Some Final Thoughts

This has been an interesting and fun class.  It's opened my eyes to things that have been going on around us for years but I that failed to truly see.  The reading assignments were both interesting and relevant, and I'm really glad I took this class.

I think it's sad that our society is so materialistic, and that we're never satisfied with what we have.  I'll admit that sometimes I'm guilty, as well.  Around the holidays, many of us take time to reflect, and think of those less fortunate than we are.  Then, when the holidays are over, it's back to thinking of ourselves again, and how we want the newer, bigger, and better products.  We don't realize how much we already have, and we always want more.  We also don't think twice about tossing our old products out like yesterday's news--except that we might actually recycle the newspaper.  It takes more effort and know-how when it comes to recycling our technological gadgets, so we usually don't, and we are slowing suffering from the effects of this e-waste.

Technology will most definitely brighten the future of the world we live in, but we need to remember several important things.  Technology is only as good as the people who create it and make it work.  We are humans, and we are imperfect.  We also need to use technology wisely, and dispose of our products more wisely, or we're going to suffer many consequences of our incessant throwaway lifestyles.  Sure, we may not see immediate results, and may not even see any major changes during our lifetimes, but wouldn't it be nice if we weren't so selfish?

Motion in East Brunswick!

Yesterday, while in the car listening to the radio, I heard about something pretty cool--Motion movie seats have arrived at Mega Movies in East Brunswick!  I love, love, LOVE this sort of thing when I go to amusement parks, so I just had to find out more.  Unfortunately, my excitement pretty much waned when I learned the rest of the story.

Mega Movies on Route 18 in East Brunswick is the first movie theater in the state to have motion seats.  These seats make you feel as though you're a participant in the movie.  They roll, pitch, turn, heave, etc...in perfect sync with the action on the movie screen.  You can even adjust the seats, to modidfy the amount of motion you feel.  They're called D-Box seats.  However, there are only 26 of these seats available, so they need to be reserved.  In addition to the limited supply of seats, the price of a ticket to sit in a D-Box seat will cost $8.00 more than a regular seat.  Wow!  Movie tickets are expensive enough.  Besides, I'm sure that the odds are slim to none that I'd be able to reserve seats for a family of five any time soon, for a movie that's suitable for everyone in the family to see.  Oh, well!

Time to start the final paper!

For some reason, this blog never got posted.  I just found it in my list of posts as a "draft" from December 7th.  I'm going to publish the post now, but it's a little out of chronological order.  Sorry!!

I can't believe this semester is almost over.  It has been one heck of a ride for me--one that I wasn't expecting.  I knew it would be a bit difficult taking on two classes this semester, since one of them is Nursing Research.   However, I've also had to tackle a few unexpected issues, that really couldn't have occurred at a worse time.  I've had to deal with a lengthy hospitalization of my mom in November, and
now her slow rehabilitation.  My Nursing Research class has been a lot more difficult than expected, and I swear I'm getting an ulcer over it.

For our final assignment in Technology and Culture in America, we need to compose a well-supported and well-cited paper on our choice of one of two potential topics.  I have chosen to use "Made To Break" by Giles Slade as my primary source, and will answer the question, "With the recent rise of the environmental movement in this country, will America continue on the path of a disposable society described in Slade's work or finally turn the path of going green?"  I remember flipping and flopping, going back and forth on my opinions as I read this book, but I think I have finally come to a decision on what I believe will happen.

And now...the end is near...

I'm feeling so many different things right now....

I'm still unbelievably stressed out over my nursing research class, because that final is still looming over my head.  I'll take that today.  Wish me luck, because that class has almost killed me.  I'm also starting to feel a little bit of relief, because I know that no matter how I do on the test, it will be over today.  Thank you, God....I can actually take the exam tomorrow if I so choose, but I don't think that one extra day of studying will make a difference in my performance.  The only difference will be that of an ulcer and a bleeding ulcer.  I hate to go on and on about the nursing research class, but it's affected me in such a negative way this semester.  I feel like it has taken over my life for the past 3 months.  It really hurts that I have put so much time and effort into it, and have lost hours of sleep over it, and I'm going into the final exam with only a C average.

On a more positive note, I have just about finished my paper for Technology and Culture!   I ended up writing more than I expected.  Thank goodness The Facebook Effect wasn't an option for this paper, because I'd probably have a hard time fitting everything into a 6-8 page paper.  As it is, I think I have written 9 or 10 pages on the Giles Slade book--sorry, Professor!!

Well, I'm off to review my notes one more time...

Time to Make the Donuts!

Well, the end of the semester is drawing near.  Now that I have my nursing research paper completed and submitted, I am just going to stop stressing over it.  What's done is done, and hopefully it will be acceptable. 

Now it's time to get back to work on my paper for Technology and Culture in America.  For this final assignment, I chose Made to Break, by Giles Slade, to answer the question, "With the recent rise of the environmental movement in this country, will America continue on the path of a disposable society described in Slade's work, or finally turn to the path of going green?  Last week, I went back to the library to take this book out once again, and will try to remember to renew it BEFORE it's overdue this time.  I started skimming through the book to refresh my memory regarding some key points Slade makes, and jotted down little notes to myself along with little snippets of what I'd like to include from the book. 

When I was searching the internet for additional information about the green movement, I found so much information that it became overwhelming.  I need to stop and think about exactly what it is I want to get more information on, so I can narrow it down to a few hundred search results as opposed to a few thousand.  Hey....I just realized....see that?  Once again, technology proves to be a necessity in my life :-)

Well, I'm off to start narrowing my search!

