smarter I mean we adapt to the changes and we adapt to using technology and becoming very skilled it at. This Net Gen is great at focusing on particular interests but blur out everything else.

Business managemet use to be face to face networking. Now with technology we can upload our resumes and apply to places online. With LinkedIn companies can recruit and students and graduates can reach out to other companies. Wtih business managemet it has become more that the employer is required to have all this knowledge and skills when they apply to jobs and then they end up teaching the boss how to apply it to the job.

With consumerism in class we talked about the shoe shop. Remediated shoe buying online versus in a store. Online there is much information, reviews, etc. But when you walk in a shoe store you get your foot measured and then the sales people will sell you the highest quality shoes, and you get the shoe smell, you get the sale and people will contiue. Buying on Amazon is easy and people can live without the struggle of communication with the sales associate. Keeping people online means the online companies must have great company service. There is also customization when you can shop online. There is something faster and more convienent if shopping is done online. Online retail gives you more choices. Especially when you don't live in a large city and dont have many shopping options.


"The power of the Web to decentralize knowledge has prompted a profound shift in power from the producers to the consumers. Net Geners have increased access to information about products and services, and they can discern true value more easily than the generations before them. More than ever, to compete in the marketplace, firms need truly differentiated products, better service, or a lower cost, because deficiencies in value cannot be hidden as easily. True value is evidenced like never before" (Tapscott, 195).

In this quote Tapscott uses the Web the power to the people. This is true. Because of the freedom of the internet, browsing is virtually free for everyone and it is easy to simply share information. The internet has a shift to put the power in the peoples hands. Literally. Everything anyone needs they can Google or research. This is more valuable than anything. In a recent TED talk I watched, it was mentioned that everything we have on our computers is literally cherished and when we lose it we feel a strange sense of loss. We didn't lose anything but a screen but we lost all the information it held, all the information we could find immediately and all the photos and videos and memories we stored behind our screens. This is value. We value the things we save and see online and we cherish them now more than ever. The new and younger generations are firmly relying on these products and see less value in certain things. I know that when I lose or break my phone that I feel this odd sense of loss and I feel as if I lose so much of my life. Even though it is easily replaced, I still feel this weird sense of loss.

Something else I thought was interesting about this the "turning consumers into prosumers". "Thanks to the Web 2.0, companies in just about every industry can turn their consumers into producers—that is “prosumers.” Prosumerism is more than an extension of mass customization, customer centricity, or any of the other terms that boil down to companies making basic products and letting customers tweak the details. It’s what happens when producers and consumers both actively participate in the creation of goods and services in an ongoing way" (Tapscott, 208).

The idea of prosumerism is an idea that if online users share their consumerism then that idea will spread. So the idea to turn consumers into producers is smart because people in marketing can know what the Net Gens are thinking and doing and searching. This creates as Tapscott says the creation of goods and services that continue.

