Culture and Technology is a comprehensive overview of theoretical developments and debates concerning new media technology. Its emphasis is on the creative uses of new technologies

According to Andrew Murphie and John Potts, “Cultural activities from cooking to music making are dependent on technology”. Culture is heavily influenced by religion and technology in an array of aspects.

Religion has always been a large dimension of culture, but as religion’s curve fades out it is replaced by technology’s curve. There is a great danger lurking as religion dissipates, as its institutionalization fades.

Social construction illustrates innovation as a process of co-construction in our society and relates to how society and technology influence each other. “This discussion has made evident the interaction of culture and technology at all levels. The earliest human societies used technology, in the form of tools and weapons to transform their natural environment. Civilizations are based on, among other things, the technologies of building and writing”

A girl asked a boy if she was pretty, he said “No”

She asked him if he wanted to be with her forever, he said “No”

Then she asked him if he would cry if she walked away, he said “No”

She had heard enough; she needed to leave.

As she walked away he grabbed her arm and told her to stay. He said “You’re not pretty, you’re beautiful. I don`t want to be with you forever, I need to be with you forever. And I wouldn’t cry if you walked away, I would die.”

Although I don’t really understand video game, I was still really interested in the discussion of the difference between hypertext and narrative whether or not a video game could be considered hypertext narrative.

Since the first days of the web people have been talking about hypertext narrative – the ability to tell stories using nonlinear text, linked together and organized through the power of HTML.

In the mid 90′s there were many experiments in hypertext storytelling. Lots of interesting and entertaining work came out of that era, but the technology and user base weren’t mature enough to truly realize the potential of hypertext media for storytelling. Those early experiments led to a deep understanding of nonlinear stories, which we can see manifest in massive video games like Fallout – games that tell a cohesive character driven story while still allowing the player freedom to explore and perform actions in their own way.

While gaming matured and learned how to tell better stories in interactive and nonlinear ways, they are still defined by the concept of competition ( aim of winning) rather than narrative even they can have very cleaver story-lines but there is still the overwhelming desire to win the game.

Gaming is currently being applied to media as Adrian ‘s perspective about reality TV show such as XFactor as ‘games’ bought into reality.

The Rich Get Richer

One of the ways a hub based network can be grown is through “preferential attachment”. When a new node is added to a network, the links from the new node will have a higher likelihood of being attached to nodes that already have many links. For example, if the new node initially starts out with two links, these links will have a higher probability of being attached to nodes with many links. This does not mean that a link will not be attached to a node with only a few existing links, just that it is less probable.

Preferential attachment will favor older nodes, since they will have had an opportunity to collect links. One of the examples of a naturally occurring preferential attachment network in Linked is in networks formed from journal article citations. Early journal articles on a given topic more likely to be cited. Once cited, this material is more likely to be cited again in new articles, so original articles in a field have a higher likelihood of becoming hubs in a network of references.

Barabási-Albert network model

You know what the best feeling in the world is?
Having a best friend, that one person who loves you & never judges you no matter how badly you are. Someone who you have endless conversations with and can communicate by just using your eyes. That one person who just walks in your house, opens the fridge and grabs whatever they want out.

Lastly it’s that person who knows so much about you that they could ruin your life in a second. But you trust them with your life and you know that they will never ever do that no matter what♥

In life, sometimes there are people who have reached out to help us when we are in tribulation, but they may not have wanted to save us.

Anderson explains, “The theory of the Long Tail can be boiled down to this: Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a huge number of niches in the tail.”

What drives this Long Tail and the niches that populate it? Anderson identifies three ‘forces’.

1. More stuff is being produced. Technology and the internet make it cheaper and easier to record and distribute your own songs, publish your own writings and so on. This lengthens the tail.
2. There is better access to niches, again thanks to the reach and economies on the net. This fattens the tail.
3. Search and recommendations connect supply and demand. This drives business from hits to niches.

All this is good stuff. Anderson suggests that we all have niche interests; it’s just the constraints of mass media that have focused us on the common denominators of mainstream hits. Clearly this resonates with a lot of people (and I’m among them), who have been quick to adopt the term and apply to it to their own domains.

Anderson explains that the Long Tail is an example of a power law, and that “powerlaws come about when you have three conditions:

1. Variety (there are many different sorts of things)
2. Inequality (some have more of some quality than others)
3. Network effects such as word of mouth and reputation, which tend to amplify differences in quality.”

These conditions are important, for reasons I’ll come back to. Why do they breed Long Tails? “The characteristic steep falloff shape of a popularity powerlaw comes from the effect of powerful word-of-mouth feedback loops that amplify consumer preference, making the reputation-rich even richer and the reputation-poor relatively poorer. Success breeds success,” writes Anderson.

Identifying “The Long Tail” – Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson (Wired): Technology’s long tail

If you really want to master your life let love be in every action. Love everyone around you. Your friends, your family and even your enemies. This can be the most difficult thing to do.

If you do accomplish this, you will be seen as a leader compared to everyone who allows hate. Gandhi one said “love is rare in this world when compared to the massive presence of hate”