Blog Post 7

For my anthropological analysis, I chose the internet subculture of Redditors, the users of the website Reddit . The basis of Reddit lies in the post, which can either be plain text or a link from an outside source, oftentimes from image hosting site Imgur. Once a post has been made, users can choose to “upvote” or “downvote” posts, which in turn sends popular posts to the Front Page, an agglomeration of posts from various communities, or “subreddits”. These subreddits cover a variety of topics, ranging from Funny to Ladyboners, a collection of people users think are attractive.

What really makes each of these subreddits unique is how the users decide how to post. While there is original content, or OC, oftentimes posts are influenced by a herd mentality. For example, recently Reddit has been abuzz with the meme False Fact Nancy Grace, started by /u/muff_daddy. Since it was posted on March 26, “nearly 80 instances have were submitted to /r/AdviceAnimals, with at least six posts garnering more than 1,500 upvotes” (knowyourmeme.com). Other examples of this include a week without opinion-based memes, and Weird Stuff I Do Potoo. However, many memes, such as Success Kid, first posted in 2007, are considered a staple of Reddit and tend to last longer than more transient memes.

Another interesting aspect of Reddit is the concept of Karma. As previously mentioned, users can upvote or downvote the posts of other users. The total rating of a post is based on the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. This total is then added up with the score of other posts by the user, and shows their total karma. There are two types of karma: link karma and comment karma. Link karma, as the name implies, is karma gained from posts, whereas comment karma is based off of the number of upvotes and downvotes a comment has received. However, the desire for karma has led many users to submit posts with the sole intent of gaining upvotes.

Reddit has become a dynamic source for entertainment, news, and self-expression. What really fascinates me about it, however, is how the goal of accumulating karma has led to a kind of herd mentality, where posting habits are subject to the rise and fall of popularity, and how other posting trends seem to stay around for years.

Responses:
Susan C.
Lisa G.

Blog Post 6

If you were asked how you send documents nowadays, how do you think you would respond? I think the most common response would be attaching it to an email. It’s relatively painless, costs no money, and it is practically instantaneous, only requiring a few clicks. Well, my friend, back when I was your age, sending email was incredibly time-consuming, and the maximum file size for sending emails was very small. Instead, we used fax machines.

Fax machines are essentially two telephone numbers connected to scanners. If you wanted to send a document, such as a form you filled out or a letter, you had to send a fax. Faxes work by scanning the document you wanted to send, and converting it into a picture. Then, you had to know the fax number (which was often the same as the telephone number) of the person you wanted to send it to, and you would send the picture of whatever document to the recipient. While that seems relatively painful, in my opinion, faxes were horribly inconvenient and time-consuming. For one, each page you wanted to send had to be individually scanned before the fax could be sent, which took quite a while since scanning technology was not nearly as fast or efficient as it is nowadays. You also had to create a cover page stating the amount of pages you were sending so the recipient knew when they had received the entire document. I think the most annoying part about faxes was receiving them. For the fax machine we had at home, the faxes came in through our home telephone number, and would cause the phone would ring until the fax actually went through to the machine. Once we had answered the phone, we only had a couple seconds to realize that it was a fax that was being sent and hang up before the fax got cancelled. If by chance we did not hang up the phone in time, the fax wouldn’t go through, which was inconvenient in and of itself, but what was worse is that the sender would have no idea that the fax had not gone through, and to top it off, we (the receiver) would not know who sent it unless we had previously planned the fax.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you kids with your email have it so easily. You’re alerted to a message’s failure to send, and you are able to access the message from pretty much anywhere, whether it is on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. I’m personally really happy that email has replaced fax machines as the go-to method of sending documents electronically.

Responses:
Lisa G.
Quin R.

Blog Post 5

I wholeheartedly prefer reading physical books to e-books. Don’t get me wrong, as a DTC major, I love working with and using computers and technology. However, I think there’s a certain romance, if you will, about holding a book, feeling the ink on the page, and being able to smell the paper. While there are obvious shortcomings for books, such as not being able to jump immediately to a page or instantly find what you’re looking for, I think that books give you something physical to hold, which to me, makes them seem much more user friendly.

While I love books, I think that technology in the classroom has made lessons and learning much more interesting. In my high school, we had “Smartboards”, which served the same purpose as a traditional whiteboard or chalkboard, but was completely electronic. Using these smartboards, our teachers could save all the notes from the day’s lesson and send them out so that in case we missed something in our notes, we could reference what we learned in class. In addition, since the smartboards were essentially giant touchscreens running Windows XP, we could use them to watch videos, or have a calculator displayed for the entire class to see.

However, technology hasn’t always made learning easier or more entertaining. I think that websites such as Zzusis or Angel make learning more difficult since they’re often poorly made, and are lacking in usability. Beyond course websites, technology has the tendency to fail. Whether it’s a Youtube Video not loading, or a DVD that has a scratch, technology can let the users down, which in my opinion, severely impacts the quality of education. I think it was you, Dr. Edwards, who said that one day’s lesson was “a wash”, after Angel wouldn’t let you access the lesson you had planned.

While I think that technology has profoundly impacted the modern education system, I think that there’s a long way to go before it can truly take over traditional methods of education such as books, paper, and pencils. I do, however, think that we are heading that direction. If you had told me four years ago that I would be taking classes that actively encourage me to use my phone or tweet about what is happening in the lesson, I don’t think I would have believed you. In my opinion, that is where the future of education is going.

Responses:
Ellyn H.
Lisa G.

