A group of design students at an art school created a fascinating ebook that catalogs many of the odd little gestures and behaviors we perform when interacting with our technology. Take, for example, the “baboon’s face,” that some people adopt when having a phone conversation that they want to keep private:
Are there other gestures that didn’t get mentioned here?
Can you think of any gestures from our analog everyday that might be worth noting (how about the pen/pencil spinner, that dextrous move that people make on their knuckles with their writing instrument when they’re reading or engaged in thought)?
Sources
Wilson, Mark. “15 Weird Postures Forced Upon Us By Technology.” Co.DESIGN, 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
Nova, Nicholas, Katherine Miyake, Walton Chiu, Nancy Kwon. Curious Rituals: Gestural Interaction in the Digital Everyday. Curious Rituals, 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
What is the relationship between technological change and social attitudes?
The reasons why some people to opt out of moving on to the next technology wonder are usually defensible. Can you think of other examples where a seemingly outdated technology has endured and why that might be the case?
Sources
Fackler, Martin. “In Japan, the Fax Machine Rolls On.” New York Times. New York Times, 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
Interesting story in the New York Times today about a handful of students at Baruch College who created a computer script to repeatedly check availability for a much-in-demand course they wanted to register for. Here’s some questions to respond to:
Is it fair to punish the students if the college makes it so hard to get into certain courses that some will engage in technology tricks to work around the system?
If you think they should be punished, what is a reasonable punishment? How would punishment for that differ for a student who hacked into the email system and accessed people’s email accounts?
Kaminer, Ariel. “Tech-Savvy Baruch College Students Seek an Edge in Registration, and Find Trouble.” New York Times 5 Feb. 2013: A19(L). Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.
When composing a blog post, you must always select one of the “Categories” on the right side of the screen.
This will help ease navigation of the site and allow you to easily find all posts on a given category. If you’ve already published a post without a category, you can go back into the Dashboard for the blog, add the category for the post, and then click the “Update” button.
An interesting story was on the BBC News website yesterday summarizing a report from Latanya Sweeney, a professor of government and technology at Harvard University and the director and founder of the Data Privacy Lab there. Professor Sweeney’s research suggests that when names commonly used by African Americans are part of a search query in Google, the results are accompanied by advertisements on the right column that are more likely to contain ads for companies that will help you locate arrest records from public records. Google’s search system has long been paired up with its AdSense program that offers ads on the side that are related in some way to your search words.
Take a look at the BBC News story, “Google Searches Expose Racial Bias, Says Study of Names” and at Professor Sweeney’s published report, “Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery” (pdf). What do you think of her findings? What could be making Google’s algorithms work this way? Can you think of any other places where seemingly “neutral” search tools might be encoded in such a way that reveals less-than-neutral assumptions about people based on race, class, gender, sexual preference, etc.?
The book we’ll be reading for class this semester, Eli Pariser’s The Filter Bubble, is on reserve in the library. You can borrow it for two hours at a time. Stop by the circulation desk, give the staff the course number (LIB 3040) and the name of the book, and if it’s available they’ll check it out to you.
Since we’ll be using the book in class a lot, you’ll need to buy your own copy. Used copies can probably be found via the usual online sources. Although ideally you’ll get the paperback edition, the hardcover edition is fine as well.
Please bookmark the main course website so you can easily find it when you need it. We will not be using Blackboard at all this semester.
Comments:
"Was there an article you meant to link to in your post?" posted on May 2, 2013, on the post Addiction to Technology
"This reminds of the way that humans are portrayed in Wall-E as lazy slobs glued to their chairs watching a video screen that responds to all their needs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M" posted on Apr 23, 2013, on the post Did we really become this lazy?
"Have ever heard the saying that the internet is made up of cats? It's funny how many websites feature cat photos, cat videos, cat animated GIFs. An interesting question is why cats? Why are they so prevalent on the web? And how have memes about cats propagated on the web? How have they evolved?
The concept of memes is something that can be traced back to Richard Dawkins, one of the most famous scholars of biology and evolution. He actually coined the term "meme" to describe those tiny, discrete pieces of information that get transmitted and that, taken as whole, help make up what we might call "culture."
If you've never been to the Know Your Meme website, it's a fun take on the idea that we should study the history of silly internet memes. A personal favorite meme of mine is Nyan Cat, which you can read all about on the Know Your Meme site." posted on Apr 23, 2013, on the post A Little Something to Brighten Up Our Day
"Great post. In this case, posting the video online is what made it possible to quickly ID the suspect. The case reminds me a bit of a long trend in internet vigilantism, which gets a nice entry in Wikipedia. One notable case was of crowdsourcing the effort to do justice that I remember well was an in incident in 2006 when a woman who had found a lost Sidekick but refused to give it back was shamed on the web thanks to the vigilante like efforts of thousands of netizens. A June 21, 2006, story in the New York Times gives all the details on this fascinating case." posted on Apr 5, 2013, on the post Online Commenters Identify Criminal
"Daniel, when the article says, "“We fill conversational spaces by saying what’s top of mind. But when you write something, you have the time to construct and refine what you say, so it involves more self-presentation," the point doesn't seem to be that it makes more reliable; instead the point is that you are more likely to smooth away any rough edges from your story or what you're saying. In face-to-face conversation, people blurt out things off the top of their head in ways that aren't always so refined and polished. But when you take the time to type in (in Twitter or Facebook), you're more likely to clean things up." posted on Mar 21, 2013, on the post Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks
"What's funny is that the more she pursues this strategy of lawsuits, the more her name will be linked with those products." posted on Mar 18, 2013, on the post What is your name promoting?