Tapscott

Tapscott's reading was very interesting. What was discussed was freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed and innovation.
Freedom is something we are all aware of and used to. Communication and information are some of the most basic things that are free to us. We have the internet which creates this unlimited amount of information that we have to filter through. We also have the internet to communicate through and it is all instant. What is also under this idea of freedom comes everything that the internet lets you do, and I want to relate it to consumerism and online shopping. Online shopping is one of the biggest problems I struggle with because there's always something I need or want and online shopping has so many options that cater to that need. "Net Geners seek the freedom to change jobs, freedom to take their own path, and to express themselves" (Tapscott). This quote kind of expresses how the internet gives a new generation time to understand themselves and express themselves in a better way.
Customization was an interesting because everything in the digital world is about changing and evolving. That is why Blackberry stopped becoming a thing. It stopped evolving and changing. Being able to customize even the smallest things like wallpaper, ringtones and screen savers can change how a person views the digital world. "Millions around the world don't have just access to the web, they are creating it by creating online content" (Tapscott, 35). I think that the amount of customization is great and it means that people are able to change and adapt to new ideas and new technologies which creates more advancement and the pattern continues.
Tapscott talks about how there are new scrutinizers. In class we talked about caution, hoax, and how there's more to fool us on the web. So older generations "marvel at the consumer research available on the internet, Net Gen expects it" (35). So the Net Gen is targeted by many companies and they know it. I know that the websites I visit follow me and what shows up on my news feed in Facebook on the side of the ads are items that I have previously visited. So the key here is to be cautious of what is being opened on your computer and everything that is being tracked.
The integrity was an interesting section because I could find myself really relating to it. The internet created an issue with stealing and copyright because everything could be downloaded and watched. Pirate Bay and YouTube is one example of how people are able to steal things offline but in class, the idea that people won't buy music on itunes but they will pay $100 for a ticket was an interesting concept. Because of the internet and access we have to free music brings the issue that is...we are cheap. That's it. We're too cheap to buy an album and pay for all their songs but we have no problem dropping up to $150 on great concert tickets because we value the live music experience. But we won't support the artist online. This is why Spotify has become so great. I use spotify every single day and it has changed the way I listen to music. I definitely find Spotify worth paying for because I get the student discount which makes it $5 a month for unlimited music. I'm not buying individual songs and I'm not stealing them. I am paying for an unlimited amount which is great.
Collaboration was something mentioned in Grown up Digital and I reminded me of the Smart Swarm that I previously did a book report on. It was a very similar idea just online. Facebook, Go Fund Me and other things like that are used all the time because of the simplicity of it. It's easy to use and easy to share. Speaking of sharing, there is also Google Docs that are used to share and edit documents. So people could be in a group project working on a powerpoint or paper, and everyone can edit, make changes, etc. So Google Docs is a huge advancement in collaboration online.
Speed and innovation to me kind of go together because technology has innovated quickly. The innovation kind of ties with collaboration, speed and entertainment because it includes all of it.

A Better Pencil Part Two

“Readers have questioned the validity of written documents since the technology of writing first came on the scene” (Dennis). This is incredibly truthful. In class we talked about how when writing was first a thing, only 5% could write and the other 95% followed what the 5% wrote. So the 5% of people that could write were royals and writing rules and structures that everyone had to follow so it wasn’t always skepticism but with time as more and more people were able to read, more and more people could question what they were reading and the validity of it. New technologies bring mistrust which is understandable. Today when we Google something, we get about 10,000 results on one particular thing. I Googled the word “search” and about “15,240,000,000 results appeared in 0.57 seconds. This is insane. How do you trust each source? How do you know the authenticity of each search? We covered this in class “is seeing believing?” and I don’t think seeing is believing. Since the invention of a paintbrush things can be made what we want them to be. From the first few weeks of class, we were shown medieval paintings and modern photos. Medieval paintings are great because they are historical but the painters can paint the flaws out of people and make them appear to be prettier/better. With photoshop it is the same idea. Things can be created to look perfect when that isn’t always the case. As Baron says “technologies let us recreate the world and also lie about it”.

In chapter 8 Baron discusses writing on screen. Something that was interesting about this chapter was that without the technology of writing things like governance, education, culture, arts, businesses would not exist the same way. With reading and writing online we become a more efficient and faster world. So much is happening with the digital revolution it’s almost scary to see what will happen next. With the invention of the computer, the computer has been able to shrink to about 2.00 pounds and still function well. Since the invention of the mobile phone, it’s gone from the size of a brick to having a handheld palm computer. So obviously the advancement in technology has helped us improve. In chapter eight the author also discusses instant messaging which is a game changer in communication. Instant message works in real time like a phone call and it’s so simple to use and people can talk for hours on this for free. I know when I was in elementary school I would use AOL AIM all the time. I would talk and connect with everyone and all my friends and we would make plans on there to meet up because we didn’t have cell phones yet. Then I got my first phone in middle school and that changed and people stopped using AIM. Now there is a way to instant message people on Facebook, snapchat, almost anything you do, you can talk to a person “directly” via instant message.

In chapter nine Baron talks about how everyone is an author. Because of the internet people can read and write whatever they want and they can be published whether it’s in a blog or ebook. So computers enable humans to write whatever and publish anything online and people can connect to it. It seems almost impossible to make it now with so many people able to read and write, so to write something that stands out and can pass the test of time like Harry Potter or Hunger Games series is very very difficult. It is extremely hard to get noticed with more and more people being published and writing. When writing first came about, not many literary works were saved because very few could read and write. This is why we study Chaucer, Shakespeare and other classical literatures because they are such timeless pieces of writing that everyone reads.