Blog Post 4

I think the entry in Medium is the Massage that connects the most to game design is from page 52-53. It’s the page that talks about how the invention of the vanishing point in Renaissance art created artwork that involved the viewer more, and made them feel more like they are actually there. I think games can do similar things. For instance, modern board games seem much more intent on making the player feel like they are actually part of the game.

Take The Settlers of Catan, for example. The game’s art, including the board, cards, and even the rulebook portray a very specific theme: the player is an explorer during the age of discovery. Compare that to older games, such as Parcheesi, Backgammon, or even Monopoly. None of these games have an explicit theme (with possibly the exception of Monopoly) and generally involve moving pawns or tokens over a simple board with little artwork. The difference between these games and The Settlers of Catan is that Catan actively tries to make the user feel like they are more involved in the game.

By creating a game where the user feels more involved, the creator accomplishes the ultimate goal of a game, in my opinion. For me, playing a game- at least a successful game, is about more than winning or losing. Playing a game that truly succeeds makes me feel emotionally involved, where I care about the characters and what happens in the game, and it makes me able to suspend disbelief, and really feel part of the game.

Comments:
Quin Robert
Megan Peterson

Blog Post 3

I think what McLuhan means when he talks about there being “no detachment” is that media nowadays are much more immersing. For example, when McLuhan talks about forced perspective in Renaissance art, he is talking about immersion. Forced perspective is different from prior art because it makes the user feel like they’re actually present at the site of the painting. Prior works simply showed what was happening, but forced perspective portrayed what the viewer would see if they were actually there in person.

Modern video game user interfaces (UIs) have also taken a similar approach. I recently played through the Mass Effect series, and the game’s UI is futuristic, with radial menus, sci-fi-esque typefaces, and bright color palettes (orange and neon blue to be precise). All the UI elements are made to match other parts of the game: the colors in the interface are the same as the ones used for holograms, displays and even the character’s “omni-tool”. All this leads to a more immersing experience, where what the user sees is similar to the in-game art.

Minecraft is another game that uses UI elements to make the experience more immersing. Inspired by the game’s blocky, pixel-art style, in game text, menus, and buttons try to emulate the art style of the game, and therefore create an experience where the UI is not simply layered over the game, but actually feels like part of it.

In general, I agree with McLuhan’s assertions that we are becoming more and more involved in what is happening in the world, and that there is more shared sentiment (for example, on page 61 when he talks about an event where someone “says ‘how horrible it must be to feel like that” instead of blaming someone else. I think McLuhan’s thought that we are entering an age of “total involvement”(61) is spot-on.

Responses:
Quin R.
Ellyn H.

Blog Post 2

While an argument could be made about how different people use money differently, I think a bigger change is in how people pay with money, and how it has advanced throughout the years. For example, my parents rarely use their credit cards to pay for goods, instead preferring to use cash. I, on the other hand, prefer using a card. I think that younger generations are also more open to using technology as a method of payment, like Google Wallet , which enables users to make payments using the Near-Field Communications chip in their smartphone or tablet, or Coin , which stores multiple credit and debit cards on one card that is connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth.

The more people my age I talk to, the more it seems that we prefer using mobile banking applications on our smartphones and tablets, rather than visiting banks in person. In contrast, in talking with people from older generations, it feels like they are more likely to visit the bank and take care of business there, or bank over the phone, and have less trust in the security of the applications. I have found similar parallels with online transactions. I feel completely comfortable using a company like Amazon to make purchases, while many older people prefer going to brick and mortar stores.

However, most of this is based on anecdotal evidence I gathered from talking to my family and friends. A recent study found that 83% of North Americans have shopped online. A different study showed that more people in the 30-49 age group shopped online compared to the 18-29 age group (80% vs. 77%), so I think it’s interesting that multiple studies have found different results than me.

Responses:
Quin Robert
Ellyn Howard

Blog Post 1

It seems to me like the biggest news story of the year has been the data collection practices of governments, specifically the National Security Agency. With its <a href=PRISM surveillance program, the NSA collected chats, emails, telephone and internet records. According to Edward Snowden, the NSA collected around 97.1 billion computer data items and 124.8 billion telephone data items.

Companies both large and small have created their own solutions to protect consumers data. Microsoft, for example, has announced a program allowing consumers to store their data on servers outside the United States, potentially offering more privacy. Yahoo, too has taken action to increase user privacy. The company announced on November 18 that they plan to give users the option to encrypt all data sent between their computer and Yahoo’s servers.

In addition to corporations, many smaller companies have taken measures to offer increased privacy, ranging from moderate to extreme practices. Bitcoin, for example, has some degree of privacy, while applications like TorChat use the Tor anonymity network for much stronger security. Popular Android ROM maker CyanogenMod has encrypted messaging enabled by default, and email service provider Darkmail aims to provide developers access to encryption services more secure than that of SSL.

However, I think the most obvious example of profit-seeking, as far as privacy is concerned, is with Mega. An online file sharing company, Mega, founded by MegaUpload creater Kim DotCom, gives users fifty gigabytes of encrypted storage. However, the company has plans starting at €99.99/year with 500GB of storage, going all the way up to 4TB of storage for €299.99/year. That amount of storage would allow around one million songs, or four million pictures.

In addition to private companies, I also see governments trying to create a market. Switzerland, for example, already has systems in place that protect individuals banking privacy by law. I could easily see Switerland create a market for private file sharing or messaging services.

As more and more people begin to worry about data security and their privacy, I can see the market for encryption services skyrocket. Whether it is an encrypted messaging app, an email provider that provides complete anonymity, or a secure file sharing company, I think the next frontier for profit-seekers is privacy.

Responses:
Ellyn H.
Quin R.