Category: Class related

Mindless Addiction

by rachelfisher-white

So in my Tute, the discussion of whether we are becoming mindless users of technology came up.

Discussion of how people line up for hours for the latest technology, specifically the latest Apple products like Sam Vieira and his friend Davor who according to The Sunday Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/sydney-students-first-in-line-for-new-apple-iphone-6-20140909-10eosx.html) have already started lining up for the iPhone six which doesn’t get released until September 19th.. they are literally lining up, wasting over a week of their live, to spend money on something that i’m going to risk a guess at saying they don’t desperately need.

From this Elliot, brought up that people actually lined up in front of Footlocker to purchase the latest pair of nikes.

We’re so obsessed with technology, and the latest things. Who created this want? Did advertisers influence us to think like this?
I don’t think Facebook was intending for users to spend hours on, mindlessly scrolling through a dashboard that isn’t offering us any insight or worthy knowledge but still majority of us do it. An hour easily goes by sometimes before i realise that i’m doing nothing with my time.

This discussion reminded me of a previous conversation that was brought up in class, the evil introduction of the Candy Crush Saga.
Upon researching this, i discovered that on Tuesday 1 April 2014 an estimated 93 million people played Candy Crush everyday, it’s made around $800,000 daily due to people buying lives and help tools, that half a billion people have downloaded the app and finally that King Digital made $568m last year alone! Preeeetty impressive for them but pretty embarrassing for us players, personally i’m on level 140 and i’m seriously stuck.
According to http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/apr/01/candy-crush-saga-app-brain the game exploits our brains and in some way creates an addiction like reaction to users. The structure of mini rewards releases something called neurochemical dopamine which then taps into the same neuro-circuitry involved in addiction, reinforcing our actions and because Candy Crush is more a game of luck, and you can never predict when you will win next you “win just enough to keep you coming back for more.”

How scary!? but does this mean that my addiction to most game app is technically not my fault? and doesn’t make me a sad person? because 2048 is a serious addiction of mine.

Weinberger Small Pieces

by rachelfisher-white

Renee’s Blog Post about Week 4’s reading demonstrated a clear understanding of what David Weinberger was saying.

“Everyone is an author on the internet, everyone is a participator and they make contributions to this great community.We don’t get our authority from degree here, but from what we are writing. The Web is a voice with affect and passion. We listen, write, discuss and evaluate and create the Web!”

I think this is exactly what Weinberger was aiming to communicate that “The lively plurality of voices sometimes can and should outweigh the stentorian voice of experts.” He talks about how the human voice is richer and in some ways more reliable, perhaps because it is more relatable? Academics and experts know what they’re talking about and therefore can not be, or highly unlikely, be wrong and “were not looking up answers” on people’s sites, we are instead asking questions, reading other peoples responses and sometimes even answering questions ourselves. We are researching to see if people have the same worries as us, or share the same opinions.

“The Web is a written world, and the 300 million people on the Web are it’s authors.” The Web is a tool that gives ordinary people a platform to express and expand their knowledge, and it’s the ordinary people that are being listened to.