A Better Pencil

A Better Pencil by Dennis Baron reminds of a lot of what Ong discussed in his readings. Reading the first few chapters of Baron's A Better Pencil, I noticed many similarities such as chapter one is titled "Writing it Down". Baron discusses how Plato was one of the best-known critique of writing. The new technology of writing was thought as weaker and not as "real" as speech. Writing was also a one way type of communication and it was not as interactive. As time progresses we learn that writing can be reliable. We also discussed in class how only 5% of the population during the dark ages and medieval times were literate while 95% of the people were not. The number of literate people grew as time went on and was found to be a form of reliable information that was useful. To be literate during the middle ages meant that you had power and made the rules. Today we now see literacy as a requirement. We do learn that things change over time and mostly for the better when it comes to writing technologies. There are sacred texts, laws, tickets, everything important gets written. Chapter three goes into detail about the pencil. The pencil first appeared in the sixteenth century Europe and Baron compares the use of a pencil back then to a computer and a telegraph now. The use of a pencil was for communication purposes. This chapter also includes the computer and the eraser. What I got from reading chapter three was that people discovered and made use of this new technology but that meant adapting. The new technology allowed room for editing and erasing words that were written. Chapter five was mainly about old writings and the clay writings then the type writer. What was most interesting was that in the past writing was an art form and was used for rules and entertainment. In the modern world we use computers to play with effects such as colors and fonts.

The big take away from these chapters is seeing how much humans have adapted to writing. In class we discussed that today we write the most that history has ever written. Rejecting change has been a social pattern in history but then in the end, acceptance of the new technology eventually happens. Baron uses the example of an eraser as a technological advance. He also uses spell check. I remember learning how to write and more importantly we learned how to edit. Modern writing has become more and more efficient.

Things Fall Apart Part II

Something that we discussed in class was orality and literacy in language. Language usually reflects culture. On the board we talked about oral accounts and how culture is passed down. Communication is important in every culture and causes barriers between other tribes and cultures because some things have different meanings. In Achebe's Things Fall Apart you know that this was intended for the West to read more than Nigerians.

In the second half of this book we see the main character Okonkwo a few years in exile. What stood out to me was during his seven years in exile, before he returns to Umuofia he prepares a feast. He regrets that he did not increase his status and influence in his own group. What really stood out to me was that he deeply regrets spending time with un-masculine people which is what I discussed in most of my last blog post. “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad" (page 129). This happens in chapter twenty when Okonkwo and Obierika are talking about the arrival of the colonialists. What I got from this chapter was that Obierika seems to strongly suggest the authors opinion about the new missionaries and overall colonialism. The "white man" disregarded the Igbo way of life. This reminds me of a Ted talk I watched in my other class. It was this man that had an idea of "one laptop per child" and he was basically just doing a sales pitch about how children in countries like Cambodia, Ethiopia, Peru and other countries with limited resources and he thought he would try to give these countries laptops. Though these laptops had English keyboards, Nicholas Negroponte assumed that all these children would learn English and type and learn to program in English, not their native language. So this is interesting because us as Americans associate happiness with technology and money and we assume that smaller villages that don't have this technology are unhappy and struggling with life.

Things Fall Apart

Something I noticed while reading this was the struggle between change and tradition. The main character Okonkwo seems to be resisting political and religious orders because they aren't manly enough and he probably thinks he won't be manly enough if he joins with them. I think seeing the cultural change is interesting because then you see how Okonkwo's fear how his society is changing and that losing the status due to cultural change will pretty much change his world. I think that it's interesting that there was Christian value in parts of this community. Many of the villagers had European influence and villagers were also excited about the new additions that missionaries brought which I thought was super interesting. So in this community the European influence dangers the traditional culture of farming, harvesting, cooking, etc. Once upon a time this was a way of life and that was what they needed to live and survive on so now Achebe talks about how these traditions are mostly for storytelling and how English is leading to the end of these traditions.

Back to Okonkwo's masculinity. I saw this as a theme from what I read because he sees how his father is and he fears that his son will be like that, and it just seems inherent. We read about how his dad beats his wife and all these violent actions that his father has. So now Okonkwo's idea of manliness is matched with aggression and anger, which is obviously awful. I wonder if his dad was different, if he would have a better or just different idea of an image of a man would be. But since his father is beating his wives and threatening their lives, he has no other idea of what kind of emotion to display.