"Like a lot of families, my family all shares the one Netflix account. I wonder what my recommendations/viewing habits are going to look like in Facebook if the things I watch there are mixed in with all things my two boys watch on Netflix (at the moment, they're plowing through all the old episodes from the cartoon show "The Transformers" from the past twenty years).
I also suspect that if I were to start sharing my Netflix viewing habits on Facebook, I'd be less likely to watch certain things I wouldn't want my friends to know I watch. Instead, my viewing habits would start to reflect my aspirational self more if I were to go public with them." posted on Mar 18, 2013, on the post Netflix Begins to “Swim” in Social Network Pool
"What about posting under a pseudonym? Is that any different from posting anonymously?" posted on Mar 5, 2013, on the post Anonymity Online
"You know what Google Glass reminds me of? Those computer screens that humans have set in front of them at all times in the movie Wall-E that shield them from the reality around them and that instead deeply immerse them in a consumer wonderland (here's a screen grab that captures the image)." posted on Feb 26, 2013, on the post Google Glass and Overload
"Anthony: that TED Talk video by Lessig is pure gold! Thanks for sharing it. I think I'll use it in class when we get to the topic of copyright and the cultural commons on the web. I'm intrigued by your idea that boredom breeds creativity. In his talk, Lessig notes that youth today have access to amazing tools that allow them to become authors and creators of culture in ways that previous generations haven't. When you say that our world is too saturated today by media, are you arguing that the creativity you witnessed on YouTube is no longer possible? And by "media," do you mean corporate, for-profit media or media created by all--individuals and corporations?" posted on Feb 26, 2013, on the post Larry Lessig: Laws that choke creativity
"Just noticed this article on the website of the Society for Human Resources Management (a professional organization representing the interests of people who work in human resources) that outlines many of the privacy issues with facial recognition software." posted on Feb 26, 2013, on the post Your Trail of Personal Data
"Vanny: your fears about facial recognition software are ones that Google shares, to an exent. I've read that Google could be rolling out software like that on the cameras in Android phones but has held back out of fear of unintended consequences that such technology might have. At the moment, it is part of the Android OS but only to let you unlock your phone. I wonder if it will be built into Google Glass, though, to let you easily run Google searches on people you see; now that would be scary." posted on Feb 26, 2013, on the post Your Trail of Personal Data
"Anthony: Just a quick reply here to note that (a) I'm super impressed you went off and found that article and (b) your link to it doesn't work. Here's a link to that article that will work." posted on Feb 26, 2013, on the post Your Trail of Personal Data
"Mike, this is a great post! I hadn't heard of this author and the points she raises are fascinating. I'll let others in the class take a shot at answering your question about where the tipping point is. But I do want to ask you what was the name of the radio show where you heard the author interviewed?" posted on Feb 12, 2013, on the post Privacy Information on the Web
"I was wondering how you would define the "media" category. Isn't a book a kind of media? A blog post?" posted on Feb 11, 2013, on the post Group 3 – Categories
"I'm confused by the category "Print." How would you characterize that category? Does it not include print books (the author cites several in the notes)?" posted on Feb 11, 2013, on the post Team # 5 Sources in Intro
"Interesting categories. I'm not quite sure what you meant by "press review." Can you clarify what that category means exactly? Also, the example you've used is actually a book, a mistake that other groups made on this activity. You can tell it's a book because there are parentheses at the end that mention a city or town (Princeton is town where book's publisher has its headquarters), the name of a publisher (Princeton University Press), followed by a year (the date the book was published). Take a look at the guidelines for how to cite a book using the MLA citation format to see how books are typically listed in a bibliography or note." posted on Feb 11, 2013, on the post Team #1 on Sources in The Filter Bubble
"I noticed that in the "articles" category the example you give is actually a book, not an article at all. You can tell it's a book because there are parentheses at the end that mention a city or town (Cambridge is town where book's publisher has its headquarters), the name of a publisher (MIT Press), followed by a year (the date the book was published). Take a look at the guidelines for how to cite a book using the MLA citation format to see how books are typically listed in a bibliography or note.
Looking at the example you give for the "TV News Program," I should mention that the note isn't actually citing a source. If Pariser was really citing ABC News, he would have given a proper citation with the date of the news broadcast. Instead, he is just saying that the ABC News website features a little set of buttons from a company called AddThis that makes it easy to email, tweet, or share to Facebook any news story found on the ABC News website. This note, then, is there not so he can clue you in on what source he used but rather to say something that he didn't want to clutter up the main part of the text with. I suppose he could have cited the website and given us the URL if he wanted to be really formal, but I guess he was thinking that would be as useful as citing Facebook in a note and giving the web address for Facebook; not really necessary if you are talking about something in a general way." posted on Feb 11, 2013, on the post Team 4 on Sources in The Filter Bubble
"Nice job. The one thing I'd like to point out is that the example you give for "online news sources" is actually a book. You can tell it's a book because there are parentheses at the end that mention a city or town (Princeton is town where book's publisher has its headquarters), the name of a publisher (Princeton University Press), followed by a year (the date the book was published). Take a look at the guidelines for how to cite a book using the MLA citation format to see how books are typically listed in a bibliography or note." posted on Feb 11, 2013, on the post Group 2 Soures Exercise
