Web 3.0 Prediction Article

According to this article, Web 3.0 is more of a compilation of the aspects of Web 2.0 and advancements on them. Instead of having to do several search engine searches, Web 3.0 will possess the intelligence to decipher and complex question in a search and be able to answer the question like a person would. In the article, Jonathan Strickland refers to it as a sort of "personal assistant". The more this new Web 3.0 is used, the more it will learn about you; eventually it will automatically come up with your favorite or most frequented restaurants when asked "Where should I go to lunch?"

As advanced and convenient as this may be, I feel like Strickland's prediction of Web 3.0 is a frightening one. If this is really the type of artificial intelligent that we will all have access to, there will be no reason to think anymore. The same goes for the Web 2.0 that we are experiencing now. No one has to remember directions to get to a destination anymore because your GPS has it saved to memory and will walk you through the steps on how to get there. If Web 3.0 takes the turn that Strickland predicts, we will be doing ourselves a disservice and thus, dumbing ourselves down.

Illustration Proposal

As far as midterm project illustration goes, I will be incorporating human characteristic with technology. I will probably upload some images into Illustrator and trace them. Then I will humanize technology to pull the images together. I see my completed project as possibly being a little comical. However, it will convey the themes brought forth in my essay and depict the severity of Internet Gaming Addiction.

Midterm Paper: Online Gaming Addiction

According to BBC News, South Korea is one of the most technologically connected societies in the world. With access to 24-hour cyber cafes, known as PC Bangs, people can easily get sucked into the world of online gaming addiction. People travel from all over the world to game at the PC Bangs in South Korea. But this "gamer's paradise" has an uglier side. After gaming non-stop for 86 hours in a PC Bang in Kwangju, 24-year-old Kim Kyung-jae died. Investigating officer Detective Hong Gun-hee said, "PC bangs are open 24 hours a day - and there is every potential that another case like this could happen again." Cases of internet addiction like this are becoming more and more common.

Grace Lim, a Korean-American masters student, visited a PC Bang on her trip to Seoul this past year. She noticed that as soon as school let out, elementary, middle and high school students would fill up the internet cafes. When Lim was asked why South Korea sees more of this gaming addiction problem than other countries, she said, "There is a lot of stress in Korean society. Going to PC Bangs is one way to relieve stress and disconnect themselves from the real world. It's mainly the stress-relieving factor."

Though there are yet to be any proven causes of online gaming addiction, there are factors that have been known to contribute to the addiction. First is the obsessive compulsion connected to performing a task, such as feeling a 'rush' from shopping. An internet addict may feel the same 'rush' when he or she starts up the computer and logs into his or her favorite game. Another theory is that addicts may actually become addicted to the feeling the game gives them, not the game itself. For example, if a gamer feels a sense of happiness or pleasure while playing a game, he or she will consistently play that game to regain those same feelings. Another reason people become addicted to the internet is because of the social connections they create. Some people get involved in online relationships because they feel like they are taking less of a risk than if they were to pursue a relationship in person. This can grow to the point of people creating false personas for themselves online. Though this gives the addict a sense of adequacy, they are not improving their offline selves, thus leading to further feelings of inadequacy. There is also the theory that certain personality traits cause online gaming addiction. Much like people can be predisposed to alcoholism, they can also be predisposed to internet addiction. With just the right mix of an addictive personality, stressors and poor self-image, people can easily fall into a pattern of seeking emotional or mental quick-fixes via the internet.

As far as a remedy goes for this widespread addiction, support is the answer. Seeing a physician will allow the addict to find exactly what spurred the addiction to begin with; whether its cause was social or personal. There are also rehabilitation centers with programs that specialize in internet addiction. On a military base outside Beijing, a treatment center incorporates military-style discipline, along with counseling, confidence-building activities, sex education and sometimes medication. The treatment is meant to uncover any psychological or emotional issues that may have contributed to the addiction. In turn, this boosts self-confidence, bringing the addict closer to recovery.

Adobe Illustrator

Midterm Project Proposal

I will be designing my own midterm project. I plan to discuss the growing gaming addiction mentioned in Digital Nation. Included in my paper will be the causes of the addiction itself as well as the physical and mental affects it has on addicts. This problem has gotten out of control in places like South Korea and China. Excessive gaming has lead to people removing themselves from their social lives. There have even been deaths caused by non-stop gaming. My paper will encompass the issues surrounding this rising obsession.