The way this was written was also a bit confusing because I feel like language is a huge barrier and having that translation from orality to being written is difficult to understand. In Things Fall Apart you see the African formal language and how it is difficult to translate to English. I think growing up we learned that Africa has many different languages. I believe that translating old stories in any language into written English is difficult. Stories started out as being told and passed down by ear and oral. So to have them written could be difficult because when something is spoken it could mean seven different things and then in writing you are limited by words. I just wonder how much is missed in translation. Even today in modern languages like French and Chinese for example, much can get lost in translation. So since Africa has many different languages, I can only imagine what it was like even from village to village, what the communication is like. I can imagine that some villages stay very consistent and can understand some things, but some things can get lost in translation and have different meanings, etc.

Ong; Second Half

In the second half of Ong’s book, there is a similar pattern that follows the rest of the book. On page 154 Ong discusses literary history. “Literary history has begun to exploit the possibilities which orality literacy studies open to it. Important studies have reported on a wide scatter of specific traditions treating either their primary oral performances or the oral elements in their literary texts (page 154). In the second half you see a shift of spoken language to texts and manuscripts. In the first half Ong discusses speech and language now that has moved to literature and the history of that.

I personally loved the portion where Ong went over the history of literature. Written language is something that has been created and evolved many times. Starting with medieval literature there has been many writers at that time that read their work out loud which built rhetorical style. Since Medieval times I can imagine that stories are told and passed down orally then eventually written by someone who has the skills to record it which is why some stories still live today such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

“Over the centuries, the shift from orality through writing and print to electronic processing of the word has profoundly affected and, indeed, basically determined the evolution of verbal art genres, and of course simultaneously the successive modes of characterization and of plot” (page 155). I chose this quote because I think there are many different ways of understanding it. You see a shift from orality to writing, and even this shift takes so many centuries. Then when writing was invented there was the ability to make copies of a writing which also took a long while. Currently, we have the ability to make copies on command and through technology. Language turned to text which then turned to technology. The ability to electronically process words has strongly affected humans and the learning process and the comprehension of what is being read. The part of this quote that I was a little confused by was the “verbal art genres”. I feel like this could mean different things. Art itself can be applied to many things: painting, décor, architecture, literature, etc. Genres are characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter so genres were created as a way to classify the type of art. Verbal is something spoken. When taken apart I understand it, but putting verbal art genres together confuses me. Unless they were talking about how reading a story out loud creates the successful story telling of characterization and plot. What is also interesting is that before there were stories there were songs. In every religion there are songs sung for a purpose. Ong says “the oral song is the result of interaction between the singer, the present audience, and the singer’s memories of songs sung” (page 154). This is true in all cases. 

Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word

For my first blog post, I decided to king of skip around the first half of the book and bring up parts that were particularly interesting to me. So reading the first half I found bits and pieces of each chapter that I wanted to look into.

“The new awakening in recent years to the orality of speech was not without antecedents” (p. 28, Ong). In chapter two Ong discusses oral tradition and how beyond the Old Testament that oral tradition has long existed, then proceeds to the topic of Homer which I find particularly interesting. In other classes when I’ve discussed Homer there have been several ideas of what or who he actually was. Maybe he was a poor poet or a great or genius one as Ong suggests. What I never thought of was that maybe Homer was more of an occupation rather than a person. Because The Iliad and the Odyssey are epics that were not done overnight and neither was the bible which had several authors. The idea that Homer was more of an occupation does bring complication to the prefabricated parts. Transitioning from the history of orality to when words are written and reviewed and fully literate did not take much time.

 “Fully literate persons can only with great difficulty imagine what a primary oral culture is like, that is, a culture with no knowledge whatsoever of writing or even of the possibility of writing” (p42, Ong). The possibility of writing has allowed humans to have power over most things such as names and better form of communication. Since an oral culture has no texts everything was probably heavily memorized. This is interesting because even before the invention of cell phones teachers and older generations would say they had to memorize certain phone numbers to call and always remember to dial. I currently only have three phone numbers memorized from my phone because I no longer have the need to memorize certain things because the phone does everything for me. This portion of the reading stood out to me because it just makes me realize how much of the newer generations are familiar with digital communication and less familiar with oral communication.

 I’ve had the conversation about communication in digital space in many different classes. We’ve talked about bias, race, sex, and just overall how people communicate in digital spaces. People do act differently according to which digital medium they are using. It’s just something interesting that everyone should consider!