Mirror Mirror on the wall who's the ruler of them all?…well techology I guess

Since my preliminary proposal was too broad of a topic, I wanted to narrow down my objective.

So here’s my partially revised thesis: “Our connection with the internet and constant connection to technology makes us as a society vulnerable to being controlled by it and those that use it as a means to an end.”

I hope this is more focused as a thesis than my last rambling post. What I wanted to do was to specify that since technology is a lifestyle for so many people, it provides a means by which others can influence them or control them. Some examples of this are online advertisements, censorship of the news, and social media’s role in peer pressure.

Some of my best supporting claims are:

1) More and more people are using the internet as a means of advertising. This might be okay except for the fact that there are history tracking technologies and services, some of which are offered by Google, that allow companies to target the online user as a means to sell their product. By allowing companies to do this is essentially allowing them to control what we see and how much exposure we get to certain things. This is only made possible though by the constant connection people have with technology.

2)Social Media’s role in shifting public opinion has increasingly become the predominant factor in establishing and developing public opinion. The way we think is often developed through our own individual experiences and is therefore heavily influenced by the people we interact with. Since Social Media is facilitated by modern technology (most notably the internet) and many people are constantly attached to it, it is able to change the way we think about any range of issues that are put online. In this way, Social Media can be used by certain people to change public opinion more and much faster than in the times of the newspaper.

My Ideas are not completely refined yet and I do want to expand on a few more things but this is what I have so far.

Two potential sources that I may use in my essay are:

Flatter World and Thicker Walls? Blogs, Censorship and Civic Discourse in China
Rebecca MacKinnon
Public Choice , Vol. 134, No. 1/2, Blogs, Politics and Power (Jan., 2008), pp. 31-46
Published by: Springer
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27698209

and

The Influence of “Personal Influence” on the Study of Audiences
Sonia Livingstone
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , Vol. 608, Politics, Social Networks, and the History of Mass Communications Research: Rereading Personal Influence (Nov., 2006), pp. 233-250
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097864

The first source could be useful in making a point on how there is a need or a feeling of control already in existence in relation to the internet and how we think. The entry discusses censorship in China and I could use some of the information in this source to talk about regulation of the levels of exposure one might find and the resulting thoughts or beliefs that stem out of it.

The second source Could be useful in researching the ways in which media tries to analyze the mind of the audiences and use that information to manipulate certain things to achieve a desired effect from audiences. I could use this source to argue the point that advertisers, now online, are using many tactics to try to control the actions of people in relation to the ads and to shift their thoughts in favor of consuming the product.

For my project I want to discuss the aspect of control in relation to technology and how our dependence on it makes people vulnerable to being controlled by it. I will discuss how because people in our time have lives that are so intertwined with technology that it can sometimes become a larger part of life than reality and I will also discuss how technology can now be utilized to shape the way people think and act because of the sheer amount of time we spend with it and how we let it become a natural part of life’s rhythm. I feel like this topic will be a good fit to the different things we’ve explored in class including the “balance” between technology and life and the idea that technology used as a tool may make people become the tool or the means to an end.

Since most people are somehow connected to the internet and technology, they all utilize it to facilitate one part of their lifestyle whether it be learning, working, or for entertainment. The main point I would like to make is that the part of technology that makes life easier may in fact become life itself. My thesis would be something along the lines of : The incorporation of technology in a lifestyle can, over time, become the focal point of a lifestyle.

Some points I would like to cover aside from the main point are 1) technology can be utilized to control the way people develop and think 2) How will we be able to coexist with technological development in the future based on how far we’ve come already?

I used The Shallows as a jumping off point for my idea. Nicholas Carr made many valid points on how technology has revolutionized the process of living and also on how the development progresses as such that it may surpass the progression of humans themselves, even with neuroplasticity. I want to expand on those ideas and go even further on how those things are already occurring in our lives and possible pros and cons of them.

For my project, I might want to discuss whether or not we as a global society are digressing back to a time of control. Back before the enlightenment era, people were controlled by feudal lords or slave owners and monarchies that actually had power. There has been so much progress  from those times and now technology is bringing us back. People will want to have control over others and impose their feelings on others. While reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, I kept thinking about how people in our time are constantly coming out with new technology to “make our lives easier” and facilitate or try to facilitate every facet of our lives. I’m not against technology helping people, but it seems like the technologies are making it so that people don’t have anything that isn’t connected to them. On page 80, Carr mentioned something about future technological development being able to measure joy or sadness and simulate or impose machine made feelings into peoples brains. This idea scared me and led me to think about how there is too much technology and there’s too much of it around now to the extent that people are being controlled by it. I’m not completely sure how i’m going to develop this.

A Possible development could be me talking about the nature of people and wanting to control things… maybe and how it relates to the technologies that are developed today like tracking devices online…

“Neuro plasticity, argues…and experiences” (pg 31)

“In the quiet…as they read deeply” (pg 65)

The first quote was about how neuroplasticity is the way in which people are able to adapt to different and all situations. This idea led to, according to the research done by Nicholas Carr, a shift in thinking for the entire neurological science community. Where previously it was thought that the brain was an unchanging system or network of cells, after the idea of Neuroplasticity was formed people began to see the full capacities of the human brain to change and adapt to anything. This quote struck me because, as with other world changing ideas, it provides a whole new scope of thinking. I had always heard that “after your brain grows to it’s full size, you can only lose brain cells and it’ll deteriorate over time.” This quote provided a relief to me more than anything and made me less scared about the future of my mental health. But it also brought me to think about how people adapt. Looking back on the way people thought or worked in the ancient times and comparing that to how people work with technology in the present, there has been an incredible amount of development. People needed to learn how to work with machines and now computers and now people can’t function without computers because of the adaptation. Everything a human is capable of is made possible by a functioning brain network and It is both amazing and frightening that the brain is able to mold itself to anything and change the way people live.

Neuroplasticity also brought a new respect for the ability to multitask and do many things as opposed to being able to do one single thing for an extended period of time. This brings me to my second quote which discusses how deep focused reading and analysis of text can lead and has led to deep thinking and development of individual ideas. Now that being able to multitask is held above being able to do one specialized thing for extended periods of time, It makes me wonder how people will be able to sustain deep thought. Deep thought is necessary, in my opinion, to make innovative decisions. Without being able to read and absorb in an immersed situation is extremely destructive to the creative process and is an issue that frightens me as well.

Overall, what I learned from the pages I have read is both fascinating and frightening and it makes me more motivated to be aware of the things going on around me and the digital and technological world.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll be researching for my project but I’ll keep you posted!