Social Media

Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY??

We first discussed actual TV shows and advertisements which utilize the "homegrown" practice in current media. Advertisements such as the E-trade Baby Commercials and TV shows such as The Office are examples of this. However, we view the amateurish simulations more as a style and a fad, not necessarily a revolution within the production industry. While some companies and shows choose to revert to the user-generated production techniques, such as personal cam-corders, the remainder of the industry continues to move forward with the high-tech advancements production has made. Also, in producing much of the "homegrown" media, advanced technology is still being applied while trying to simulate user-generated content. It is an approach certain advertisers have decided to take, in an effort to seem relevant to their audience. Over time, user-generated content will most likely progress further as it has since it started. New user-friendly cameras and computer software are becoming readily available to the average person, requiring less professional skills, and so we think that as top production advances, so will the actual homegrown production.

2. Find a news article and write down tags you would use to define what the article is about. Now goto http://delicious.com/ , digg.com or another tagging site and see how others have tagged it. What did you learn from the differences or similarities in tagging?

Does Facebook Deserve the Hell it's Catching from Greenpeace?

Our tags: Social networking, Facebook, Greenpeace, economy, norms, politics, groups, coal, energy, renewable resources

Their tags: coal, Facebook, Greenpeace, social change, social network, social psychology

When comparing our tags with the tags from Digg, we found that the majority of our tags were the same. From these similarities we concluded that the main ideas and most important parts of the article were universal and apparent. However, there were a few tags from Digg that differed from ours. We found that as a group we gave more specific and detail-oriented tags, while Digg focused more on the holistic and general ideas in the article. For example, we tagged "renewable resources" and Digg tagged "social movement" and "social psychology." A possible explanation is that Digg users tagged broader terms, but since we were conscious of doing a good job tagging we were more thorough and specific.

3. Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?

Transparency is such an important concept because it disguises intentions and viewers deserve to be aware of the alternative motives behind what they see and read. Basically transparency regards the loop hole for advertisers and other social media in which they find ways to mask what they are doing or saying in order to make it more appealing to viewers.

Transparency is more important in the online world. It arises moral as well as legal issues. When viewers watch television they more aware of what is and what isn't an advertisement, however the transparency that is heavily present in the online world often fools its users. An example would be if a big corporation has formal plans and intentions of getting their message across the internet, but hires a smaller distant company to disguise its origin. In the online world, it is much easier to remain anonymous from your contributions, such as blogs. When viewers read blogs they are more likely to trust that the blogger is being objective, rather than being paid off to endorse another company or product.

The Persuaders

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

In my opinion, advertising has reached new heights the last couple decades. Anywhere you go, you are being bombarded by advertisements. What makes this difficult is the emotional aspect that marketers have attached to products or services. A TV commercial promoting a vacation to Jamaica doesn't just tell you how beautiful the place is, it tells you that you'll fall in love when you go there. An advertisement for a MacBook won't tell you how efficient the machine is. Instead, you are being told that you can recreate yourself when you use it. I feel like advertising hasn't even really evolved; rather it has reverted back to a place where the real tangible or intangible purpose for the product or service is forgotten. In The Persuaders, TiVo was introduced as a way to eliminate TV commercials altogether. As a result, advertisements are no longer reaching the people who use it.

Where are things headed in the future? What are some possible scenarios that could play out as far as the direction that future persuaders may take their marketing techniques.

I think that in the future, advertisers will continue to reach the public through movies and TV shows. Because of products like TiVo, advertising will strictly turn into product placement. So instead of a commercial for Crest toothpaste, a character in a show may brush his or her teeth with Crest. This also sends a subliminal message to viewers; they will end up associating their favorite character in a show to Crest, therefore having an emotional connection to that brand of toothpaste.

Digital Nation Part 2

Even after watching the beginning, the rest of this film still shocked me. I had no idea that there were detox programs in Korea to help kids recover from video game addiction. It makes me wonder how this problem grew to such an extreme. I have never owned a video game in my life, but when I was growing up I had some friends who did. When I went to their houses, I liked playing them because that was the only time I could. However, when I was given the choice to play Spyro or go run around outside, I would much rather be riding a bike or playing in the pool. Maybe when it comes to choosing between a virtual world and the real world, it comes back to the values that were instilled in us when we were young. My parents were strict about not having any video gaming in the house. The interesting thing is that it never really bothered me.