The Facebook Effect

I took advantage of technology for this assignment.  I downloaded and read The Facebook Effect on my Kindle.  I’ve had the Kindle for almost a year now, but have never used it for school until now.   It’s great, but there is a downside that I must mention.    The Kindle doesn’t show page numbers, so you’re unable to cite any page numbers for reference.

Let me start by saying that this is, hands down, my favorite book of the semester.  I think the best was saved for last.  I love that this book is a biography.  It’s such a great change from the other books we’ve read.  It’s a book that I found very interesting, as a huge fan of Facebook, and because it’s all about something that’s a part of so many people’s lives. 

The author of this book, David Kirkpatrick, was a former technology writer for Fortune.  He was invited to have dinner with Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2006.  At that time, he won unprecedented access to Zuckerberg and 39 of his top employees to gather material for this book.  The Facebook Effect is now considered to be an official history of the company and the most definitive account of Facebook's rise to power. 

I love how Kirkpatrick grabs us right away, in his prologue.  If you didn’t already know all about Facebook, you learn that it can be a powerful tool.  Facebook can be used for something simple, such as keeping in touch with friends and family, but in the prologue we learn about the massive effect of a single post from one young man named Oscar Morales.   Mr. Morales started a Facebook campaign from his bedroom through a midnight posting.  He posted what was on his mind, logged off, and went to bed.  His campaign was called Un Millon de Voces Contra Las FARC—One Million voices against FARC.   Little did he know that his campaign against a Colombian guerrilla organization would lead to worldwide attention and protests.  As a matter of fact, it led to one of the largest demonstrations ever, anywhere in the world.  I find the impact of one man’s anger and disgust, and his venting on a social media website, to be just amazing.

Mark Zuckerberg is a creative genius.  He knows all about timing, and how timing is indeed everything.  He created Facebook just as people were getting faster internet connections.  His $100 million donation to Newark schools was right around the time of the New York Film Festival premier of “The Social Network” which portrays an unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg as a selfish egomaniac.  Love him or hate him, you have to respect him.

Facebook began life in a student room in 2003, as Facemash.  Its original function was to allow Zuckerberg and his fellow Harvard students to rate each other's attractiveness and flirt with each other electronically.  It was kind of a snobby website, exclusive to Harvard students.  It then became “thefacebook,” and Zuckerberg’s out-of-pocket was originally all of $35.00 to register the domain name.  

In June 2004, after a coincidental meeting with the former co-creator of Napster, Sean Parker, Facebook received its first investment of $500K from the co-founder of Paypal (another site I love), Peter Thiel.  In 2005 Facebook granted access to members belonging to recognized academic institutions and other organizations in the United States, Canada and other English-speaking countries as long as they could provide a valid email I.D. associated with their institutions. In the same year, "the" was dropped from the name, and the domain Facebook.com was purchased for $200K. Two equity and venture capital firms  (Accel Partners and Greylock Partners) then invested $12.7 million and $27.5 million, respectively.  After few months, Zuckerberg, along with Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes, two of his Harvard friends who helped him to build Facebook, dropped out of Harvard and moved to Palo Alto, California to run the website as their sole occupation.

Zuckerberg was determined to maintain independence, and not sell Facebook.  (He continues to maintain that the money does not motivate him, even to this day.)  He decided to launch it globally, allowing anyone who had a valid email address to sign up for a Facebook account.   At this stage of the game, there was still strong competition from MySpace.  In 2007, Facebook was approached by Microsoft, which subsequently acquired 1.6% of the shares of the company for the sum of $240 million.  A month later, another a Hong Kong billionaire invested $60 million in the company.

Zuckerberg claims to have a passion for transparency. He believes that we'd all be better people if we shared our data with one another,  making our lives publicly available to each other.  He feels that when the gap is narrowed between public and private, the potential for hypocrisy will be reduced, and it becomes harder, for example, for people to cheat on their partners when everything is so public and out in the open.  However, Zuckerberg's beliefs have raised concerns about privacy issues that have plagued Facebook for the past few years. 

Facebook makes most of its money by helping companies target potential customers more effectively than mainstream media. It is a routine part of the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Many people can be made aware of something almost simultaneously, and with ease.  You don’t need to be a genius or have any specific skills to be on Facebook.  Like on Wikipedia, everyone can be a content creator or an editor, in addition to a producer and a distributor.  Facebook changes how people communicate and interact, how marketers sell products, how governments reach out to citizens, and even how companies operate.  You can most likely find a Facebook page for your favorite brand, favorite food, or favorite store.   Facebook is the second most visited site, after Google.  Facebook claims more than 400 million active users as of February 2010, and it operates in 75 languages.

One final thought.  Two famous high tech companies were founded by Harvard University dropouts in their dorm rooms -- Microsoft and Facebook.  What are the rest of us doing wrong?

Damn You, Auto Correct! Just Thought I'd Share

Maybe I'm the last person to discover this site, but if not, I want to share it with you.  While I was stuck in the house with a raging sinus infection and a sick kid to boot, I discovered "Damn You, Auto Correct" at damnyouautocorrect.com.  It is hilarious, but I have to give a heads up--do not visit the site if you are easily offended by foul language.  For anyone who is not familiar with auto-correct, it is a feature on iPhones and other touch-screen phones that tries to "guess" what you are going to type--and fix your spelling--before you finish typing.  This program exists to supposedly make our lives easier, but judging by all of the errors made by auto correct, this isn't the case.  Damn You, Auto Correct is a website that sees the humor in this.  I sat in front of my computer, on this website, and read through 19 pages of text messages that were auto-corrected.  All I can say is that the auto-correct feature shows us how there truly are imperfections in the technology that we use every day!