Virtual war really struck a chord with me. Several people I grew up with went into the military after high school; some even lost their lives fighting in the War Against Terror. Learning about the new idea of remote-control war really upset me. Initially, you think: what could be better than sending a drone into Afghanistan to wipe out a terrorist meeting and then going home to see your family that same day? It sounds like the best of both worlds. But I can't imagine how this is affecting the emotional and mental state of the soldiers who take part in remote-control war. As emotional as it is for someone to go fight in a war overseas, I would think that it's better to be completely immersed in the war. For example, when a soldier is in Iraq, he or she is constantly around the Iraqi people, thinking about the war, talking about the war, preparing for attacks, etc. The brain of someone who experiences this is in a different mode than of someone who is with his or her family and feels love and compassion. These emotions are dangerous if mixed with war. What happens if a soldier has a fight with his wife one morning and then goes to his post and starts sending out drones? Would this affect his performance?

Personally, this apparent addiction to digital technology disgusts me. What happened to experiencing real life that made it so unbearable? So many kids are now incapable of taking part in physical activities because their eyes are glued to a computer screen. Soldiers are experiencing post traumatic stress disorder because their mental state is constantly being switched. 'Video game addiction' became an actual term. And there are recovery centers to detox from it! I find it sad that people who have become obsessed with technology are missing out on the real joys of life. Meeting the love of your life is one thing, but meeting him or her through World of Warcraft is another. What happened to conversation and emotion and real connections? It seems to me that our emotions have become superficial and we are slowly losing right of what real human interaction is. What scares me the most is thinking about where we are headed in the future.

Digital Nation Part 1

Watching the first half of Digital Nation got me thinking. We have so quickly forgotten how much we've lost touch with real life. We are all guilty of taking advantage of the truly amazing technologies we have at our fingertips. One of the first women interviewed in the movie mentioned how on her honeymoon, she and her husband were completely cut off. They didn't know what was going on in the world until they got home. This is unheard of now.

As much as I find it convenient to always be 'connected' and reachable, there's a part of me that wishes this wasn't the norm. We have lost our privacy in a sense. Between Twitter updates, away messages, mass texts and Facebook fan pages, anyone in the world can know where you are, what you're doing, who you're with, even where you go to college and what you're studying. Our obsession with technology is truly frightening.

I think the next topic Digital Nation will focus on is the virtual world. People are spending so much time on computers that they have created virtual lives. Even video games are a way for people to escape real life. With the next generation spending so much time playing war-like games where you get killed and then come back to life, what kind of person is this going to create? Children are growing up having a false sense of reality. What does this mean for our country's future leaders? I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of Digital Nation.

Revised Collage

Web 2.0 Terms

User-generated content is public media that is produced or augmented by users.

Long tail is the retailing concept of selling a large number of unique items to a small population of people, usually accompanied by selling a small number of generic products to a large population.

Network as a platform refers to running many programs or applications on an operating system.

Folksonomy is a means of classification based on a collaborative effort used to manage and organize content.

Web syndication is the part of a website that offers a news feed or updates the user on new content.

Mass collaboration is when a large number of people work on one common project.

Computer-supported collaboration is research that affects a whole community, like connecting a network of people online.

Web hosting service is a website that allows users to create webpages that are available to anyone using the internet.

A web application is a software application used via the internet such as an online word processor

Social software is any type of computer software where users can interact and share information.

Video-sharing sites are website that allow users to upload video clips and share them with all viewers.

A wiki is a website that allows easy creation of content by users, as well as editing.

A blog is a personal website that is made up of reflective entries, like an online journal.

A mashup is digital media with any combination of text, images, audio and video.

Media Mediums

Chegg

Content: images, text, electronic credit transactions, internet

Message: Chegg allows users to rent textbooks instead of purchasing the overpriced mark ups in a bookstore. Chegg is widely used by college students to keep prices low and to prevent getting stuck with textbooks at semester's end.

Blu-ray Disc

Content: images and video in HD resolution
Message: Blu-ray discs are an

innovation to the way we watch movies. Using a blue laser, as opposed to a red laser that makes DVDs, these discs pack more information in a smaller amount of space.

Apple i-Pod

Content: images, video, audio

Message: i-Pods pack a massive amount of information into a tiny space, depending on how many GB it holds. They have revolutionized the way we listen to music. Instead of carrying around a cassette player that holds one tape or a CD player that holds one CD, we now carry around a cell phone-sized i-Pod that can hold up to 15,000 song and video files.